P38A Alarm, discharging battery

Hi All, hope everyone is well,

Haven't been here for a while, busy earning P38 support fund!

I have changed the panels/doors over from a blue 2000 to my ex gold 95 dt.

All good except I forgot to change the front door out stations. Mine being a 95 has lowline Becm and the new doors had high out stations in. After all the changes every thing was fine for a few weeks but then decided to lock doors whilst driving along then unlocked, then randomly flashed the indicators until the battery was flat. New battery fitted. Still flashing indicators and flat battery. Even needed EKA code to get started on one occasion, which after a few attempts worked. Changed over the door out stations so now fitted with low line out stations. Still randomly flashing indicators and giving key code fault on dash. Still starting though if battery not flat.

So parked up at present with battery not connected. Was thinking about buying something to try and resync the Becm/ECU. If that might help to resolve the problem. Or just to be sensible and take it to a garage to have the work done?

I have found these three and would be grateful for any thoughts and feedback.
http://www.nanocom-diagnostics.com/ £250
http://www.foxwelltech.com/product/item-169.html £190 on flebay
https://blackbox-solutions.com/shop/ syncmate £100

Thanks in advance, also contemplating driving to Norway and back over the summer hols if I can get her reliable enough.

thanks in advance.

The nanocom would be the best you will be able to do more with that than the local garage, an invaluable piece of kit better then the landrover kit.
sounds like you may have a few corroded connectors or a bit of damp messing with the becm.

It sounds like the door locks might have issues. Check connectors to the locks. Yours is the earlier 95 with a separate plug into the lock for the black earth wire. Make sure that wire isn't snagging anywhere or caught anywhere. It should have a clip to keep it away from the window actuator.

Doors popping up and down. Hasn't that been linked to the tailgate button in the past?

BECM. Don't bother with a garage. They don't seem to go wrong much anyway but if they do just send it to Rick-The-Pick on here. He'll know more than any garage.

If I was driving to Norway I'd definitely have a Nanocom in the car with me.

Jumping locks is usually a sign of a door latch fault. The microswitches in them can get dodgy and cause the locks to bounce.

Nanocom is by far the best for a P38 owner. A syncmate will ONLY resync the BECM/engine ECU (which if you can start and drive the vehicle, then this isn't your problem). And most generic code readers will only talk to the engine ECU, gearbox, and maybe ABS if you are lucky.

Indicators always on could be an internal BECM fault, or it could be something external which is causing the BECM to keep them on all the time. RF interference plays havoc with these vehicles, but haven't heard of it keeping the indicators on before. I've heard of it causing problems with the alarm though.

As Grrr says - it's not worth taking it to a standard garage, as most of them don't seem to understand P38 electrics and will probably try and sell you a load of things that you don't actually need.

Sorry for the delay in getting back, just how made busy that work stuff is. Nanocom it is then. But might just check out the door handle connectors first. Not for a couple of weeks though unfortunately.

You guys are stars. Thanks.

Jerseyp38 said:

Sorry for the delay in getting back, just how made busy that work stuff is. Nanocom it is then. But might just check out the door handle connectors first. Not for a couple of weeks though unfortunately.

You guys are stars. Thanks.

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I think there may be a discount for forum members. Maybe e-mail them and ask.

Thanks for that will check it out.

Grrrrrr said:

I think there may be a discount for forum members. Maybe e-mail them and ask.

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Maybe wrong but think that was dropped a while ago when Colin fell out with Landyzone. Think you can only get the group discount now. Worth asking though he is not a bad sort.

wammers said:

Maybe wrong but think that was dropped a while ago when Colin fell out with Landyzone. Think you can only get the group discount now. Worth asking though he is not a bad sort.

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No, he was very helpful when I e-mailed. I never thought to ask for discount though. :/

Diagnostics will not find or fix a battery drain.

Firstly, you need to measure the milliamps the car uses while locked, & all three stages of sleep need to be monitered.
This will tell you where the power drain is occuring.
Trying to find a drain is like chasing rabbit holes.

If we have the car we can usually find these problems, & diagnostics can never pull a drain fault, but our experiance can.

I've never come across an alarm system draining the battery unless it's constantly blaring away.

Rick-the-Pick said:

Diagnostics will not find or fix a battery drain.

Firstly, you need to measure the milliamps the car uses while locked, & all three stages of sleep need to be monitered.
This will tell you where the power drain is occuring.
Trying to find a drain is like chasing rabbit holes.

If we have the car we can usually find these problems, & diagnostics can never pull a drain fault, but our experiance can.

I've never come across an alarm system draining the battery unless it's constantly blaring away.

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Hi Rick-the-pick,

haven't been here for a while, work has wrung the last out of me recently but back to normal hours again. Haven't bought anything diagnostic yet (£1.14) in the bank account at the moment...). But have wiggled wires in the drivers door and it locked and unlocked but checked connections etc. Have just put the battery on over night and flat this morning and a neighbour said the side lights had been on but I suspect it was the indicators on solidly. The alarm has never sounded.

Will take your guidance and get the multimeter on to it and try and find out current drain. Will do a search on the stages of sleep, unless you could direct me to info on this?

Thanks