hello, to all you guys here..i have a gem of a propbloem for you guys.... recently i got in my car to drive and the cat and battery light come on and stay on while i drive. Just managed to get home before the battery went flat. Did a test light check between the -ve terminal and chassis and the test light came on indicating a short. So i do the normal procedures to find it...pull all the frikking fuses i could find. Then started to remove items from the car, e.g. stereo , battery and so on and so on and you know what...there is no indication as to where this short is?????????????? what the bloody hell is going on...has anyone else had this kind of issue?????? mine is the st183, jap import..........wah, wah , wah..i am gonna blow a FUSE :P cause i wanna drive her but she is being a real bitch..currently it is at the mechanics and even he had to call in a professional electrician...but i thought i would ask here anyway cause you can never beat experience no matter how qualified you are. any pointers or clues would be most appreciated many thanks to all GTI_DRIVER

Your alternator's knackered, and there's meant to be a short between the -ve and the chassis to save running earth wires back from all the elctrical circuits to the battery.

it happened me and i discovered that the main power cable from the alternator to the battery had rattled its self loose at the alternator termina, and was arcing which in turn eventually blew the diodes in the alternator.got the alternator fixed and installed, all was good untill about a month the same warning lights came on and the battery voltage meter was indicating that battery was well low. pulled in straight away and remembered about that lead coming loose and checked it and low and behold the fuckin thing had come loose again. so put stud lock on it and sowed it on and shes been going fine ever since.if you catch it in time your alternator should still be ok. >

thanks a bundle for that advice.. i will keep my eye on it...cause alternators are not cheap r they :S as i discovered when i took it in the end to a mechanic who did change the alternater and it works fine so far, but that cost me ?300 all in ...nuts to that! i could have done it my self for a quater of the price if teh haynes manual had not ben so unclear as to how to diagnose correctly. if you check it out you will see exactly what i mean...

alistair, Please confirm what you are saying here. "m...eant to be a short between the -ve and the chassis to save running earth wires back from all the elctrical circuits to the battery. " If you are suggesting that the chassis is PART of the electric circuit throght witch all systems as groiunded back to the -ve terminal of the battery then YES I agree. But if you are suggesting that their should be current MOVING while the egnie is OFF I have to dissagreee with you. There shoould be no current flow when the engine is off> Hence i have a sneaking suspicion that my failed laternator has something to do with an exisitng short cicuit which has significantly developed such that it blows the 100 amp alternator fusable link even with the car switched off and no key in the ignition. What i really need is a detailed circuit diagram and harness diagram for the ST183, prehpas the MECHANICs handbook..anyone know where i can get one? thanks GTI-DRIVER

There will be small amount of current flowing to power your clock and alarm but not enough to blow a 100 amp fuse. As you say, to blow a 100 amp fuse would need a massive short.