G'day all,
Thought I'd share a problem my GU had which persisted for several months(solved last weekend).
For some time I'd noticed that my headlights would flicker at idle, some days they worked fine, others
they were like strobe lights.
I tried searching for the root of this problem for a while and fiddled with a few bits and pieces (tightened up relay socket which had a bit of a rattle, tightened earthing studs, cleaned battery terminals etc) but no joy.
In the last month there were several occasions where the engine would struggle to kick over in the mornings, performance was sluggish and slightly off. Also the instrumentation had developed the same flicker.
I thought the alternator or battery could be the culprit but the battery was brand spankers and I don't think an alternator with issues would load down the battery heavily enough to cause the flickering lights and misbehaviour, also the battery was fully charged even when the trouble occurred.
I went over every bit of the earthing on that car with a fine tooth comb... nothing turned up
On the advice of reading a few forums I added an extra earth strap between the chasis and body... Still things were getting worse and the patrol was starting to drive rough to the point I was worried the little 3.0L was about to pack it in.
Now, I had cleaned the battery terminals several times, but on the positive battery connector of my patrol is a stud with several lugs piled on top of each other, distributing power to the ECU, starter motor and everything else. Similar to this picture.
There was a plastic plate, electrical tape and all kinds of insulation around this stud but for curiousity's sake I pulled everything off.
What I found at the bottom of the stud hidden from sight was a single plastic washer. The wing nut on the stud was holding all those lugs down tight enough alright... but with a plastic washer between them and the battery terminal and the lugs having a slightly larger diameter than the metal stud, they were only intermittently making electrical contact along the inside surface of the lug.
Also one of the lugs had solder globs on it so that even though the wingnut was tight, the lugs didn't sit flush
Coupled with bit of bull dust that found its way in there it's no wonder the Patrol had issues. Electronic injection, lights, fuel pump, instruments, starter motor... All these had only the barest connection to +12V.
I have no idea who put an insulating washer in there as I bought this car second hand about 2 years ago, needless to say hundreds of frustrating bugs have suddenly disappeared
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