Hi all, happy new year!
Driving the car for the first time in a while, and the electrics failed intermittently. All dash and exterior lights went out, and car nearly stalled, very lumpy, then came back to life. Looks like water in somewhere maybe. Any ideas as to common places to look? Not had anything like this before, and cars been untouched for a while so nothing disturbed. It's a 95RA.

Cheers. :-)

 

Check the negative earthing lead from the battery to the bodywork. It could be corroded...


...Or maybe the bolt that holds it to the bodywork is loose, causing the lead to come away from the body sometimes.

This happened to me on an old Mk.1 Fiesta 1.1 (in beige lol)... Got to work in the morning, no issues... Then went to go home, turned the key and absolutely nothing! After rooting about in the engine bay for a bit, eventually discovered that the earthing cable's bolt had become completely loose(?!), causing the cable to completely come away from the body. Weird.

 

Classics are prone to poor earth and earthing problems in general.

Check tightness of all earth leads and main positive at battery.

 

Cheers guys, I'll give it a good look.