Quiescent current stage 1 & 2 intermittent

[rjsdavis]

Can you not ask him if he can fit an ignition powered relay for the receiver/amp power supply, so as soon as you key off them items are electrically dead?

May have to go down that route if the new receiver doesn't shut down the system as it should...

Trying to keep this thing from spirally totally out of control!

[Nard666]

May have to go down that route if the new receiver doesn't shut down the system as it should...

Trying to keep this thing from spirally totally out of control!

Hi mate sorry I've been ill but have just read the thread from where I left off, I haven't got the handbook so have no further idea on fuse location for the amp I know where the fuse box is but unsure on which fuse also have you got any further than this with your powerdrain problem?

[rjsdavis]

Hi mate sorry I've been ill but have just read the thread from where I left off, I haven't got the handbook so have no further idea on fuse location for the amp I know where the fuse box is but unsure on which fuse also have you got any further than this with your powerdrain problem?

Sorry to hear of your illness. Hope you're feeling better...

Made some progress, but it's not resolved.

It went into an auto-electrician specialist no less than three times. The first time, he had it for a day, charged me £216 for about four hours labour, and diagnosed it as being the amp that was water damaged and needed replacing. He asked me to acquire a replacement, which I did, and it went back.

Visit No. 2, he fitted the new amp, and after another 4 hours or so of doing whatever he was doing, gave it back and asked me to get a new radio receiver. I did this, and arranged to go back a third time. When I took the car back after the second visit, he left the MMI system completely disconnected (the stack in the boot), which cut off the screen in the dash too. It was clear that whilst the MMI system was disconnected, the battery drain problem stopped.

Visit No. 3, he fitted the new radio receiver, and after a further 4-5 hours of waiting, handed the car back stating that he was completely happy that it was now shutting down properly and was sorted.

Drove the car away. It wasn't sorted. All of the speakers on the right-hand side of the car now no longer worked! He informed me that he was able to watch the car shutdown, by watching the sat-nav DVD player stopped lighting up, and also watching the hazard warning light shut off. He informed me that these were indicators that the car was now "shut down". He informed me that the hazard warning light went off within a few minutes.

That evening, I watched the hazard light after I locked the car. It didn't go off. After ten minutes I was bored with watching it and came back periodically. After this, and all subsequent drives, I can see that it takes approximately 2 hours for the hazard light to go off and consequently the car to actually shut down. I've made the electrician aware that he hasn't fixed the fault at all, and his response was "that's strange!".

So, my car is actually worse than when he started tinkering with it. I've paid him a load of labour, and ordered new amp and new radio receiver. I've also found new fault codes that have never appeared before - ever, after I took her back after Visit No. 3. Namely short/open circuits in the aerial (I presume the amplified aerial that sits above the stack in the same bay?).

So - I'm fairly ****** about it to be honest. It's seemingly clear that the stack in the boot is the root cause. Its seems to be clear that the electrician doesn't appear to know what he's doing, and was simply going through it "piecemeal" by eliminating things (at my cost) sequentially until he stumbled over a fix.

The battery drain is now slightly different, insofar, that it doesn't completely drain the system. It would appear, from what I can determine, that the two hours or so after shut-down drains the battery for this two hour period, and that the drain stops after the car finally shuts down. Therefore, I now find, that when I go back to the car, whether it's one day or three/four days later, the battery is always at 60% of charge according to the battery meter on the car. The car always starts now, and doesn't give me any "low battery" warnings - with the exception of if you make the fatal error of opening/locking the car without driving of charging it, and then leaving it to sit.

Therefore, if you park up and leave the car, it will continue to take two hours to shut down and the battery will discharge to around 60%. If I were to open the car to get something out of it, and then lock it up again, the car would then take another two hours to shut down and this would take the residual battery down to about 10%. It still, just, starts and I'll get a low battery warning in this circumstance. The car will need a good run or specific charging to resolve it. If the battery is allowed to drop to around the 10% mark, it will log the quiesecent error codes as before.

Therefore, something is still causing a drain. I'm going to order a replacement amplified aerial, fit it, and see if this makes a difference. Just found one on eBay. I can see that there water marks on the cabling leading into the aerial, so it looks like it might have got wet when the rear washer-wiper was leaking which is probably the root cause of all of this blinking rigmarole! Will update if the replacement aerial resolves the issue...

What would you do about the electrician? Grin and bear it? Just let it go and put it down to experience?

Also - got to resolve the missing sound from the right-hand side of the car. Would be lucky if he's simply been incompetent and simply didn't connect everything back up together properly, but I don't know.

[inspectorman63]

Ay caramba. I did say (#54) "competent auto electrician". But the problem has improved so any claim against him is unlikely to succeed.

The clutching-at-straws department here reminds me the stereo controls do have a left / right fader. But as you say, most likely to be a connector that's not properly seated. In all of the box switching, worth a quick check to see you're still on the latest software issue. But it does look like a switched / relayed fuse is the only way out of this.

[rjsdavis]

Ay caramba. I did say (#54) "competent auto electrician". But the problem has improved so any claim against him is unlikely to succeed.

The clutching-at-straws department here reminds me the stereo controls do have a left / right fader. But as you say, most likely to be a connector that's not properly seated. In all of the box switching, worth a quick check to see you're still on the latest software issue. But it does look like a switched / relayed fuse is the only way out of this.

How do you figure that the problem has improved? I still have an electrical fault that drains the battery and now, one side of the car's speakers don't work! In my book - the car's worse than when it started. (I tried the fader immediately. Full left - both on the left work. Full right - no sound at all apart from some very muffled low bass in the back right corner).

I'm stubborn sadly, and just can't go for the switched/relayed fuse. The car should work as factory! New aerial amp on the way, which may improve things. You won't remember, but way, way back on the thread the software was updated to the latest as the first job done to try and rule that out...

[Nard666]

Sorry to hear of your illness. Hope you're feeling better...

Made some progress, but it's not resolved.

It went into an auto-electrician specialist no less than three times. The first time, he had it for a day, charged me £216 for about four hours labour, and diagnosed it as being the amp that was water damaged and needed replacing. He asked me to acquire a replacement, which I did, and it went back.

Visit No. 2, he fitted the new amp, and after another 4 hours or so of doing whatever he was doing, gave it back and asked me to get a new radio receiver. I did this, and arranged to go back a third time. When I took the car back after the second visit, he left the MMI system completely disconnected (the stack in the boot), which cut off the screen in the dash too. It was clear that whilst the MMI system was disconnected, the battery drain problem stopped.

Visit No. 3, he fitted the new radio receiver, and after a further 4-5 hours of waiting, handed the car back stating that he was completely happy that it was now shutting down properly and was sorted.

Drove the car away. It wasn't sorted. All of the speakers on the right-hand side of the car now no longer worked! He informed me that he was able to watch the car shutdown, by watching the sat-nav DVD player stopped lighting up, and also watching the hazard warning light shut off. He informed me that these were indicators that the car was now "shut down". He informed me that the hazard warning light went off within a few minutes.

That evening, I watched the hazard light after I locked the car. It didn't go off. After ten minutes I was bored with watching it and came back periodically. After this, and all subsequent drives, I can see that it takes approximately 2 hours for the hazard light to go off and consequently the car to actually shut down. I've made the electrician aware that he hasn't fixed the fault at all, and his response was "that's strange!".

So, my car is actually worse than when he started tinkering with it. I've paid him a load of labour, and ordered new amp and new radio receiver. I've also found new fault codes that have never appeared before - ever, after I took her back after Visit No. 3. Namely short/open circuits in the aerial (I presume the amplified aerial that sits above the stack in the same bay?).

So - I'm fairly ****** about it to be honest. It's seemingly clear that the stack in the boot is the root cause. Its seems to be clear that the electrician doesn't appear to know what he's doing, and was simply going through it "piecemeal" by eliminating things (at my cost) sequentially until he stumbled over a fix.

The battery drain is now slightly different, insofar, that it doesn't completely drain the system. It would appear, from what I can determine, that the two hours or so after shut-down drains the battery for this two hour period, and that the drain stops after the car finally shuts down. Therefore, I now find, that when I go back to the car, whether it's one day or three/four days later, the battery is always at 60% of charge according to the battery meter on the car. The car always starts now, and doesn't give me any "low battery" warnings - with the exception of if you make the fatal error of opening/locking the car without driving of charging it, and then leaving it to sit.

Therefore, if you park up and leave the car, it will continue to take two hours to shut down and the battery will discharge to around 60%. If I were to open the car to get something out of it, and then lock it up again, the car would then take another two hours to shut down and this would take the residual battery down to about 10%. It still, just, starts and I'll get a low battery warning in this circumstance. The car will need a good run or specific charging to resolve it. If the battery is allowed to drop to around the 10% mark, it will log the quiesecent error codes as before.

Therefore, something is still causing a drain. I'm going to order a replacement amplified aerial, fit it, and see if this makes a difference. Just found one on eBay. I can see that there water marks on the cabling leading into the aerial, so it looks like it might have got wet when the rear washer-wiper was leaking which is probably the root cause of all of this blinking rigmarole! Will update if the replacement aerial resolves the issue...

What would you do about the electrician? Grin and bear it? Just let it go and put it down to experience?

Also - got to resolve the missing sound from the right-hand side of the car. Would be lucky if he's simply been incompetent and simply didn't connect everything back up together properly, but I don't know.

Yes I'm much better now thank you, sorry to hear your still having problems, I don't know what could cause you to not have sound on one side I'm tempted to say maybe a damaged or dirty pin on a connection plug but I'm not sure as you have other issues with the stack, I don't really know what to say about the auto electrician sometimes on cars the problem isn't what you think but it getting worse isn't really something you should expect when you have paid him and replaced both amp and radio and it shouldn't come back with fault codes not sure about it being the ariel either as from how I read your message that's a new fault so I would say it could mean the problems further down the line but it's hard to say how much of anything has had water get to it, have you checked your connection plugs for damage /etc and also the wires that run to it

[rjsdavis]

Yes I'm much better now thank you, sorry to hear your still having problems, I don't know what could cause you to not have sound on one side I'm tempted to say maybe a damaged or dirty pin on a connection plug but I'm not sure as you have other issues with the stack, I don't really know what to say about the auto electrician sometimes on cars the problem isn't what you think but it getting worse isn't really something you should expect when you have paid him and replaced both amp and radio and it shouldn't come back with fault codes not sure about it being the ariel either as from how I read your message that's a new fault so I would say it could mean the problems further down the line but it's hard to say how much of anything has had water get to it, have you checked your connection plugs for damage /etc and also the wires that run to it

In short - the stack did see some water. When I first got the car I immediately found a water leak from the rear wash/wipe. It was the first thing fixed, but it clearly got water where it shouldn't have been.

This guy has spent so long on the stack, that I took it as read that he'd checked the cables and connections. He reported to me that the Amp and subsequently the radio receiver, had received water and it had shown on the plugs, and had made it onto the circuit board apparently in respect of the amp - hence the two new parts being requested. It has already been tested for new water ingress, and there is no whatsoever. Any water damage is historic and from the known previous leak.

I'll see what the new amplified aerial has to say when it's introduced into the system. I'll be pulling the whole stack out and checking it when I do - so hopefully any dodgy connections or unknown damage will be spotted at that point. I can't imagine that there's anything left to change other than the DVD player!

[Nard666]

Wifes car is a saloon and when changing battery the other day I noticed water in the boot and luckily there was dust and the water had left a trail which was coming form the grommet on the rear face of the wheel well which had a small split, there was literally only a sppon full or two of water but who knows how long it has been elaking for?
Bobbing down and I could clearly see the grommet in the rear bumper gap woughly 1/3 rd in from the passenger side.
Removed grommet applied a bead of silicone, refit smear in silicone done and dry so far.

Which grommet ? The flat ones that seem to have no real reason for being there? I have got a small leak myself not much water but it would seem more than you had, I've checked the grommet in the direction of where mine seems to be coming from but it appears to be in good condition and it was sitting correctly though I'm wondering if it's actually coming somewhere else as it seems to be running along the seams of the panels in the boot, after having the plastics off and the carper up it appears be coming in from the corner by the jack holder but as I say the grommet appears to be fine, I've also had the rear light out on that side as I could see a trickle mark leading from the boot shut and down the back of the light and this leads to the plastic bit underneath the light (I believe these are vents the let heat out as this makes sense on the other side by the stack (amp etc)

[Nard666]

In short - the stack did see some water. When I first got the car I immediately found a water leak from the rear wash/wipe. It was the first thing fixed, but it clearly got water where it shouldn't have been.

This guy has spent so long on the stack, that I took it as read that he'd checked the cables and connections. He reported to me that the Amp and subsequently the radio receiver, had received water and it had shown on the plugs, and had made it onto the circuit board apparently in respect of the amp - hence the two new parts being requested. It has already been tested for new water ingress, and there is no whatsoever. Any water damage is historic and from the known previous leak.

I'll see what the new amplified aerial has to say when it's introduced into the system. I'll be pulling the whole stack out and checking it when I do - so hopefully any dodgy connections or unknown damage will be spotted at that point. I can't imagine that there's anything left to change other than the DVD player!

My boot appears to be taking in water too, trying to trace where it's coming from but it's not massively obvious as it's travelling along the seams of the panels at the back of the boot I've had the grommet out near the furthest point of the seam that water is sitting and it seems to in good condition, interestingly the water runs along the seem and does make it to underneath the battery energy manager

[rjsdavis]

My boot appears to be taking in water too, trying to trace where it's coming from but it's not massively obvious as it's travelling along the seams of the panels at the back of the boot I've had the grommet out near the furthest point of the seam that water is sitting and it seems to in good condition, interestingly the water runs along the seem and does make it to underneath the battery energy manager

I wish you luck trying to source that back to source. The only way I know to track these down is to water down the suspected areas of ingress with a fine plant sprayer, slowly and patiently, looking for water ingress after every application. It's a total ****-ache.

Luckily mine was obviously where it was coming from. The negative was that when I sprayed the rear wash/wipe and nothing was coming out, I tried it two or three more times, holding it on for ages on the last attempt, as I could hear the pump working... but no water. The cracked pipe dumped the entire lot in the amp/DVD bay... FML! It was only pure chance that I happened to go into the Amp stack just after having done this too and found all of the water sploshing down on the electronics!