OK…….where so I start!!! Ever since I bought my P38 - 2001 (Y) 4.6 LPG, I have been experiencing minor electrical glitches…”No surprise there” I hear you shout…..
The main issue that I want to focus on here today, is that common occurrence of the battery running flat, once again “No surprise there”….. My problem is that the battery does not just discharge, either the alarm switched itself on, or more commonly the indicator lights (all 4 of them) decided to turn on and stay on continuously until the battery is dead……even prompting the police to knock my door at midnight to inform me my lightw were on……
Needless to say , I can be seen jump starting my car most mornings from the trusty little Mazda MX-5….
I have tried to disconnect the battery, this worked……..but I nearly got shanked by my neighbors when I reconnected the battery and the horns decided to start blaring at 07:00, took me several attempts at disconnecting/ reconnecting the battery to figure out that, the bonnet closing, the doors opening and the ignition key being turned all set the bloody horns off…… I finally identified and removed the horn relay while I re-mobilized the engine, then had to reset the windows, sunroof, radio etc…..:doh:
Anyway back to the story, this issue only appears to happen when the weather is damp/wet. When it was freezing or dry I do not have a problem, this I have been led to believe is because the BECM is in an aluminum box under the drivers seat where it gets nice and warm, when the car cools down over night especially as the car is full of leather it gets quite cold/damp and moisture forms on the inside of the BECM casing and this causes the electronics to go haywire……...surely this can be fixed by either a replacement casing made of plastic drilling holes in the becm lid to ventilate it a bit or maybe something as simple as taping some of those packets of crystals you find in shoe boxes to the inside of the BECM lid???? Just a thought…..
Anyway I digress……………up until last Thursday when I locked or unlocked the doors using the key fob, all 4 of my indicators flashed to acknowledge, this is usual I believe? Anyway after popping to the shops last Thursday, I parked the car up and went into the house, an hour or so later I was informed that “the lights are on, on your car”, so I went out to switch them off thinking it was the indicator issue once again, however the slide lights were on……I thought I must have left them on so opened the car checked the switch, which was off, checked the indicator stalk it was not on parking lights, funny, I thought and locked the doors, only then did I realize that the indicators did not flash but the side lights did…….WTF I thought, so ever since then when I lock or unlock the doors the side lights now flash and not the indicators?........go on someone….explain that one…
P.s. I have already disconnected the RF receiver....
The main issue that I want to focus on here today, is that common occurrence of the battery running flat, once again “No surprise there”….. My problem is that the battery does not just discharge, either the alarm switched itself on, or more commonly the indicator lights (all 4 of them) decided to turn on and stay on continuously until the battery is dead……even prompting the police to knock my door at midnight to inform me my lightw were on……
Needless to say , I can be seen jump starting my car most mornings from the trusty little Mazda MX-5….
I have tried to disconnect the battery, this worked……..but I nearly got shanked by my neighbors when I reconnected the battery and the horns decided to start blaring at 07:00, took me several attempts at disconnecting/ reconnecting the battery to figure out that, the bonnet closing, the doors opening and the ignition key being turned all set the bloody horns off…… I finally identified and removed the horn relay while I re-mobilized the engine, then had to reset the windows, sunroof, radio etc…..:doh:
Anyway back to the story, this issue only appears to happen when the weather is damp/wet. When it was freezing or dry I do not have a problem, this I have been led to believe is because the BECM is in an aluminum box under the drivers seat where it gets nice and warm, when the car cools down over night especially as the car is full of leather it gets quite cold/damp and moisture forms on the inside of the BECM casing and this causes the electronics to go haywire……...surely this can be fixed by either a replacement casing made of plastic drilling holes in the becm lid to ventilate it a bit or maybe something as simple as taping some of those packets of crystals you find in shoe boxes to the inside of the BECM lid???? Just a thought…..
Anyway I digress……………up until last Thursday when I locked or unlocked the doors using the key fob, all 4 of my indicators flashed to acknowledge, this is usual I believe? Anyway after popping to the shops last Thursday, I parked the car up and went into the house, an hour or so later I was informed that “the lights are on, on your car”, so I went out to switch them off thinking it was the indicator issue once again, however the slide lights were on……I thought I must have left them on so opened the car checked the switch, which was off, checked the indicator stalk it was not on parking lights, funny, I thought and locked the doors, only then did I realize that the indicators did not flash but the side lights did…….WTF I thought, so ever since then when I lock or unlock the doors the side lights now flash and not the indicators?........go on someone….explain that one…
P.s. I have already disconnected the RF receiver....
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