Aragorn wrote:

syncing the fob on mine required some dance with pressing the fob buttons while actuating the lock. I have a feeling later cars are supposed to be better/more automated at that process though

Yep, I think all I need to do is put the key in the door lock - but that doesn’t seem to be working at the moment.

Thanks Bolt - yep it was Simon’s boards I was referring to. Soldering - I have a solder iron, but zero soldering experience. Always managed to avoid it. This would be a bit of a negative for me, but either I could press-gang someone who does, or I could learn and practice first.

On my troubles today, I went down with the spare fob and it all worked OK. The doors wouldn’t work on the fob, so I had to open by the key. Then when I turned the ignition switch, there was a wee moment when I thought it wasn’t going to work, but it did, and the car is home.

The mobile mast next to the location is not very high, and a double-layered one, so I reckon the fobs were just being drowned out - though again, why today, and not during the previous three weeks??

Got home, and thought I’d see what the original fob would do. Nothing. Won’t open the car even in an environment with next to no extraneous radio interference. And, when I put the key in the lock, only the drivers door unlocked, and I got one beep from something - the alarm sounder?

There has been an ‘alarm fault’ on the display since the MOT a couple of months ago. Doesn’t seem to do anything and I was just leaving it until I put the roof lining back, and therefor the ultrasonic sensor. Relevant?

Does the car think it’s in the middle of the EKA procedure by some chance? If so, how does this reset? Should I just pull the fob battery and see if that works?

Thanks Aragorn,

So, the other fob 'should' work? And EKA will not only open the car in an emergency, but turn off the immobiliser?

If the fob sync was cleared, wouldn't it re-sync again if put into the door? I'm assuming the fob battery is connected, as I can see the light flashing whenever the button is pressed. Can't say whether it was disconnected in someone's pocket earlier today.

(There was a thread a little while ago about someone who 'does something' to the ECU to remove the immobiliser altogether. I read it, and filed it away, but it wasn't a priority until now.)

Off home shortly to get my spare fob and see how that goes.

hi folks, I'll try tagging this on here as it's current/active thread, and I've a very similar question, and I could really (really!) do with some help.

My car - 2001 m/y 4.0V8 - so a Thor/Bosch system - has been at the bodyshop. They've had it three weeks (two weeks for the job; 1 for covid). In all that time it's been in/out of their shop and worked fine. Today, when I go to pick it up..... the engine won't start, and the car will not open/close on the fob, even with the fob a couple of cm away from the receiver. There is a bloody great mobile mast less than 100ft away (but then why today, and not over the last three weeks?)

Car opens/locks fine using the key in the door. Tried disconnecting the battery - achieved nothing.

Even pressing the fob button before turning the key doesn't work. I can see the LED flashing, but the message centre still says 'engine disabled'. Fob battery is pretty new - did it myself about 12/18 months ago. When I say nothing is happening, I mean nothing is happening - no cranking, no nothing.

So as I see it my options are:
1) Go home and get the spare fob, and "hope for the best"
2) Go home and get the Nano, and turn off the immobiliser (Can I do that when it's "active"? / is it the 'right' immobiliser?)
3) Try the EKA code?? I'm an EKA code virgin, I don't even know if it's involved with the immobiliser? I don't know the condition of the door handle or its switches.
4) I have no option 4...(Edit - thought of an option 4 - maybe all the short runs, from yard to workshop have drained the battery a bit?? But I don't know why this would affect the immobiliser when the key is placed in the ignition and all the message centre and dash lights work OK?)

Beyond this, I think I'm going to have to turn off the immobiliser. I just can't have something randomly causing a problem like this. I appreciate it's probably not 'random' and that something will have caused it, but either way.

Pierre,
I can't say with certainty in relation to the P38. While I've had to replace a couple of the vacuum tubes, so far I've had no issues with the switches so haven't needed to look.

But, I'd be very surprised if the brake pedal didn't have a CC switch. You can imagine the scenario - trundling down the motorway at 70mph, and you need to brake. I'd expect this to disengage the CC immediately. You may not bother/need to use the clutch initially, but the CC would need to come off with the brake. Certainly this is my experience of how more modern cars work.

When I had such a fight getting the bottom clips out of my front bags I decided I wasn’t putting mild steel back in there - even if I never remove them again.

I bought something like 2 x 50cm of 2.5mm stainless rod from eBay and made up copy clips using a couple of sets of pliers. Same length of rod did the top clips on the rear bags when the time came.

It’s a bit of a fiddle getting the shape just right so that there’s sufficient tension on the clips that they don’t just fall straight out, but I’m happy.

I haven’t delved into the doors of my P38 yet, so any advice offered might be a tad agricultural… based on my Defender.

For window mechanisms I’ve used whatever I’ve had to hand. I still have most of a tub of Castro CL grease (sticky, waterproof, lime-based I think) but these are manual windows.

For the glass/rubber channels I’ve had good results with a spray tin of Halfords glass and rubber lubricant, but I suspect it is silicone. I usually use it into the open channel (I.e. window down) and in conjunction with a paper rag to avoid overspray.

Thanks mad-as - when I went into the error code via nanocom for the first time, there was something about 5 times or 5 cycles, but as a nanocom newbie I didn't save or photograph the message before clearing it.

There's no doubt though I was getting the 'alarm fault' message in the dash every time the key was put into the ignition - just another one of the beeps it fires my way routinely.

^ I’ll definitely come back and do those BBUS tests at some point when I feel stronger. They do seem simple enough.

However, today, the ‘alarm fault’ message just disappeared. All by itself as far as I can see. So I feel it’s a question of letting sleeping dogs lie.

Thanks guys,

Well, I thought I’d cleared it, but this morning it had come back. The thing is, I haven”t had a roof liner (and therefore no ultrasonic sensor above the B pillar) for months and months. All the time it was in my garage and being taken in/out; and my short private road runs pre-MOT, there was no sign of this. Just came on after the MOT.

Interestingly now though, on the Nano, it doesn’t appear as a fault to be cleared - but does on the dash…

I have to say one of the things I never do with this car, having read so many horror stories, is leave the key in the ignition, or even in the car! So I think my keys are both transmitting and unlocking, but I will definitely go in and change those settings. If they work for you after 444,444 miles I’m sure they’ll suit me.

I’ll also check out rave for the alarm sounder. Should I assume it’s dead by this stage (22 years) or is it likely there’s still some life in it?

^^^ 100%! My finger was hovering over the button as I was driving along waiting for the space, but I can’t say for sure what mode I was in when the foot got planted.

Tomorrow’s fun is probably taking the ‘other half’ out for a spin ( or more accurately, letting her take the car for a spin). I probably need a sensible car for a 3 or 4 day trip to Glasgow - i.e. hers. So her choice will be the Defender or the Range Rover. I know what she’d have more fun in.

Thanks Harv - so good just to drive it!

At one point, on a B road, I was behind a little car, and a lorry. Quite obviously the little car was going nowhere. Because I know the road, I knew when the straight sections were coming. It’s just glorious to see the space, plant your right foot, and have this 22 year old thing just leap forward!

Yes, given current fuel prices, it’s expensive - but you can’t take it with you!

Ok, seeing as there’s an existing topic I’ll try putting this on here.

For all the months the car’s been in my garage getting worked on I”ve had the battery on or off as needed - no issues as far as I could see, and I wasn’t always as good as I should have been about following the ‘igntition off, disconnect within 30 secs’ procedure. Still, no issues.

Took the car for its MOT, and when I collected it there was an “alarm fault” message on the display - but it didn’t seem to cause any particular problem.

Running about in the car today it seemed a little ‘sluggish’ sometimes on responding to the lock/unlock on the key fob (new battery about 8 months ago - buttons barely used since).

Then at one location I’d left the car unlocked while chatting to someone - maybe 15 minutes - came back and it was immobilised. Jumped out, lock/unlock, and it started.

Got home, plugged in the nano and cleared the alarm fault.

But….. what’s going on? What did my MOT tester do? I’ve had the immobiliser thing kick in before too, but it spent days ‘powered up’ in the garage, and unlocked, without having an immobiliser fit…? Puzzled, me.

Edit - meant to ask too. I’ve read something, somewhere about the alarm sounder being nicad powered, and that these can die. What’s the real story?

Well, not today, but yesterday my car got a completely clean MOT, no advisories, nothing!

So thanks to all for the advice on sunroofs, and heater matrix ‘O’ rings and indeed everything else.

Even happier to report that during a post-test ‘Italian tune up’ the car has lost all its tendencies to wallow and leap about the road. You can still tell it’s a 2 ton beast, but through the bends it’s much more predictable.

Now all I have to do is fill the tank….!

Well, further progress…. But my O rings didn’t arrive!

Managed to track down the last 300mm pozi2 screwdriver in town, so thought I might as well give it a go now that the plusgas has been doing its thing. It certainly was trying to cam out (even with a smear of cutting paste) so a two handed job to keep enough pressure on the end of the screwdriver, and to turn it. A bit of to and fro did help to keep it coming. Quite a bit of thread lock on that from the factory isn’t there? In fact it strikes me as odd that they would put to much thread lock on a fixing with a screwdriver head? Not that I plan to do this again in a hurry, but I’m going to see if I can’t find a hex or torx screw in time.

Even with the pipes disconnected in the engine bay, and pulled back a bit, it’s still awkward to get in there isn’t it - (rhetorical question!). I got the old O rings out - squared off and brittle as expected. So all that needs done now (once the new O rings arrive) is to clean up the end of the pipes, and see if I can’t get some pics of the matrix pipe ‘receiver’ to see if there’s any dried coolant or gunk in there that I should try and get out - though I’m not sure how that would go.

All in all, and coming from someone who started mechanicing on the old BL minis, this job has a high PITA rating for a newbie.

Well, I got there….. and my O rings didn’t arrive!

To be honest, because of health reasons I’ve not been up to scratch since the new year, and without going into any detail, the main impact is a lack of proper sleep. So it’s better for me to do short bursts, rather than long days. So I was happy enough to leave it at lunchtime with just the coolant to drain, and the matrix screw to tackle. I did give it a good going over with Plusgas, so here’s hoping that will do its stuff overnight.

I can see that getting duct tape around the duct is going to be entertaining….

Thanks for the morale support so far.

Thank you both. Didn’t mean to give you unpleasant flashbacks Gd!

With two recommendations for cutting the duct, that’s where I’ll be going then.

It’s interesting that there are two ‘inaccessible’ screws on this job, and one hole seems to do both. I now understand why the larger holes have been made. They had seemed like overkill to me, and a bit cack-handed.

I should have a longer go at it tomorrow.

OK - time to fall back on the collective brain again.

I headed out this afternoon thinking that all I needed to do was drill access to the hidden ducting screw, move the ducting to one side, and access the matrix pipe clamp.... Eh, no. Maybe it's that I'm pussyfooting around and haven't gone all RRAAWWR! and medieval on the plastic parts, but I'm just not seeing how, even having followed the instructions, I can get good enough access to the matrix/pipes.

The pictures in the 'wayback' instructions don't include any looking down into the empty dash area, so I've marked up a couple here.

In the pic above you can just see the temperature sensor clip on one of the heater pipes. But immediately after I took this pic, I did manage to move the air duct a little further - down and back (at the bottom end) - but this brought it hard up against the plastic cable duct (which the instructions have not mentioned moving. Now that little gap has closed:

At the moment, unless I can get the duct to move considerably more out of the way, I don't see how I'll be able to do this job without taking the dash out. The plastic panel, that was drilled to access the ducting screw, needs to come out at least. I'd already loosened it to allow me to get the ducting this far.

I can, just get my hand in to the matrix at the moment, with my wrist flexed backwards, but there's no way I'd be able to get two hands in there, or have enough room to clean pipes or install O rings and manouvre pipes and clamp back into place.

I guess the only question I have is about the ducting. At the moment, if I pull it away from the heater at the top, it just slots right back into place. If that needs to "off", and I also need a hand or two to manouvre the lower end of it, then I'm going to need someone else to help. I don't see how I can access both ends of this duct at the same time, with sufficient grip/strength to move it. And finally, where am I putting it? The 'wayback' instructions say it can be 'swung away'... and at the moment, I'm not seeing how I can get to 'swing' it anywhere, far less out of the way.

Those instructions also mentioned that someone had removed the dash top to do this job, and thought it worthwhile. I must admit that's where my thoughts are at the moment.

(Edit - been doing some more searching too, and the other option is of course to get the multi-tool onto the duct. I saw one reference to a 'preferred' place to cut it - but the pic was missing. I don't "like" cutting things like that, even if it doesn't make an awful lot of material difference, it seems like a 'bodge' to me. But if needs must....)

Well, my O rings aren’t supposed to be here until Thursday or Friday, but I thought I’d just get on with it. If nothing else, the sooner I can get some plus-gas on the screw head the better, and the more likely it will behave itself.

I didn’t quite get that far, but I did get to the point where I now need to drill the hole to access the ‘secret screw’. As it’s my first time at this, and wanting to make it as stress free as possible for myself, I removed more of the stuff in the centre console to get some visibility in there (HEVAC, radio, and switch/surround). Only a few more screws and multi plugs, and I feel that I have a much better idea what’s ahead.

Tomorrow I’ll hopefully get the heating ducting removed and some plus-gas on the screw. I’ll leave that to do it’s stuff until the O rings are here.

I have at least got a glimpse of the matrix where the pipes and O rings are, so it’s no longer some hidden, mythical thing. Lots of red coolant around there too. Before I clean that off I’m going to see if there’s any evidence of it having come from the matrix itself, as opposed to the O rings - but I am banking on the O rings themselves.

Thanks for all the help.

Useful video, thanks - particularly as it’s some nice ‘high res’ images of the pipes and matrix.

Whatever you might put on the O rings would have two purposes surely - 1 not to degrade the O ring compound and 2 - allowing that little degree of necessary flex and movement.

Does RAVE say that a dab or red HOAT coolant is OK? Would a dab of silicone grease not do the same thing?

I can’t say I’m looking forward to it, but it’s obviously the access problems rather than the technicality of the job itself.