what is this part

on a 4.6 hse 1996 located under the o/s upper trim panel in the boot area very close to when the rear o/s seat release button is. It's a little black box with three pin plug and a single blue wire going to it. No numbers [well none that mean anything] any ideas??

It's the RF receiver; the key fob remote unit. Does yours have a green spot? If not you may suffer a battery drain.

TCubed said:

It's the RF receiver; the key fob remote unit. Does yours have a green spot? If not you may suffer a battery drain.

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Thanks bud, but no green dot. Theres a round blue sticker!

andyoak said:

Thanks bud, but no green dot. Theres a round blue sticker!

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You can only really tell if the RF receiver is the trouble free MK3 if you look inside. Unfortunately some evil barstewards have been known to put old guts in new boxes and re-sell on ebay

The early ones are prone to picking up stray signals from WiFi, wireless door bells, energy monitors etc which keeps the BECM awake and flattens the battery. They are also known for burning out the door lock motors

Out of interest, what year of P38 started getting the good version that works?

I thought is was 99 onwards but could be wrong

It never did I don't think, because the good (green spot) version came out in 2004 I think.

TCubed said:

It never did I don't think, because the good (green spot) version came out in 2004 I think.

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But the p38 finished production in 2002!!!

Datatek said:

You can only really tell if the RF receiver is the trouble free MK3 if you look inside. Unfortunately some evil barstewards have been known to put old guts in new boxes and re-sell on ebay

The early ones are prone to picking up stray signals from WiFi, wireless door bells, energy monitors etc which keeps the BECM awake and flattens the battery. They are also known for burning out the door lock motors

Click to expand...

Not had any problems with it but then again where it is parked the only thing that might keep the BECM awake is the chickens or the cows in the field next door. It's out of range of my wifi and the next electronic signal would be a fair way off.

I'd asked as I wanted to pick the power feed up from it, I'll find another now I know what it is.

Saint.V8 said:

But the p38 finished production in 2002!!!

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Yeah I think it took them a couple of years to realise the problem. I just seem to remember someone saying this.. Also my P38's a 2001 and it had the old unit.

andyoak said:

Not had any problems with it but then again where it is parked the only thing that might keep the BECM awake is the chickens or the cows in the field next door. It's out of range of my wifi and the next electronic signal would be a fair way off.

I'd asked as I wanted to pick the power feed up from it, I'll find another now I know what it is.

Click to expand...

There is the connector for the caravan hitch behind the trim on the same side lower down and another one on the other side. One of them has power, can't remember which.

TCubed said:

Yeah I think it took them a couple of years to realise the problem. I just seem to remember someone saying this.. Also my P38's a 2001 and it had the old unit.

Click to expand...

I mentioned it last week in a thread, there was 3 versions of it too

Datatek said:

There is the connector for the caravan hitch behind the trim on the same side lower down and another one on the other side. One of them has power, can't remember which.

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yes found that one, cheers

I've just bought my green spot one, because I've finally cracked with the disagreeable nature of the fob with it disconnected, and I was buying airbags at the same time - thought I may as well sort out all my problems at once.
When it arrives, simple swap job? I don't want the car to freak out... Mine's an 01 model, so if I just put the key in the ignition having swapped the boxes, will it just sync to the new one?

No syncing required, the RF receiver merely passes received signals to the BECM, except with the late RF receiver it tries to discriminate whether the signal's from the key fob or not before raising the BECM from its slumber - draining your battery.

Put my new (green) one in just now... such a relief to just be able to lock the car from my doorstep
Hopefully that's a good little advert for Island-4x4