Graham Harrison wrote:
The first clue (which I missed) was that the radio failed. Car was due
for a service soonish so I just put up with it. Except that one day,
driving along, the radio came on of it's own accord but didn't work.
Then the glowplug light stayed on after the car was running. Finally
it failed to start but the lights still worked.

I've had that kind of weirdness on a car with definitely no smarts... I
suspect there was an earthing problem, so some things would come and go
depending on whether they could get a path to earth through the chassis.
Of course, the problem went away any time I went to try and pinpoint it.

Theo