Major electrical failure

[busbuddy]

Driving to work this morning and all the electrics died, it cut the engine and all dashboard.......even hazards wouldn't work

Couldn't find anything obvious, battery had good power so removed it to check all major fuses/bars on the positive terminal.
All were good (tested with multi meter) so put it all back together and van started. Went under bonnet and yanked all the wires to check for loose or nibbled, nothing.
Drove it 200 yards.....cut out again, same as previous so stripped out battery again and traced all the wires, couldn't find a thing
Put it back together and it started and so I drove slowly the 2 miles back home.
Will have a look again tonight but can anyone think of anything that would cut all the power, it was as if someone disconnected the battery only thing I can think of is maybe one of the fuses/bars on the positive terminal is breaking down?? but not permanent yet
I could understand if engine died but dash still live and vice versa but to loose everything in one go is odd

2003 2.8 fiat and it's nothing to do with alarm

 

[Eddystone]

Make sure you clean the hard coating off the battery terminals.

 

[RustyRuss]

Check the main earth strap from the -ve battery terminal to the chassis. It might have a PHYSICAL connection but not necessarily an ELECTRICAL connection. Undo the fastenings, check for corrosion then re-tighten to FT.

Cheers!

Russ

 

[Spriddler]

Deleted as same as RR's post above.

 

[two]

If everything fails, it's not a fuse because fuses are for individual circuits.
If everything fails, it must be common to everything.
Check the earth connection and both terminal connections - they're common.
Then I'd try swapping the battery in case it's something within.

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[Stealaway]

I had a bad connection on a fuse on the bulkhead behind the battery. It looked good but it just needed the connections cleaned

 

[Jev88]

Add another earth lead from battery post to front slam panel or engine block. Another from hear box to inner wing (mine had one but was about a shoelace think after road corrosion..)

 

[autorouter]

Intermittent faults are always difficult, but if it happens you could try a battery jump lead from the battery negative to the engine block. If that fixes it, it's one of the earth straps.

 

[busbuddy]

Will have a go at it later, dont go away until 8am tomorrow so looks like no sleep for me ☹

 

[gus-lopez]

After the earth lead it could be the actal battery having a dead short inside. Especially if it isn't strapped/clamped down¿ I had a vehicle here that would do that every time bloke drove over a speed hump. Fisrt thought was battery but he said"No it's only 2 months old blah ,blah" unfortuantely i listened & waste ages before everything pointed to battery .So I looked & it wasn't clamped down. Plates busted inside. One moment shows all good then bump &shorts out all dead.

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[busbuddy]

Update on the problem, on the thursday night I took every earth and connection apart and it was already clean making good contact, i had to pass a motor factors on my way out of town fri morning so i bought a new battery and fitted it in their car park just to settle my mind, drove 40 miles without a problem, parked until tonight and drove 40 miles back home
Still dont know if it was the battery, will get it tested, but all seems good so far




And when did batteries get so dear
I have not bought one for years and they are expensive now

 

[Andycap]

I had that problem on my van when I first got it, contacted supplier who fitted new battery and never had a problem since.