Electrical mysteries

[siggi]

Recently my 850T5 seems to have started to develop a couple of worrying tendencies ....

First one .. on starting the ABS light will stay on ( which I could live with ) which somehow includes the indicators not working .

Second one - having waited for 5 hours for a tractor to tow me out of a muddy field masquerading as a car park last weekend , having had the hazards on sporadically and the wipers / radio , Just at the point of being towed and all electrics cut out so that on turning ignition on there were no dashboard indicator lights at all . After repeated turning key frantically I bumped it in gear several times and something persuaded it all back into life and we got started .........

Any clues that save me going through the entire system....

[siggi]

What nobody ....surely someone out there has had a similar or am I unique?

[badger1980]

I had a rover do something very similar to that and it turned out it was the amplifier ontop of the alternator

[dooby]

Hiya,

I think the ignition switch failing is a popular cause for strange behaviour like this, worth a search?

Cheers, Pete

[Tomcat]

Defo sounds like the ignition switch, next time it plays up just waggle the keys a little bit in the ignition, if the faults go away then replace the switch, easy peasy.

[siggi]

That seems to be the one as you suggested - is the switch reasonably easy to replace as I have found an 850 spares eBay guy with one for sale??