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MG MGF Technical - EMS

Car died on me today. I was tootling down the street and the engine went dead.

The RAA kind of found the cause - fuse 14 under the dash (ems) was blown. He replaced it and it blew straight away. unhooked the computer and it worked, hooked the computer up again and it blew.

Have been trailered to an auto electrician. This may not have been a good idea on my part, but I couldn't face the dealer and couldn't face the only other mg repair place I know of in this town. They are more shonky than the dealers I've dealt with... sad but true.

So, does any one have any idea of what is happening? Is it electrical or something more sinister? Does the fact that around a month ago my 'dealer fitted' cd changer stopped having any power going into it have anything to do with it? If you know how to fix that or at least tell me how to get the magazine out I'll be pathetic in my gratitude..

I think this is the final straw with this car.

All thoughts gratefully received..
Elisabeth

Which ECU?

That fuse feeds the alarm and the engine ECU

Alarm ECU: Fault with the horns/indicators (do these work?)
Engine ECU: could be in lots of places, but look at the coils, try unpluging them, sometimes coild fail short circuit (although I don't remember this comming up here before)
Will Munns

Oh and BTW taking the car to an auto electrician instead of a MGR dealer was the _RIGHT_ thing to do. The majority of mechanics have no 'electrical sympathy', and would simply strat changing items (and charging you for them) untill the problem 'fixed itself'
Will Munns

thanks for the quick replies..

The indicators and alarm worked, but the immobiliser didn't come on as it should do when the engine has been switched of. All the other fuses were ok.

Now I'm home I checked my handbook and the fuse is for the engine management system. Of course there is no description of what it actually means..

I've also checked the archives can't find anything relevant.

Very, very sad about this. not as sad as not being able to get my cds out of the changer though.. I'm used to the car going wrong, but being deprived of music that I'd only just bought and hadn't had a chance to get bored with is cruel beyond belief!
Elisabeth

If the CD changer is the same as rover fit in to all there cars i think there is a manual eject for the magazine. I had to get the CD magazine out of my Landrover Freelander and it was upside down in a ditch so i don't think there was any power to the cd changer then, as for finding why the power has failed on the cd changer check the connector has not fallen outof the cd changer or the back of the stereo ( i think it get's it's power from the Stereo)
David Smith

well, it had a happy (!) ending. It seems one of the wires going into the computer was trapped and had finally broken - hence the fuse blowing.

Could have been much, much worse. I think that it's probably the cheapest problem I've had to fix, and I found a sensational auto electrician to boot.

smiles all round.
Elisabeth

This thread was discussed between 05/11/2003 and 06/11/2003

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