Faulty feed to diesel solenoid

I have a 1700 205 diesel and every now and again it refuses to start...by
putting a wire on the battery and the other end on the top of the
solenoid..it clicks then will start, this was found out by an AA man who
said it is an intermittent fault somewhere in the loom feeding the solenoid
and would be costly and almost impossible to find

My question is...can i put a feed to the top of the solenoid from say radio
or wipers eg: something that is turned on with the ignition, can you see
any problem with this? or maybe a simpler solution?

 

sounds ok to me
go for it

 

This is exactly the action to take,
because looking for the fault could take hours, while a replacement wire
should only take 15-20 mins to fit,

Fitzy

 

Hi,

True, and even more if you consider that a wire entering with a given color
into the loom can come out of it with another color...

 

Ok people this has to be as simple as me so could do with a bit more help
please

tried it this morning, took a feed from the radio live (not the always on
(red)live but the on with ignition (blue and white)live

Wouldn't work...obviously I tried it before tidying the wires up and it
does have a feed when ignition is turned on same as radio...I held the wire
on the top of the solenoid before making it permanent and yes it did click?

could it be to do with the 2 positions the ignition switch goes through
before starting...eg: the radio comes on at the first click (and the
solenoid feed too) then could the second click on the ignition close the
solenoid off again?

Is there something else maybe in the engine bay I could take a feed from?
bear in mind I am not too techy but can identify colours ok

many thanks

Steve

 

That sounds right Steve,
with ignition on ,You have a feed,
but some cars lose the feed to auxiliary circuits when cranking the engine,
and I think the radio is in this category
sounds like you need to find another feed,
possibly from directly behind the ignition switch,
use a test light to locate it

Fitzy

 

Right, what I have done is buy a simple rocker on off switch from halfords
£1.19.....fitted an always on live feed to it and then from that to the
solenoid....as I said its an intermittent fault and the 1 time in 20 times
it fails to start I'll just flick this switch....in fact if i made this the
only feed it would be a good anti theft device!

Thanks for the advice, I think its sorted now

Steve

 

Hi Peter,

True. On many cars I've seen, the only circuits supplied when running the
starter are the lights.

That's the best choice IMO. Of course don't take the permanent + (commonly
called +P in french), else you couldn't stop the engine.

If that helps, the solenoid feed is a grey wire on the engine wiring loom on
my '93 205.

 

Thanks GT

you have a good web site there...is there an option to view in english?

Steve

 

Hi,

Thanks, but that's still not finished yet (I should add the electrics
section), and no, no way to have an english version. I never wanted to
translate it 'cause I guess my english is a bit too bad, and cars are not
really the same. Only the power curves' section (which is dead for a while
now) has been made with both languages.

 

Hello GT
Always a pleasure to read your comments

Peter
(Fitzy)

 

Hi Peter,

Not sure they're necessary sometimes

I've just been thinking of something which my interest the OP : on some cars
(post-95 ? No clue) the solenoid feeding wire doesn't jump directly into the
wiring loom : there's a 2-ways connector on its way between the solenoid &
the wiring loom. Perhaps a bad connection / half-removed connector could
give this result. Happened once on the '96 Generation owned by a friend of
mine. Won't tell you the story here, but took me 7 minutes on the
emergency-stop lane of the motorway to find it