legacymotors1

New Member
can anyone help on this one. 99 rangey 4.6, keep getting a flat battery every week even after fitting a new, correct spec battery, use the car about twice a week, but have noticed at night when the cars locked a very faint red light coming from the auto selector park position light, is this something to do with the b,e,cm unit?? been told this might be at fault,, what can i do??
 
try disconnecting the blue wire from the rf reciever as first step... well documented fault
 
can anyone help on this one. 99 rangey 4.6, keep getting a flat battery every week even after fitting a new, correct spec battery, use the car about twice a week, but have noticed at night when the cars locked a very faint red light coming from the auto selector park position light, is this something to do with the b,e,cm unit?? been told this might be at fault,, what can i do??

Press the mode switch for sport mode. The light will go out.
 
cheers chaps, will try the disconection of th rf reciever wire, any idea if this problem gets any worse or does it just slowly drain the battery? does it mean the b,e,cm unit has totally had it?,
 
Mine has the rf wire disconnected (the blue wire) and all was well for about 6 months, but its just started draining again,but ive noticed the becm only stays awake and drains the battery if i lock the car! If i leave it unlocked its fine! :confused:
 
Just invest in the new RF receiver - the updated one (not from ebay - old units get flogged off in new boxes!!) Do a search on here - its been covered many many many times before......
 
knowing my luck if i start messing about with it it will get a whole lot worse!!! looks like its time to break out the trickle charger again,,, these motors could put you in a early grave,, still bloody love it though!.!.!
 
yeah,tried that, parked in all different places close to home but keeps going flat after 4-5 days non use,, the rf reciever sounds a likely candidate, hope its not the b,ecm unit, although not having any other faults at all,, not sure if the small electric sub unit that sits next to our driveway that supplies the houses in our lane may be the cause of any problems though??, but problem with car started a month ago, had the car over a year with no problems before,, very confused now,, hope i dont upset anything on the rangey whilst it sits on trickle charge now,,,
 
You could just unplug the RF receiver compleatly & then do a sleep test.

Updating the RF receiver is still a must, & we do it as standard now to prevent future problems.
 
How did you check your battery spec? LR uprsted the spec of the battery on later p38 petrol models (to the same as the deisel). Most aftermarket suppliers still list the original, inadequate, battery size. Upgraded mine recently, it's a lot better!
 
Obviously, having replaced the battery for a new one and ruling out the possibility of having one that is self draining, the cause of drain is therefore likely to be in the Vehicle itself.

As suggested, the most common cause of this is the BeCM not going to sleep as it should for some reason. This results in it constanly drawing one or two Amps rather than a few milliamps. And that sure fits your time frame. The BeCM constantly monitors about 20 inputs, any one of which will cause it to wake up or stay awake.

Also as suggested, the most common cause for the BeCM not going to sleep as it should is due to the RF receiver constantly telling the BeCM that it is receiving a transmission in the frequency range that the Fob transmits and that it must validate in the event it is the owner with a valid key fob transmitting the right code and wanting to unlock the vehicle.

The problem being that some early RF receivers had such a wide band width of acceptable frequencies that even the close proximity of a set of automated supermarket doors would appear as possibly valid Fob transmissions, and close proximity to a transmitter of any kind can quite easily upset the BeCM and constantly keep it awake, thus draining your battery as indicated.

Later versions of the reciever accept transmissions only on a much narrower band width and unplugging the reciever can prove this is your problem, But as Rick states, in light of this, updating the receiver realy is a must anyway.

However, these are only what is commonly known, and there are other possible reasons that your BeCM is staying awake you must not dismiss.

A faulty door ajar or lock switch can do the same.

How to do a BeCM sleep test is detailed at the bottom of our systems help page, located here https://www.blackbox-solutions.com/shop/help/SM022.html

I hope this helps
 
thanks for the valueable info, what is the procedure once i get a replacement rf reciever, can i get this unit from rick??, hope i dont have to reset the whole car as i did when fitting the new battery, i got a cold sweat when i saw "keycode lockout" but my local landy dealer were brilliant helping me out,, i manged to reset the car and the remote fobs perfectly,, i now have the whole bloody technique etched in my brain, cheers again for all your advice,
 
Its an extremely simple procedure which takes around 5 minutes really - buy the correct new receiver, find the old one (behind parcel shelf, rear passenger seat on the drivers side), unplug old one and remove it, plug new one in , I think it secures with one or two screws and that's it. No need to reset anything or remove battery etc etc.
 
The Rf works on a frequency of around 433 Mgz (which co-incidentially) is EXACTLY the same as MOST Wireless products on the UK market today

Wireless Internet
Wireless Doorbells
Wireless Energy Monitors
Wireless Weather Stations
Pretty much ANYTHING thats "Wireless" works around 433Mgz mark here in the UK.

Even Other Peoples Car remotes & older type Cordless phones (as has been said) ..pull off the cover (offside boot area) locate the BLUE WIRE & disconnect it from the RF box) Yer remote WILL STILL WORK (But you'll have to be much closer the car to unlock it) all the blue wire is, is the AERIAL for the remote pullin off the wire will restrict the range of the RF reciever to a very small area Then if yourself or your Neighbours DO have something working on 433 Mgz it won't wake up your BECM & drain your battery
 
You can always give me a call if you run into problems & i'll talk you through on the phone.

The correct procedure would be to sleep test with a multimeter with RF Connected normaly. Milamps should read approx 0.60 immediately after locking & curtesy lights have dimmed. This should drop to 0.02 after 180 seconds, or thereabouts.

These readings should be the same with the RF fully disconnected.

By performing this simple test will tell you if the problem is signal related or another sinister problem is lurking elsewhere.
 
Just a quick one mine started doing the same about two months ago had never suffered before and then about a month go it started locking itself adhoc and about a week after doing this the nearside passenger front lock motor gave up next day the drivers door lock gave up so stripped all down ordered replacements thenwent on a hunt to find out why - fuse board in the engine compartment was burnt to buggery have ordered a new one - also had a small leak in the connector on nearside rear suspension bag so lts going on to wake up the becm worth checking fuse box smell it and pull r6 r7 mine burned because of a loose connection on a blend motor forcing it to draw more power is my evaluation good luck
 
thanks guys, can you believe it, i recently had a new digital aerial fitted to the house recently and it seems whenever the digital unit indoors is searching for channels via the remote box the rangey comes to life on the drive!! this can't just be a coincidence after checking it with me watching the auto illumination light on the car lighting up every time my wife uses the digital unit indoors!!! but i am now going to follow your advice given to me about dissconnecting the rf reciever,, keep you posted,,
 

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