'95 RRC Electicral Mystery

A request the Rovers North Team that I thought I'd share here as well.

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Dear RN,

My girlfriend was starting the rover and told me it wasn't working. I got in the car assuming it wasn't in park and noticed that the dash lights weren't coming on. Ok, dead battery I thought.

Pop the hood, and as soon as I clipped on the negative jumper (the other end held in my girlfriends hand), the interior lights came on in the car.

I disconnected the negative, lights stayed on, and I went to start the car. As I turned the ignition there was a small pop and lights went back out. Odd.

I reattached the negative cable, lights came on, attached the positive (neither connected or touching on the other end), and started the car with no problem. Once running, I removed the cables and drove off.

My first thought was that my girlfriend has super powers, but given her slothlike morning demeanor, this was unlikely. My second thought was the ignition coil is bad and attaching the cables changed the resistance and allowed it to fire, but realized this wouldn't explain the interior and dash lights.

Can you please help me????

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Any thoughts?

Sorry can't really understand the steps you took. If I am reading it the way I think you mean, you opened the bonnet, attached the negative wire clip of a battery charger to the negative post of the battery, and it came to life? You removed the clip from the battery terminal and the lights remained on, but when you turned the key the pop happened and the lights went out. You tried repeating the charger attachment and it came back to life?
These are classic bad connection symptoms. My first thought is that one or probably both of your battery connector lugs is corroded or loose. Undo the battery connections, clean and reattach. Be sure the connections are good and tight. Smear the connections with a giant glob of Vaseline to keep moisture away. it should be enough that it is absolutely unpleasant.

Well that's embarrassing.



Many thanks.