Head and Brake Lights flashing when locking

Hi guys,

Wanting some support before I spend £1k swapping BeCM and Fuse Box

About a week ago my working P38 decided that it wanted to flash head and brake lights when locking and unlocking rather than indicators.

Local independent has checked over and said the BeCM is going flaky and needs replacing.

Having experienced loads of other issues (flat battery resulting from old RF sensitivity (upgraded to latest mod)), loss of security link producing cranking without firing, erratic drivers mirror dip (up not down and never returns!), ABS, hand brake and SRS warning light on for first 300yds, I could be convinced, but would be grateful of any views before I commit to the BIG BILL.

Fraid I'm not a DIYer so removing BeCM & ECU for reset, and cleaning up the fuse box are not realistic options.

Any similar experiences and stories, or suggested guidance for my local guy (who overall I don't see as being like the (mainly less than savvy main dealer)) would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

M

i know of someone in the brighton area who may well do you one for around £300!! with all the numbers stored that need to be stored, as the door lock numbers have to corespond with becm numbers..
have a look on here for Ric the pic, or pm me for his email!!

I take it from what you say that you concur that a replacement BeCM is going to be required to solve this problem and (maybe) other niggles.

Appreciate the recommendation of the Brighton contact but it is probable that the "getting there" or other disruption (vehicle out of use for 3 days or so) would probably kill the difference in price. If however there is going to be a residual value in my current BeCM I'd clearly be interested to claw back some of the cost.

Incidently the startup warning lights which take a while to disappear include TC rather than SRS, but all the same this is to my mind an indication of slow response to events within the BeCM's network.

Unless there are thoughts from others I'll go ahead with the advise and report back on experience.

Martin

P38martin said:

I take it from what you say that you concur that a replacement BeCM is going to be required to solve this problem and (maybe) other niggles.

Appreciate the recommendation of the Brighton contact but it is probable that the "getting there" or other disruption (vehicle out of use for 3 days or so) would probably kill the difference in price. If however there is going to be a residual value in my current BeCM I'd clearly be interested to claw back some of the cost.

Incidently the startup warning lights which take a while to disappear include TC rather than SRS, but all the same this is to my mind an indication of slow response to events within the BeCM's network.

Unless there are thoughts from others I'll go ahead with the advise and report back on experience.

Martin

Click to expand...

Ive just quickly skimmed over your post as its late and ive been wayyy too busy to be online for the past few days BUT, the so called problem you are experiencing could be normal - when was the last time before this happened you had the vehicle serviced or near a garage with a diagnostic machine??

The BeCM has many many different settings and as shown below (ignore the red box - this was for something else) at the bottomish right you can select what flashes when you lock the vehicle...



My first thing to suspect would be someone who maybe messed around or accidentally changed the setting last time it was at the garage. If it hasn't been to a garage lately then have it hooked up to a diagnostic machine, access the BeCM and see what is selected for the ARM/DISARM and ALARM LIGHTS section and then change it accordingly. The indie might be quick to blame the BeCM as s/he might not know about the setting or maybe just wants to pull a fast one. You dont clarify exactly what is flashing, you say the head lights flash when you lock, do you actually mean the dipped beam headlights or maybe the sidelights that are in the same area as the dipped beam headlights.

Looking at your other problems I dont personally think you have a faulty BeCM - RF receiver, Security Code link thingy can both be attributed to battery. First of all, if your BeCM was constantly being woken up by a dodgy RF receiver then it will drain the battery, a slowly draining battery will most commonly cause the BeCM to loose its code synch with the engine ECU.

Mirror dip is probably a faulty potentiometer within the mirror motors/body itself - first things first, reset the mirror dip position and see if that solves it - if it doesnt see if you can get another matching mirror body with motors, or borrow one, plug it in, reset mirror positions and see if the problem goes away. Lastly, you can always turn off the mirror dip function, check out your owners manual for instructions.

ABS light does not go out after startup until the vehicle has travelled over 5mph. If you are having the handbrake light stay on for an extended period after first startup and you have released the handbrake can you hear your ABS pump running at all?? Does it do it all the time or only on the first start of the day??

SRS light - what year P38 is it and can you clarify exactly what happens. The light will come on during the ignition stage, once the vehicle is started it should go off within 1/2 seconds.

As I said, I am not convinced you have a faulty BeCM, if in doubt, go to another indie and just get them to hook their machine up and show your the alarm setting like above.

-Wills

Wills, Thanks for your very helpful contribution.

Took a print out of BeCM screen to the garage asking that the tech simply reset if the ARM option was set to side and tail.

Basically what he says he's done is put it on testbook and played around. He claims that for UK market you can only set some of these - fogs, sunroof, rh/lh drive ... not the arm setting, but apparently he said the BeCM had gone into an unspecified market. To a cut a long story, he set it to UK found some funnies, reset to Spain and then reset to UK - at which point all is now working. As the independent was quoting £750 for a new BeCM alone (plus estimated 2 hours plus so north of £1k with VAT!) I've decided to leave it and see how things go. (Probably looking at a sensible way of replacing in future should it be needed - Red's mate in Brighton is beginning to sound interesting ...)

Reference lights actually is the TC light not SRS that stays on and now know this is just normal test time as Wills description. (Incidentally my P38 is a 2000MY, 4.6 Vogue Auto)

As I write Rangie is still with the indy - so hopefully I won't have a horror update - but thanks to both Red and Wills - thanks for being so welcoming to this forum newbie

Glad to hear this turned out ok!

With regards to your garage - if they only have Testbook they will not have access to all the options shown above and as your mechanic said alot of the options are set by market.

That shot above was taken from a Rovacom/Faultmate system. The Testbook system, from what I have read and seen is very limited in what it can do and only the after market products such as Faultmate and Autlogic can change the same sort of settings as shown above.

Depending on how long you want to keep the vehicle and how much time and effort you want to put into things, your own diagnositc kit could be a worthwhile investment.

-Wills

Wills

Thanks for your last message. This is great news - assuming that something like the Faultmate Server for P38 from someone like P38Spares.co.uk at £650 is the real McCoy.

Having already spent the best part of £450 over the last year (ignoring the "notional" cost of two trailer trips which were done on my recovery service) and with little intention to replace the Rangey this seems to make more sense than spending similar or bigger money on a replacement BECM.

Am advised the Faultmate becomes vehicle specific and will allow control reset of most functionality, thereby significantly reducing need to replace units - as well as allowing EAS reset/kick.

Am I (as a bit of a computer tech) getting too enthusiastic or is this as good value as it seems.

Also looking to invest a bit of cash on one of these - Wills do you have just software / cable running on existing laptop or did you go for the full hog?

The blackbox website seems a little confusing when deciding what to buy!

The Faultmate system is by far the cheapest option for anyone going in for home diagnostic stuff etc. You DO have to remember though that its only a tool that allows you to diagnose faults - you then have to fix them/get them fixed. It wont magically solve every future problem with your P38 but it will allow you to be clued up on what is wrong electronically and allow you to fix said problems.

I personally bought my Faultmate system directly from Blackbox Solutions themselves as I had spent a long time thinking its usefulness over. It also worked out cheaper to do it that way rather than buying online from somewhere else.

Depending on what license package you buy the Faultmate can become vehicle specific. That basically means, if you buy the package that will only work with your vehicle (the SV - single vehicle) the system locks itself to your vehicles VIN number and will only work with that vehicle. This is fine for most people as I dont think many of us are garages or whatever. You can buy MV (multi vehicle) licenses but these cost more obviously.

You are right in the fact it will allow you to reset faults and read them. An SV package from Blackbox will allow you to use your Faultmate system on your vehicle only and allow access to all system within it so yes, you would be able to reset EAS faults etc etc.

The one thing I will say about the system is this - you need to be patient with it and take time to learn it - it also takes a bit of getting used to and lots of reading of instructions (something we all hate really). Being technically minded also helps a bit but not essential as you can always learn as you go.

If you goto the Blackbox Solutions website and click on the SIXTH FLOOR then you can buy the package for th P38. This requires that you supply the laptop. I work in IT and had a few laying about so I chose one to use with it and its dedicated to my car now. It has no other function other than to run a stripped down version of XP for use with the Faultmate system. This, in my opinion, is the way to go, no work or family junk to worry about, just one laptop dedicated to one thing. It also means you have a very minial risk of any programs interfering with the Faultmate system.

I never bought a laptop from Blackbox Solutions but with so many on eBay and other places go so cheaply I wouldn't think it was worth it. Just make sure that whatever laptop you get has at least a serial port OR USB ports. Serial ports are harder to find on new laptops so if you do get a newer laptop to use with the Faultmate system make sure you get the USB->Serial adapter cable as well.

I hope this massive reply helps a bit, feel free to ask any questions. Oh and before anyone asks, I dont work for Blackbox and generally I try and stay away from making any recomendations about what brand to buy and from where but this time it was unavoidable

-Wills

Have been investigating Blackbox Solutions. They are currently on the cusp of shipping an updated MSV-2 kit which is expected to be a bit cheaper than the current MSV. There have been some niggles apparently so anyone really desparate will need to get the older unit. The last I heard from Colin Whittall he was saying he hopes he'll be all systems go in about 4 to 6 weeks.

In his own words "The problem is that although the diagnostic functionality of the MSV-2 (ie its job) will be identical to the preceding MSV, the core architecture is about as different as you can get. So while all previous changes have really been reworks, face lifts, addition of enhancements based on the initial ROVACOM LITE architecture. This is in fact a start again from the beginning exercise and it seems I have fallen into the trap of taking many things for granted that have turned out at the very last minute to be a problem. Accordingly we are falling behind schedule with it and until some final stupid little things have been solved to my exacting standards and fully tested, I can not and will not put the unit into production. This means that
even today I cannot see the MSV-2 from actually being available for at
least a few weeks more, and cannot even give any accurate predictions
beyond that at this point. All I can say positively is that even with the problems we are absolutely astounded with the new units capabilities and performance and what we have managed to achieve with it. I am very sure the wait will be worth it and I am very much looking forward to getting it
released."

So there you go - I'm content to wait (and keep my fingers crossed that the work done on the P38 holds out)!!

P38martin said:

Hi guys,

Wanting some support before I spend £1k swapping BeCM and Fuse Box

About a week ago my working P38 decided that it wanted to flash head and brake lights when locking and unlocking rather than indicators.

Local independent has checked over and said the BeCM is going flaky and needs replacing.

Having experienced loads of other issues (flat battery resulting from old RF sensitivity (upgraded to latest mod)), loss of security link producing cranking without firing, erratic drivers mirror dip (up not down and never returns!), ABS, hand brake and SRS warning light on for first 300yds, I could be convinced, but would be grateful of any views before I commit to the BIG BILL.

Fraid I'm not a DIYer so removing BeCM & ECU for reset, and cleaning up the fuse box are not realistic options.

Any similar experiences and stories, or suggested guidance for my local guy (who overall I don't see as being like the (mainly less than savvy main dealer)) would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

M

Click to expand...

Bit late on this one I know but I experience the same thing in mine as I have an intermittent alarm fault on locking, unlock it and get the same but drive it a few miles it is fine again.

Anyone got knowledge on this please?

I thought I would tag onto this one as it would saving starting a new one.

Cheers

Adam

Are you saying that side and tail lights flash when you lock and unlock but this changes to indicators after you've driven a while?

If so, and based on my rather considerable experience (or seemingly so) of slightly flat batteries, odd BeCM behaviour etc, I would suggest you check what the battery health is like. From what I think you are saying is that the problem clears after driving a bit, this may be because you've put some additional charge into the battery.

My problem was consistent and didn't come and go - just came and stayed until my dealer reset the BeCM back to UK model. It had drifted oddly to another market (or lost its market identity) and the arm indicator and become set to tail and brake rather than indicators.

My battery was fine.

My current position is I'm waiting for the next blackbox release of the MSV2 server unit so I can correct this kind of funny without resorting to a dealer (though mine has said he won't make any further Testbook charges for BeCM problems - but he's saying the BeCM will eventually need replacing - I remain unconvinced).

Regards

Martin

Hi

That might be a good shout, guy I bought it from says it always happens after going to his local (Not LR Familiar) garage. Could it be the alternator not doing a good enough job, or is it more likely to be the battery?

Might be due to the hot-starting problem I have on my list to fix which of course will drain the battery if I do not drive far.

Any ideas?

Cheers

Adam