Lude Generation

Hi folks,

I've just been wire-tucking my engine bay, and by this I mean I re-routed two red wires attached to the + battery terminal (possibly part of the aftermarket cobra system) to run around the other side of the engine bay, then re-attached them to the + terminal again..

Now I go to start my car, and literally nothing works, it wont crank, the lights don't work, the stereo won't do anything. Anything that required electricity to work does absolutely sod all.

I assume it's something to do with the cobra system in the car. It has remote central locking, but as far as I know has no alarm, although there is an LED in the dash, though it has never lit up.

I've googled resetting the alarm (hold down two buttons on the fob, then press the bigger one twice) - this did sod all as well.

I'm really pissed off as all I did was unplug 2 wires then reattach them. I also unplugged and reattached two yellow wires going down to the front fog lights, which I though were dodgy re-wiring of the fogs, but could actually be to make the fogs light up when the alarm goes off (if the car even has an alarm, which i'm not sure about).

There's also a little black box in the engine bay that says cobra on it, which pivots and has a white dome on one side which i guess could be a speaker.

HELP ME! PLEASE!! I NEED TO DRIVE TO WORK TOMORROW!

Cheers, Felix

Check the high power fuses under the bonnet. The fuses are iirc 60 amp. They are screwed in to the fuse box. For a temp fix sandwich a piece of wire under the blown fuse. I have spares for the cost of postage

All the fuses in the fuse box are fine :S there's a few 40amp ones and one 70amp one, all of which are fine..

That's the scary thing about after market alarms and why I hate going near them myself! Should only prevent anything working if it's an immobiliser though, rather than just an alarm?

Anyway, clutching at straws, but have you tried disconnecting those 2 red wires and trying the car with them still disconnected?

I know its a different alarm but when my toad alarm/immobiliser is armed you still get some dash lights come on, it just won't start. Which makes me think its something more fundamentally wrong such as a bad connection on the battery perhaps?

I've tried reattaching it with every possible combination of red wired attached/not attached, tried re-doing the battery connection. Nothing works at all and I don't know why!!!!!!!! No dash lights on or anything, but it's defo not just a bad connection..

Yep, I was just coming back to suggest the same thing after thinking a bit more...
Some things would be completely independant of any immobiliser or even the ignition switch and still work (headlights, horn etc.) so if literally nothing works and the main fuses are ok, it must either be connection problem at the battery, or the battery itself?

Check the ground connection from the battery too? (Incl. non-battery end)

Riiiight, so still nothing works, not even the horn or the lights, so it must be a battery problem.. But what can have gone wrong by unplugging and plugging back in the battery??

I undid the ground from the right of the engine, but then re-attached it! And i've just tried re-re-attaching it like 5 times to no avail.. I even bridged the ground on the engine directly to the -ve on the battery to see if there was a spark, but there wasnt!

WTF

Have you got a multimeter that you can measure the voltage of the battery?

nope but it's been going for the last month without a hitch so I can't imagine there's a problem with it..