Electrical Issue

[Roberto]

Car was running fine recently.
Battery is fully charged and reading 13.2 V.
Key in aux position and everything appears normal. Radio works etc
As soon as I turn the key to crank the engine - disaster! No crank at all, completely dead. The voltmeter drops dramatically, the instruments momentarily go crazy and virtually most of the power disappears. It's as though a circuit breaker somewhere has cut in. Strangely all the fuses are ok. Do I have a short somewhere in the circuit?
Would be grateful for any advice.

Robert

[Bitsyncmaster]

Battery is bad or you have a weak connection. If you have a voltmeter you can track down the problem.

[Helirich]

I would vote for bad connection. I’m a little confused about 13.2 volts. That can’t really be unless the engine is running. (Or bad gauge)

[Bitsyncmaster]

I would vote for bad connection. I’m a little confused about 13.2 volts. That can’t really be unless the engine is running. (Or bad gauge)

If you check the battery voltage soon after shutting the engine off it will read higher than the normal 12.6 volts.

[Helirich]

If you check the battery voltage soon after shutting the engine off it will read higher than the normal 12.6 volts.

Yea, but I took “running recently” to mean last week, not an hour ago. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a battery be above 13 after an hour off charge. Maybe he had it on a trickle charge.

[Roberto]

Many thanks for all your comments - really useful.
I suspect that my voltmeter is faulty - it was a cheap one.

I couldn't remember when I last bought a battery for the car it was so long ago.
I got a new one from my local store this afternoon, fitted it, and hey presto car fired up with everything working!

Thanks again for everyone's advice.

Robert