Hi folks,
Driving home this evening. All going fine, nothing in the display, when I heard 3 beeps. If there was anything in the dash display it was only there for a split second.

Stopped, left car for an hour or so and then was driven home in the car by my wife (I’d had eye relaxant drops put in and couldn’t). Got home, and as we arrived got the three beeps again, twice I think. This time I looked at the display and, just maybe, it was going through all the start-up series of warnings (low screen wash; window not set; etc).

Because I wasn’t driving I can’t say if the beep sequence did happen twice, or whether my wife had momentarily turned the key back on again - she can’t really say.

So could it be that there’s an intermittent fault at the back of the ignition switch (or somewhere else) that makes the car react as if it’s just been switched on? Meanwhile the engine keeps running and the car keeps on travelling down the road.

I think this is a new thing. It may have happened this morning on the way in, but I didn’t pay it much heed because everything kept on working. Now that it’s happened another 2 or 3 times on the same day I’m thinking something’s going on.

I had a previous incident with the central locking/immobiliser in a hospital car park drenched in radio signals, and there was a suggestion the ignition switch might have been a bit sticky. I have a little tin of graphite lock lube and I’ll drop a squirt into the switch. Is this likely to be all that’s wrong, or do those ‘symptoms’ suggest something uglier is rearing its head?

Ta.

It's more likely to be one of the BECM feeds. The studs soldered into the bottom of the fusebox get dry-jointed and when you go over a bump they lose contact for a moment.

On EWW I replaced the three maxifuses with a 4-way "marine" fusebox mounted on the end of the battery box, which confused the shit out of someone who went to put a battery on it and move it while it was parked. No maxifuses! Well, only two!

It's an interesting one and I'll let you know when I've found it. Mine has done similar 4 times now but not when driving. My missus has a habit of opening the door to get out of the car just as I'm pulling up. 3 times over the last few months, as she has opened the door, the stereo goes off and reboots and I've also had the initial start up message, in my case, a single beep and Fuse 20 blown (which is another story, Fuse 20 isn't blown and even if it was it wouldn't matter as it powers the passenger electric seat I don't have). A couple of weeks ago it did it when I opened my door before switching the engine off too. It would all point to a bad connection somewhere so something momentarily cuts the power and, in my case, could possibly tied in with the interior lights or door outstation supplies. With it cutting the stereo but not affecting the engine running, it would be the accessory supply rather than the ignition switched supply.

My fusebox was brand new about 5 years ago (when you could still buy them for just over £100) and I've got a replacement BeCM power board to put in to get rid of the Fuse 20 blown message (a nit uncommon problem caused by an open circuit resistor on the voltage sensing circuit) and was thinking that may cure it. But in saying that, it will be months before I will be able to say that it has cured it as it is so intermittent. Proving something is no longer happening is like proving a negative though. Just because it doesn't do it for months doesn't mean it has been cured, just that it hasn't done it for months.

Ah well, at least I’m not alone… I have squirted a little bit of lube in the lock. Can’t do a great deal of harm.

I’ll also check the fusebox, though I don’t really associate the beeps with bumps.

I’ll be more switched on (pardon the pun!) if it happens again. But fingers crossed it’ll not become a big problem at the wrong time….. though I should have whispered that.

Squirting the lock won't do anything as the actual switch is a separate item on the back of the lock and the lube won't ever get that far. You've nothing to lose by checking the connections on the underside of the fusebox and on the feeds at the BeCM studs too.

Wriggle all the cables to the fusebox. I had a problem about a year ago with the main battery feed to the fusebox. Everything would cut momentarily & come back a second or so later. The main feed was bad, plus found a few dry joints on the PCB connections to the relays.