Mis-Behaving Seat Alhambra

[alanh65]

Firstly, apologies for asking about my 'tin top'.

 

As well as my 'hoodie' I run a 2009 Seat Alhambra 2.0 TDi sport.

 

About 2 months ago it developed a fault which has since become worse. The driver's door appeared to be the centre of attention and faults appeared to radiate from it.

I am reluctant to actually pin point this area as the cause of the problem as whenever any of us experience water ingress problems, it is more often than not the case that the source of the water leak will be somewhere totally different to the signs of water damage! So I am guessing the same may well apply to electrical faults.

 

It began with electric windows not functioning correctly, especially the driver's door. The wing mirrors (no longer to be found on car 'wings') then began to work intermittently with central locking following close behind.

 

This 'bad behaviour' was then followed by the battery running down far too quickly, with the most recent experience, the battery running flat overnight!

 

The battery is 3 years old, has a 4 year guarantee and Halfords have checked it and given it a clean bill of health.

 

Embarrassingly, I had to call out the RAC just over a week ago - and even they had great difficulty boosting the very sad battery back to life. This was then followed by the mirrors moving when the lights were switched on and when the driver's door was closed, the mirrors parked themselves.

 

After much discussion, it was suggested that maybe the BCM (Body Control Module) was at fault or wiring to/from the driver's door was damaged. When the engine was switched off and the key removed, the dash was still 'live' and therefore perhaps something was still live thus draining the battery. An 'amp clamp' was produced and a 2 amp drain was measured ... we believe leakage of .02 would possibly be acceptable.

 

By removing one fuse in the fuse box under the bonnet, the leakage became acceptable.

 

So ... may I ask for advice please ...

 

What the heck might be going on?

What the heck does this fuse control?

What is my best course of action ... other than taking my car to a Seat dealer and emptying my wallet?

 

Photos in case it helps.

 

Thank you guys (and gals)

 

 

[Longboarder]

It is nigh on impossible to trouble shoot VAG cars of the last 15 years without a fault code reader. Your local independant can do that for you without quite so severe a hit in the pocket as the main dealer. As I had two skodas, and three VWs in the family I bought a proper VCDS (used to be called Vag-com) which is almost as good as the dealer stuff. Expensive but it has paid for itself several times over.

 

Nigel

[Guest mr D]

I had similar problems on a Focus it turned out to be water in the panel next to the Drivers door due to a bad seal on the windscreen, never saw any water coming in but on removing the trim next to where your right foot goes there were plugs and sockets soaking wet dried out all tickety boo afterwards so perhaps worth a look

Hope this helps

Derek

[alanh65]

Thanks both ... some extremely good starting points there, will investigate further.

Two of my three children are moving house and requests for work are flooding in (possibly an inappropriate use of the word there ...) so the Seat may have to struggle on for a little longer before I can afford the time to look into it.

 

But thank you for responding.

 

Alan

[kevin the chicken]

P38 range rovers can suffer similar problems. The body electrical control module is on the floor under the drivers seat and is susceptible to water damage. Mine would drain a battery overnight and the independent dealer I took it to said it was because part of the alarm system wouldn't go to sleep. He disabled the part that detects air movement in the car but left the part that detects doors opening and the problem was greatly reduced but it will still drain a battery over a couple if weeks if left off charge. Pain in the butt.

[alanh65]

Thanks for that.

 

Just removed the 3 amp fuse to try and determine what circuit it fused ... and lo and behold, the alarm/central locking wouldn't function.

 

Guess this takes me a step nearer the root of the problem.

 

Many thanks for this help.