Real big problem and I need some help PLEASE!!!

2005 1.4 petrol Streetwise.

So firstly let me say no alarm problems at all up to 1.00am this morning.

The car has always locked and unlocked ok but the car does not get used that much. The only thing that has been done is buying a new FOB, only got one with the car, from Technozen which means sending the alarm ECU off but that was over
18months ago and its been perfect since.

But at about 1.00am an alarm went off, stopped then went off again. Didn’t realise it was mine but sound was close so looked out the window and saw no flashing lights on our cars.

But it went off again so I stuck my head out the door and it was my streetwise.

Grabbed the keys and tried the fob to no avail, the alarm is now sounding none stop.

Panicking, well its 1.00am and the neighbours will be getting tinkled off I opened the drivers door on the key. Now clearly what I should have done is put the ignition on to see what that did but by this time I was panicking and I opened the bonnet and disconnected the battery. Mistake?
Well that helped as the full sound got abit quieter as the alarm siren is now on battery backup.

Tried a few silly things like pulling fuses but no joy, so I stuffed loads of towels around what appears to be the sounder and that quieten it down quite a bit.

I assume it will now squeak all night till the back-up battery goes flat.

Any ideas what to do, how to test what caused the alarm to go off, could just be a flat battery surely not and how do I get it up and running again. Not sure I have an EAK code and if I don’t where do I get one from.

I’m going to ring my local MG dealer, I’ve deal with them in the past on other old Rovers and they are ok but of course main dealer prices for a £1000 car could be an issue.

So any help ideas or suggestion would be gratefully received.

Thanks Bean

Your var being 2005 MY has Pektron alarm system. Pektron alarm system does not like for battery to be left of and to go slovely without without any power. In certain cases if car is locked and left like this, and battery slowly goes flat, Pektron system can forget all his fobs and the box needs to go to Technozen for him to see what can be saved.

When your car is locked and you change your car battery in such state, car alarm will sound when you connect new battery until you press unlock button on your fob.

To me this looks like your var battery went nearly flat but at some point power was regained in the car battery by itself. That would look like to alarm systwm like above described change of var battery with locked car.

What worries me is the fact that you were not able to quiet the alarm with unlockimg your car with the fob. I do hope Pektron system did not forget your fobs, because if it did then you will need tomsend it Technozen again, as said above.

In any case Pektron system must not be locked and left with car battery without charger for a longer period of time.

Course of action I would do is to buy new car battery, put it in car and see if you can unlock the car with fob. If not then you know what to do.

Pektron system fobs does not need any re-sync process. They work as soon power is regained.

Hi All

Cheers for the reply Roverlike.

Well I got up this AM and the battery backup sounder is still working, though its squeaking relatively quietly now.

So I got in touch with my local Rover dealer (Summit) and Nick was very helpful as usual and advised removing the sounder. I’d already emailed Paul at Technozen and he advised the same as water ingress into the sounder can cause the problem.

So I got that off, not simple as its anti tamper, but done.

Trouble is the sounder wasn’t damp or wet and no signs of water ingress either old or recent.

When Technozen supplied my spare keyfob and I had to take the BCU (alarm ECU) out and send it off to him I read one of the potentioal problems with that unit was water ingress along the wires into the BCU and the advise was turn it upside down so any water will drip off the wires before it gets in the unit. Now I can’t be 100% sure without checking but I’m pretty sure I did that and the car does not get wet inside so pretty sure it’s not water ingress, though can’t be 100% sure.

One odd thing though. I opened the drivers door on the key and the central locking didn’t work. Not sure if that’s normal or not. But now the battery is off I needed to get in the pass side so I lent over and pulled the locking knob up. But it does not operate the lock manually so the door won’t open. The other doors are fine. Not sure its connected its just odd.

As I said I spoke to the Rover dealer who said they could look at it but given the value of the car they though I could run up a bill close to that pretty quickly.

So any ideas about how to trace the problem or who might be able to help?

Cheers Bean

Well I explained you everything in my first post. Central locking will not work if Pektron BCU is low on power.

Put a new car battery in the car and try to unlock with the fob. If no luck I would take BCU out and ask Tecnozen to check it.

Hi

Yep thanks for that.

When i read that earlier I was kind of assuming that putting the battery back on would just set the alarm going off again.

But even if that was true now I've removed the sender at least it will be quiet.

But i don't think the battery was completly flat as its now fully charged after only charging for about a 4hr.

As its now dark going to give that a go tomorrow.

Cheers Bean

Yes, you understood correct. Putting battery back alarm will sound (or not since you removed soumder). However what you must do is try to unlock the car with the fob. That will silence the alarm and car is unlocked. If car is not unlocking then you have problem with BCU or fob/s.

Hi All

So thanks to everyone who gave help and advise to resolve the problem, which as it happened at 1.00am was pretty big.

I can’t be 100% sure what happened but as Technozen and my local dealer said as the hazards weren’t flashing when the sounder was sounding they didn’t think the alarm had been activated. They both thought it was a sounder malfunction, apparently usually due to damp or water ingress.

The main battery was replaced some time after I got the car so is pretty new, say max 18months and only took about 3 hrs to charge on a not good old Halfords charger so not sure how run down it was, but I’d hope not enough to trigger the problem but who knows.

Anyway Mat at DMGRS said the system will work fine with no sounder so tested it with the sounder off and the battery back on and err it all works fine. Locks unlocks hazards flash in confirmation it locked and car starts etc.

Well that took my completely by surprise, you can remove what appears to be a integral part of the alarm system, ie the bit that makes a noise, and the car will work completely normally, which just seems counter intuitive. But hey what do I know.

So the only decision now is do I bother to fit a new sounder?

New ones are available for about £60 but there seems a limited risk of someone bothering to nick a 20 years old Rover and the immobiliser part of the alarm still works it just does not make a noise.

Ah well the car works so no desperate rush at the moment.

Cheers Keith

Getting it on a T4 (Dealer Diagnostic tool) may help give an error code (im not 100% sure as I have not overly played with the pektron cars too much, as I dont have one ) Im also think, you could reconfigure the BCU to operate the horn instead of the BBS unit. Again, not 100% sure.

I had a similar problem with a 2005 45.

My neighbours were very understanding, but in the end, I just removed it. My mechanic advised me to have a bucket of water ready when I performed the surgery………very satisfying to drop it in when it started protesting!

And has been said, no one is going to nick an old Rover, but if you are concerned with security, I would recommend getting a disclok for the car. I once had to get the AA to remove one from the Tomcat (don’t ask) and it took nearly an hour for the chap to carefully remove it with a hammer and chisel!

Hi All

It might be an idea to get a proper fault code via a T4 to confirm the sounder was the fault.

I'd hate to buyt a new sounder (Rimmers have them) then find it just goes off, but that does seem unlikley as it behaving perfectly at the moment, but that could be because the battery is freshly charged.

So as a number of people have said it all (surprisingly) works fine without a sounder.

So cheers for all the responses.

Bean