Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Maintenance & Servicing Dead Mog

My Mog is dead, in that it will not start.

There is power, the starter spins, all lights, but not the rear red fog light work, the wipers, indicators and the aux socket work, but the instruments are dead.

No power to the speedo, gauges or the odometer and neither the heater fan nor the bright red rear light works. The 4 way flashers work. But no instrument lights.

I've checked all fuses, the obvious ones double checked with a meter but nothing has blown.

I've checked the immobiliser sender on the ignition switch: it is in the right place and when I turn on the ignition the immobiliser light goes out. But the car doesn't start and I don't think the fuel pump is working.

It seems to be as if the dash module isn't connected, but how can that happen?

Any suggestions??

If I can't get it started it will be a recovery back to Williams.

Is there a re-set button on the Roadster? (the crash button that cuts out the fuel pump)

Have you checked the fuel pump relay? No idea where it is on a Roadster but they die quite frequently on Morgans and was the cause of my car 'failing to proceed' I now carry a spare just in case.

Fuel pump relay swapped with A/C relay (unused): all the Relays on a Roadster S2 are the same.

Inertia switch pressed.

No change.

Could be the ECU try disconnecting the battery for an hour then reconnect.

Peter, first step is to isolate if your missing fuel or spark, if you have an assistant pull off one of the plug HT leads from a spark plug, fit a spare spark plug in the end (does not have to be a correct one, any type anything will do, if you have jump cables grip the metal body of the plug with one end of the jump lead and ground the other on the engine block or chassis, it's critical you ground the HT and don't open circuit as back EMF. Could damage your ECU. now flick the starter and see if the plug sparks, if it does you almost certainly have a fuel fault. If not it's an ignition fault.

Fuel faults could be anything but you can bypass the whole electrical system by temporarily connecting a live feed to the input feed at the fuel pump (remove spare wheel for access). If that starts the pump then you are into relays (unlikely as you have substituted) or main harness connections, the inertia switch you tested can fail and pushing it does not close the circuit but it's easy to join the wires under (also check there is feed there with ignition on, should have feed on one wire). At least isolating fuel and ignition you have a start to your diagnostics. My suspicion (no insult intended) is you should think back to what has changed recently, what have you done? Haven't you just had carpets up and wiring moved to fit your heat and sound insulation? Is it possible something could have been moved?, has any screws been removed or fitted, could they have cut a wire? It's impossible from a distance to do diagnosis, I wish you were closer and I could pop round. Good luck, it's gut wrenching when things like this happen.

Do you have an OBD reader, that should give you fault codes.

The other Electrical issues would point to a common missing feed or return.

Not sure disconnecting the battery will do anything, it's always worth a try but since ECU's have been using E2PROMs instead of EPROMs you can't disconnect and dump codes etc, OK it could revert to a base setting but that would be instant as it's only the short term adaptivity that you would be resetting so it happens immediately the feed is removed, the long term is on the E2 and so is electronically erasable and that why you need a code reader to read and clear codes, years ago just pulling the battery until the capacitor discharged would clear all stored codes and put lights out. I am almost convinced Peter will find a previously unknown line fuse behind the dash or somewhere that has blown and is loosing feed to the fuel pump. I had this on an 04 car I was servicing a few years ago.

Sorry this is fragmented Peter, things keep popping into my head....have you checked the large read inline fuse close to the battery or on the bulkhead (no idea where it is on later Roadsters with the bulkhead under bonnet electrical box).