I drive a 2000 model hiace ( old shape). Brief history, front brakes have been grinding for a while ( badly). Have been using handbrake and gears. Last week my hand brake snapped, and lights came on ( 2 oil, one with squiggly line under, battery and exclamation mark. When applying foot brake dash lights come on as if headlights were on, illuminating speedo etc, even when motor is switched off. Last night I drove and I lost power, lights dimmed, began backfiring and then died. It has reds( not dim) but does not turn over…I know nothing about motors/ auto electrics and don’t know a mechanic, I dont want to just hand it over blindly to someone. Can somebody help a dope?
in addition to you driving a very unsafe vehicle (you seriously didn’t get the brakes looked at when they started grinding?) you now have serious electrical problems which we can’t diagnose over the internet.
I was robbed, moved states and then lost my job, money has been non existant. And needing to drive slow and be super observant I realised a roadworthy car is more dangerous when driven by people who think they are invincible because they drive a roadworthy car. Anyway, can you give a slight angle to start from, its an old van, 450 000 but does not leak oil or blow smoke, but electrics can be dear I believe.
If you dont know an answer, it is not necessary to express an opinion Mr 3.02 comments a day. Do you patronise to boost self esteem, or does being shown to not know everything about everything make you feel the need to misdirect my actual question and then state it can’t be diagnosed on the internet, by you or everybody?
He did know the answer. He knows that cars are complicated enough that there’s no chance we could fix one over the Internet. Would you prefer to instead get advice from someone who knows so little about cars that they don’t even know that?
I just spoke with a friend, via a differnt method, but still on the internet, andthat model has a different set up than others on the battery, separate circuits for certain things. If that, or even the other terminal is faulty, this can cause abnormalities in the electrical system. There is a source, a load, 12 volt won’t kill you, multimeter to check. And guess what, I have had a dodgy terminal, a direction to start looking. Thankyou for showing the calibre of the wankers and dickheads on this site. I noticed a lot of his educational speils on peoples posts can be learnt quickly from the first few lines on google. I bet he has multiple computer screens too, and men half his age watching gay porn in the loungeroom. Later.
3.81 
2 decimal places. Wow.
Those are the least of his problems which can’t be diagnosed over the internet.
Your list of electrical faults are bizarre. Its impossible to diagnose these over the internet. You have two different brake system faults to fix, and you absolutely must have both foot brake and emergency brake working, it should be criminal for you to drive a vehicle in this condition.
This isn’t in Thread Games, but can I compete?
Once, driving down Las Vegas Blvd, I noticed fire coming out of the hood. By luck I was right next to a gas station right next to a casino. I threw the attendant the keys and went off to play Blackjack. When I got back he wanted $1.79 for something. 
Another time I was on my way to Thailand with an old brakeless car I didn’t want. A friend who lives in San Fran gave me a ride to the airport and then took the car downtown and asked a homeless guy if he wanted a free car! I’m amazed the Calif. DMV never nailed me for that…
I once let a scraping brake go too far and found out what could happen (because it did happen). The brake pad metal continued to thin out, but not entirely evenly and formed a wedge shape. That got thin enough to slip between the rotor and the bracket and slip out and stall the wheel from turning. Lucky it happened at parking lot speeds. By reversing it popped back into place and then I was able to drive slowly home, using the e-brake and trany for most of the braking and fixed it.
It was one of those stupid live and learn things that you were lucky because a angel was watching over you for yoru good, and realized it could have caused a instant wheel lockup at high speeds or broke the bracket causing a great deal additional expense and risk a accident.
It’s very difficult to diagnose electrical problems in a vehicle even if you have intricate knowledge of how those systems work. I’ve been there done that.
So his statement was spot on. We can’t help you with your electrical problems. If you want we may be able to help you understand why you may have lost your job and possibly your robbery issue.
We can start with your posting style and discuss how well you treat people who tell you the truth.
Once I had a car with the brake light on, so I got a can of brake fluid. Adding it didn’t help, but if I set the empty can on the dashboard just right it blocked my view of the brake light, so I regarded that as a problem solved.
What country would allow you to drive something that broken down in the first place?
No help for Big Al’s Fifteen Dollar Car? It’s the one with the seats screwed to 2x4s since there’s no floor.
You can watch the road zoom by underneath you, and I’m always waiting for him to ask us to give a push with our feet Flintstones-style.
What do you think it might need? Oh, and the oil smells funny, can you check that too?
Hi Mictoppo
in spite of your rocky start, I have some ideas. I think you should scrap the car. Its not worth the money its going to take to fix it. And you don’t have the tools, or know how to fix it yourself.
Sell it for scrap, and the money you would have spent on repairs…go buy a nice bicycle. Save the rest of the money you would have spent on gas and upkeep and use it on bus passes.
You will be very surprised how you can actually get by and thrive without a car to suck your money away.
As you work more, you can save all that money you havent been spending and buy a car that is more reliable and in better condition
At a minimum for a car with electrical problems you should remove and clean the battery terminals.
You’re apparently not in the US, so this next idea may or may not fit your area’s practice. But most auto parts stores here can test your battery and alternator for free. The more honest stores won’t even give you a line of BS that you need a new gizmo if the stuff tests OK.
In all, as the poster just above said, you are skating close to the place where your lack of knowledge will cost you more than a replacement car will. Somebody who works on cars and has a backyard full of parts & old tools might be able to keep your beater going for another decade. If you can find somebody local like that to help you that’s probably the best course.
Absent that buy another beater as soon as you possibly can. And expect to walk / bike meantime. Life is not fair or easy when you’re (almost) broke. These bad choices are probably the only ones you’ve got. Sory to be yet another bearer of bad news.
Moderator Note
Since you are new here, I’m not going to give you a warning, but do this again and your posting privileges will be under review.
We have a forum here called the BBQ Pit. In that forum, you are basically free to “flame” anyone (with a few rules - see the stickies at the top of that forum for details). If you want to insult members here, that’s the forum to do it in. Insults against other members are forbidden in all other forums.
I strongly suggest that you tone down the hostility. There are plenty of folks here who are willing to help you, but nobody here owes you anything. Keep up the hostile attitude and no one here will be willing to help you at all.
I’m not familiar with the HiAce, but here is some general advice.
You really need to take better care of your vehicle. Brake pads wear out, and are fairly inexpensive to replace on most vehicles. You’ve completely worn out the brake pads and have been grinding metal on metal, ruining the rotors. You need new brake pads and new rotors.
Hand brake snapping is just a cable. It’s farly easy to replace on most vehicles, but in general they don’t break very often. Given the state of your brakes, this indicates that the vehicle overall has been neglected and mistreated for many years. Most likely the cable rusted through and broke.
A brake cable snapping doesn’t cause any lights to come on in most vehicles, except maybe the brake light on the dash. So you have at least three issues here: 1. bad brakes/rotors 2. broken brake cable 3. electrical issue
Moving on to the electrical issue, this is most likely a bad electrical connection somewhere. Given the bad brakes and snapped brake cable, my first guess (without having any pics of the vehicle or any other info to go on) would be a bad ground. But really the problem could be in a lot of places. It might be one of the connections at the battery. It might be a faulty relay. Someone who is handy with a multimeter needs to check a bunch of things. Start at the battery terminals and work your way out.
Most of the US does not have personal vehicle safety inspections. Only about 10 or 15 require some kind of safety inspection. about 1/2 require some kind of emission testing. Canada like the US has per province regulations and it looks like only 2 provinces require them. Australia seems to have per state regulations with some states not requiring safety inspections. EU countries look like they have regular safety inspections.