Polo 1.0 1998 S reg electrical problem.

littleeric7

Help oh wise ones.

Polo as above – 105,000 miles
Dashboard – dial rev counter with digital clock + dial speedo with digital milometer and trip set.

Start car – no problem – 100 yards down the road and dashboard flickers and some warning lights illuminate – clock and trip meter both back to zero and mileage reading distorted – engine dies – turn key and struggles to turn over, won’t start.

Next day (today)
Starts no problem – mileage reading still distorted. Clock has been running since earlier problem.
Battery – 12.5v all connected
Lights on – 12.0v - - 3 minutes later – 12.0v.
Starts fine – after headlights on for 3 minutes.
14.25/14,5v at battery at tickover. No voltage drop with lights on.

Digital clock on radio unaffected by all of this.

Where do I look? Bit mystified by relays – is it a relay problem or a bad earth or something more worrying/expensive.
Car sits on damp road and we have had some rain of late so do wonder if damp has got into somewhere or could it be an earthing problem or am I completely clueless.

Have browsed the internet and can’t find an identical problem.

Thanks very much in anticipation.

Notmyrealname

Sounds like an earth fault and they can be a sod to find.

barbiedoll

Our ancient Golf used to die on us, eventually we found it was the distributor cap? (I know nothing about car engines but apparently ours was cracked/broken and damp was getting in???)

On a positive note, it didn't cost much to replace!