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David Vaughan
Goo Roo
ACT
V8 Ltd manual

Posts: 2525
Reg: 07-2005

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Thursday, September 28, 2006 - 12:51 pm, by:  David Vaughan (Davidv) Edit Post Delete Post Print Post   View Post/Check IP (Moderator/Admin Only) Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)


quote:

I have found that whenever I indicate, the EMV flashes completely white, then black and then back to the normal screen, I have also found it to happen when I brake sometimes, and also when I hit my high beams, so it seems any load my car just doesn't like


The symptoms described in this forum post turn up quite commonly. Other symptoms may range from the instrument cluster disappearing, clock and trip meters resetting through to engine cutout and recovery after a few moments. It usually happens when you put an electrical spike through the system, such as touching the brakes, using high beams, or just using the indicators. They are all symptomatic of an earthing problem.

One of the few less brilliant parts of Soarer design is the fact that many of the earth points rely on a bolt into the chassis, where the electrical contact depends entirely on the thread, with no electrical contact through the head of the bolt. This will be one of your targets but first, here is a complete list of V8 earth points:
LH fender
Left fender apron
RH Fender
RH cylinder head rear
Surge tank, lower
LH cylinder head front
Left cowl, side
Radio RH
Right cowl
Console box LH
Console box RH
Centre floor crossmember RH
Back panel centre
Centre floor crossmember LH

Fortunately, most of these will not require work. The most significant targets are
  • Battery terminals, especially the negative terminal
  • The earth point on the chassis next to the battery
  • Cylinder head earths
  • In EMV-equipped cars, the earth on the floor below the console
If your engine cuts out as one of the symptoms, concentrate especially on the first two.

Remove the terminals and thoroughly clean them and the battery posts, including disassembling the cables from the clips and cleaning them. If your terminal clips are cactus you can buy a new genuine set from Toyota for less than $40.

Remove the earth connection on the fender and sand back the paint where the bolt and earth ring touch it. Clean the earth and replace.

Tighten these carefully but hard.

Check tightness of the other main earths and clean anything that needed tightening. You should now have banished the problem. If it persists, then I am afraid it is more likely that you need to re-do the job more thoroughly than that there is another mysterious problem. Only when you are satisfied the earths are sound should you give too much thought to the battery or other potential issues.
David Vaughan
Goo Roo
ACT
V8 Ltd manual

Posts: 2534
Reg: 07-2005

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Saturday, September 30, 2006 - 09:46 am, by:  David Vaughan (Davidv) Edit Post Delete Post Print Post   View Post/Check IP (Moderator/Admin Only) Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

My excuse, Dan, is that I have to disassemble things to get at many of them. How about a picture of the battery and adjacent point? I had a look at the wiring schematics. They show pretty colours but are not easy to interpret unless you already have an idea of where things are. This is what I mean:

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Jethro Cohen
Tinkerer
WA
V8

Posts: 15
Reg: 06-2006

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Friday, January 05, 2007 - 01:40 pm, by:  Jethro Cohen (Jethro) Edit Post Delete Post Print Post   View Post/Check IP (Moderator/Admin Only) Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Does this diagram show exactly where the earth points are? If so what color are they?
David Vaughan
Goo Roo
ACT
V8 Ltd manual

Posts: 2784
Reg: 07-2005

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Friday, January 05, 2007 - 02:00 pm, by:  David Vaughan (Davidv) Edit Post Delete Post Print Post   View Post/Check IP (Moderator/Admin Only) Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Some among the grey images around the edges point to the earthing points but as I say there, it is easier to read the diagram if you already know where they are on the car! If you read the four bullet points in my first post above you will see that the most likely culprits are very easy to find by looking under the bonnet at the battery and the cables off it. Fixing these as described will most probably kill the gremlins.

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