Woo hoo! so it is! gotta love a day off work and get paid for it :D
now this weekend...
fix leaky valve in back wheel then 'scrub in' my new rear Fed RS-Rs in the hills :P
 

Thanks - no I just bought a new pushbike, and the rest is going to a house fund! :) need to be kind of responsible in my old age lol.
 
Oh nice :) yay for getting rid of the AFM! :) 

this is what I think I need another one of:
 
coolant temp sensor (ECTS) I've damaged the clip and it's quite likely the wires are touching (It's unliekly this is contributing to my electrical problem tho)
 
 

well i think we have a winner here! Big thanks tips..
 
interesting day - came home and checked the one ground wire i did have to unconnect - the one on the side engine panel, took it off sanded the nut, etc and removed the rust, reinstalled did the following. I had manually charged the battery with a charger.
 
12.48v with car off
14.58v with car on
ok that seems normal.
now here's the kicker. Realised that my turbo timer has a voltage meter display, so set that going ran the car in the driveway for about 2 mins, and went for a drive, 4 mins into the drive. 
car showed 14v no dramas,  driving along thinking, oh yay i've fixed the issue, then once the car had warmed up to normal operating temp, the voltage dropped suddenly. kind of like BANG down to 12.3v and falling. started to see 11.8v etc. 
 
got home and the battery voltage was still on 12v.
 
now after hearing that my broken sensor thing is the cold start injector time switch - could this somehow be related?
 
i'm going to set the car charging again today, and then just run the car in the driveway letting it warm up that way instead of driving and then test it.
 
Ok to make matters more interesting I went out there, mid way through this post, and checked the voltage with the car sitting there:
OFF: 12.5v
On: 12.3v
 
so looks like for some reason when the car warms up the alternator stops working? or something is f'ing it up?!?! weird!
 
 
edit: bit of googling suggests it's the alternator itself or the voltage reg... need to check if our cars have these. it's probably cooked!
 
 
 

ahh cools -yep that makes sense considering it took like two seconds longer to start.
 
yeah there is a high pitched sound coming from the alternator... it's not looking good! :(  
I'll burn some time this weekend testing the alt I think too... should be able to multimeter direct from the points after checking the cables etc.  I didn't originally think it was the alt because it charged nicely when cold... but yeah. tis weird.  
 
not sure there could possibly be a ground point that insulates when it warms up? :P either way will clean them too.
 
will probably just end up taking it to a garrage and get them to swap it over. being turbo it's an exhaust / driveshaft out kind of deal :(
 
 

I'd suggest it's the alt yes. my engine bay is pretty freeking grose.  No gen2 no catch can and an atmos venting bov = spewing crap everywhere, and lots of leaks.
I might give it the big old degrease since the alt is prob farked anyways.
 
 

lol! yes completely agree! 
 
ok I've had a look at the repair manual - will be attempting the on car troubleshooting in pages 602-618 tomorrow. most likely it's going to be the alt. and a trip to the mechanic's :\ FUN!

ok alt is all better now, picking it up tonight.  battery will only charge to 12.8v  - apparently that's bad??? but the guy who rebuilt the alt said it was "definitely no good".
 
Looking forward to picking it up and being able to try out the new sub properly :) while driving the way I should be :P instead of gingerly :p
 
just feels good to have one less thing to do! :)