Flashing Indicators for no reason with car locked.

[dfsuperb]

Ive a weird one.

 

For a few months now on and off I've had an issue where the car would be locked and then after a few minutes the 4 Indicators lights would start flashing.

They would remain flashing for ages.

There would be no siren / alarm or anything.

I would sometimes have to leave the car unlocked or it would keep going off.

Then for no reason it would just stop.

 

It started happening again yesterday even when I was at the garage (VW) and they plugged it in to diagnostics and saw nothing. 

 

Last night it was happening also so i checked a few things.

 

I had seen others say it may be an alarm battery or siren issue.

So I opened the window and turned on the alarm with doors closed.

After 2 mins I put in my hand and the alarm and siren went off.

 

I also tested the battery last night and it was at 12.36v but Im not sure the accuracy of my meter.

Am going to check against a good meter later.

 

I have just purchased a new radio (pumpkin,havent installed it yet) as lots had said battery issues caused by columbus and I wanted more features on the raidio anyway. 

So with the unit I got an OBD2 adapter...

Should that help me check if there is something going on recorded by the cars computer ?

Is that  reading the same as the skoda Vehicle Diagnostic tool ?

 

[roynhayley]

Hello, when your battery is low there can be all sorts of weird things going on. voltage maybe OK but if there is minimal power then issues can arise. Cold is not a batteries friend either how many people saving the planet with their all electric cars are finding that the cold is their enemy?

Our Honda suffers with battery issues it will light the dashboard like a Christmas tree.

Another thing maybe the batteries in your Fob, this too can cause issues, usually immobiliser related but who knows. Trouble is that cars are sooooo complicated that anything can cause issues. Re the columbus I thought that there are usually only issues when retrofitted to Octavia's.

Best way is to get a VCDS scan to get a true idea of what is going on look up to see who has a cable close to you.

good luck

[dfsuperb]

UPDATE

 

I replaced the car battery but the flashing indicators still happens.

Seems worse after journeys of less than 10 miles.

I now have to lock the car and wait a few minutes to see if it goes off.

If it does I unlock and lock again and repeat this until it stops (3-4 goes max).

 

The siren never goes off and nothing showed up on the scanner at the Skoda/VW garage.

 

Anyone any idea what may be causing it or even is it linked to the alarm and I could disable the alarm totally ???

 

At my wits end.. 

 

[chimaera]

A full scan of all computer modules on the car would be useful here. After that, the thought that strikes me is whether the hazard light switch might be faulty, since that would cause all 4 indicators to flash. You could try unplugging it and see if the problem still occurs?

[dfsuperb]

Hi @chimaera is that different to what a garage would normally do when they connect the computer to the car ?

What type of scan exactly should I be asking them to do ?

 

Im not 100% sure but think that the hazard switch doesn't even light up when it goes off. I would assume a faulty hazard switch would replicate a pressing of the switch if it was the cause ?

Also if it was a faulty switch would unlocking the car stop the hazard switch from setting off the indicators ?

[chimaera]

It depends on the garage and the equipment available to them. A standard OBD2 diagnostic tool can only read codes from the engine and transmission controllers and will shed no light on this problem. VCDS or the dealer scan tool is capable of scanning all of the control modules, but it's down to the operator whether or not they scanned the relevant controllers here. There's a thread somewhere around here with a list of members who have VCDS and their locations: it could be worth finding if someone near you has it and getting them to do an autoscan on your car. At the very least, anyone doing a scan for this problem should be scanning the BCM (J519) and the steering column controller (J527) since they control all external lighting functions.

 

The only way a faulty hazard light switch would cause the problem you describe is if the contacts were intermittently failing closed, activating the hazard function. As I said above, one thing you could do is unplug the switch and see if the problem goes away. Otherwise, you could try to dismantle the switch and spray it well with contact cleaner to make sure all the terminals are clean. These are cheap/free/simple solutions so worth trying first. After that you get into chasing around the car's electrical systems looking for bad switches or controllers feeding spurious data back to the BCM causing it to light the indicators.

[roynhayley]

Just a quick thought do you have anything hanging off the interior mirror, perhaps the ultra sonic is picking up movement. Try disabling the interior monitoring, switch on the B pillar, a momentary switch that should illuminate with a single push, alarm and immobiliser will still be active but interior monitoring will be disabled.

[dfsuperb]

Got sorted (I think).

 

Replaced the alarm siren as I'd seen some Audi posts that it has a battery that fails (9 years old) and flashes the indicators like what Im seeing.

Garage was €245 plus VAT and fitting. €400 ish...

 

Went to german cars dismantler in Limerick and got one out of 2014 passat for €30, fitted myself and it works perfectly. Battery should be fine for a few years.

 

No flashing for last 48 hours. (fingers Crossed).

 

Buying the VCDS cable was definitely worth €30..

 

To remove the siren remove the cover the white arrows are pointing to.

Pull of the rubber seal at the front.

The panel is just pressed in at the window and has no screws. (note - mine had the wipers on the other half of the panel, yours may be different)

Once removed there will be another black cover for the siren. This is removed with 2 torx screws.

Then you see a bracket where the siren is mounted underneath.

Insert a 13mm spanner to the top of the siren and loosen and remove the nut.

Unplug the siren and plug in new one and refit everything in reverse of above.

I didnt disconnect the battery but did have ignition off. 

 

 

 

 

Edited 17 September, 2018 by dfsuperb

[TheRobinK]

15 minutes ago, dfsuperb said:

Replaced the alarm siren as I'd seen some Audi posts that it has a battery that fails (9 years old)

 

I'd say your guess on this was the correct one - my cars manual has a note on page 56 saying "Note: The working life of the alarm siren is 5 years."