Wiring help

I am not a happy Alpine owner at the moment and would appreciate anyone’s help!
I have just managed to eventually get my car back (a turbo) from a specialist who had replaced the head gaskets and did one or two other minor jobs. I drove the car the 160 miles or so back home and noticed the aftermarket boost gauge I had previously fitted into the console was not reading boost levels. Upon investigating I found the vacuum tube that runs through the wiring loom hole from the engine bay into the cockpit ECU area was melted and holed by what appears to have been a wiring fire that has occurred whilst the car was away – see photos below. This was obviously not mentioned to me when it was returned.

The wiring affected goes to the relay that sits below the ECU on the rhs. What does this relay control ?

Attempting to trace what is left of those 4 wires:
- the red one I can see goes to a thick red postive, so easy to replace
- one yellow goes into the ECU “scart like” plug
- another yellow goes to the red coloured relay
- another undetermined colour wire has virtually disintegrated and I think headed up with the other wires through the hole with the loom into the engine bay.

Does anyone know:
- the colour of the missing wire and where it goes to ?
- to which of the relay connections the yellow ECU and red relay wires go ? When I attempt to trace with a continuity tester I get multiple readings so the wires must have fused together.

Any suggestions of possible causes ? Could an incident like this have caused the regulator pack on the alternator to need replacing and also the battery to have died and needed replacing ?
Many thanks in advance for any help or guidance.
Chris

Fuel pump relay .
The main pump itself is earthed via the alt I think from memory so could be .....
I'll have to double check tomorrow .Shouldn't take long as it's all in bits
Have a look here .There is a diagram of the wiring to ECU and fueling components .
http://www.renaultalpineownersclub.com/ ... manual.htm

pg 85

you've had a lucky escape there mate thank god it did'nt burst in to flames. disconect the battery untill you've repaired the the loom just in case. that is if you have'nt done this allready.
good luck.

Hi Chris,
Unfortunately your colours dont match up with either my pre 1990, or post 1990 circuits, but for what it is worth, and this applies to both model years, pin 1 of your fuel pump relay ( I agree with Lee about the relay ) goes to the other relay (injection relay), pin 2 goes to the ECU, pin 3 goes to 12v, (red), and pin 5 goes to the "idle speed regulator valve". The pin numbers should be seen alongside the actual pins, but if you cant read them, there are 3 pins pointing in one direction, and one other at 90` to them. Put that one at the top (12 o`clock) that one is pin 5, the one at 9 o`clock is pin 1, the one at 3 o`clock is pin 2, and the other at the bottom is pin 3. This is looking at where the wires enter the connector.
You wont get decent readings with your meter unless you disconnect both ends of each wire, however I suspect that as the Alp is running OK, the wires are alright, not shorted, but burnt, and just need replacing. It is possible that a short was inadvertently put on, smoke appeared, as this circuit is not fused, the short was removed, but only cooked the wires. That is a guess ....... what I would do is replace the wires and when you restart, keep a very close watch on your new wires to make sure all is well, but as I say the Alp is running well, and if there were a big problem, the engin would not run.
Hope this helps,
John

Oh sorry to see that Chris, not good but at least limited damage if any condolence.

Has the wiring in that area been disturbed for any reason? It could simply be the old insulation has gone hard and brittle and adjacent wires have short intermittently. But it looks like (on my screen – I could be wrong) there is verdigris on the copper wires, so been exposed to moisture / water over a period of time as well. That wouldn’t have occurred quickly. If just a quick short, would likely just be black oxide only. Can you check further into your loom and connectors to make sure ok? Is this where the cables go through the bulkhead?

This shouldn’t have caused the voltage reg to fail, but saying that is this actually replaceable? As I thought it was integral to the diode pack… could be wrong, will go have a look out of curiosity now.

Best of luck with that.

That is a close call, thank god it did not burst into flames!!! Just out of interest which specialist did the work on your car? Shouldnt be too bad to replace, i had to re loon a TVR last week due to wires burning out! That should have been pointed out to you though, I would be very upset if that happened to my car.

Thats great, thanks for your responses.

The "pin 5 goes to the "idle speed regulator valve"" is obviously the wire that has disintegrated. I can run a new wire up into the engine bay, the others are all easy now I know which is which. But where will I find, and what does the idle speed regulator valve look like ?

Cheers
Chris

The relay is the heated rear screen relay the other wire is blue the normal wiring diagram book does not apply to your car as you have a le mans

Well he could have said That'll explain why it still runs
Book shows there being two others there but I've never seen them ....Screen heater and A/C clutch control .....

Be careful here guys,....Chris said:-

- one yellow goes into the ECU “scart like” plug
- another yellow goes to the red coloured relay
- another undetermined colour wire has virtually disintegrated and I think headed up with the other wires through the hole with the loom into the engine bay.

Now if it were the Heated rear screen relay, it would not have any wires going into another relay, or the ECU, but if it were the Fuel pump relay, it does in fact have wires going to another relay (injection relay), and the ECU. The colouring might be different (I have two sets of colours for this relay depending on model year) but if I am right, the Le Mans is still basically a GTA turbo with a body kit, unless I am mistaken, but from the information given, I would say it was the Fuel pump relay, but I stand to be corrected
But this does go to show that suggestions given are dependant on the accuracy of the info received.......like model and year
I cant help you on true position of the valve, as each of my manuals show it in slightly different positions, but it is a unit with, I think 3 small hoses going into it, and a 3 pin connector on it situated to the left of the engin, look out for charring on the center pin which is the one that goes back to the relay. If you ask nicely, I am sure Lee can tell you exactly where it is, and maybe post a pic of it........if you ask nicely

Chris,
Bad luck mate, and very gentleman-like of you to not name names.
I'm sure it would not have been done deliberately, but as others have noticed from the pic "maybe" it is not a recent happening.
I woulkd guess if the specialist had done it and noticed it, he would have repaired it too.
I'm sure you know..... you will get plenty of support here though.
You'll have it sorted in no time hoefully

How many relays do we have here then ? 2 ,3 or 4 ?
Good point Jon .It would not be linked to the ECU or other relay .But then another good point is that it still runs fine with that mess of wiring if it is pump ......
I'll wait to be asked nicely before post a pic of the idle valve but yes ,middle pin on the unit with pipes on the left had side of the engine ..one from the V6 plenum and the other going below the throttle .
I have lost a lot of my pics due to a hard drive feck-up

hard drive feck-up

or back-up

Apologies guys, didn't realise that the LeMans wiring would be so different from a turbo.

I suppose the way to confirm whether its heated rear window or pump is to remove that relay and see whether it starts and runs ?

Thanks for your continued input.

Chris

[stephendell]

I have Tony Law's car (Le Mans) here and he says it is OK for you to take a look at his wiring if that helps.