Hello (i'm new here so go easy),

My girlfriends car is causing us endless headaches (look at the title - its no suprise). She has had the car for a few years and has often had problems with the auto box. For examplem, sometimes it fails to shift down at junctions and stalls the engine. Lately though, we are having lots and lots of issues with electrical systems. Engine failure warnings, airbag check warnings, max temp warnings, power steering failures...

I changed the battery as it was struggling to start with all this going on. This made no difference and even with a brand new battery it sometimes doesnt start. If the car stalls due to the gearbox now, she has to wait ten minutes for it to suddenyl decide it will turn over. All lights, air con etc have to be turned off for it to start. which led me to think it may be a voltage regulator issue.

At this point the car was dying on a daily basis during her school run and the stress is now too much. I took it to a mechanic friend of mine who found a fried wiring loom seemingly going from the auto box to a control unit just behind the passenger side headlight.

There has always been a horrid whining motor type noise on unlocking the car which ive never been able to trace. The mechanic suggested this was coming from the gearbox (something to do with the automated manual system I guess?) and that this may be taking a lot of power before start up. The alternator is charging ok but not great on testing.

We deduce that perhaps the gearbox has a problem which has fried the loom which is drawing power from all the other electrical systems. The problem is we are broke and, if its not a straughtforward fix, I just cant afford to throw money at a diagnosis.

Do we cut our losses and scrap the car? She can only drive an auto so this would leave me chopping in my lovely 215bhp giulietta to get a car we can share...so big decision.

HELP PLEASE!