lacetti electrical problem

[mark fox]

hi, this problem even stumped the AA man

i drove my car to the local diy shop and switched off and removed the key - the engine kept running, not pre-ignition, it just kept going. after trying to reinsert the key, switch on, switch off it kept doing the same until it cut out. AA man attended and the dash lights and dome light were illuminating dimly, open the door and they all went out. shut the door and they came on again
he spent an hour and a half in the snow trying to find a bad earth and decided that it must be a problem with the interior lights so he took out the fuse (19) and that seemed to work. the only thing now is that i have no internal lights, when i press the fob to lock the doors the indicators do not flash but they do when i press to unlock, and when i turn the key to the 'on' position the dial pointers shoot up to the far right then drop down again. other than this the car is running fine. it has been suggested that it might be a problem with the alternator but i'm not sure. any ideas would be very welcome. thanks mark

 

[Peter.N.]

I have had some weird electrical problems on a couple of my XMs but have come to the conclusion that they were caused by damp as since I started using them they have dissapeared.

 

[richard1600]

seems to me to be a short circuit somewhere on the ignition line.

basically, when you turn your key to off it removes the pos from one of the pins on the back of the ignition barrel,, if this is not happening then you either have a fualty ignition barrell or the pos is coming from somewhere else, ie 2 wires touching,,, although this would usaually blow a fuse ?

 

[Nitronick]

2 things spring to mind.

1 (as mentioned) Ignition switch.
2 Fuse Box.

Mind you it is a reasonably priced car so the parts shouldnt be that expensive