Alarm going off during the night

sworkscooper wrote: When I looked at mine when I was fitting a remote boot popper I found quite a bit of corosion on the point where it actually earth's out when the latch closes.

OK... update. I was out driving it today (left the battery disconnected overnight for the neighbours’ sake), when a little light came on on the dash, suggesting the boot was open. Never seen it before.

Stopped, opened the boot, wiggled connectors, slammed the boot again – light out. But it came on again later. So I took the switch out, and examined it – no corrosion at all on that pathetic springy connector thing, and it’s pressing well against the little circular brass bit.

But… I fiddled with it a bit, and found that the dash light comes on when this switch is CLOSED… so if anything, I’d expect corrosion to make false alarms LESS likely to occur?

Anyway… I’ve put a bit of tape over the spring, to test my theory. We’ll see if I have to get up in the middle of the night or not.
I also tried to have a look at the harness, and I can see where the weak point is. But I can’t examine it, as I don’t know how to open the brown connector? I have a tendency to break things, so I’d sooner get some advice than just try things – thanks

That brownmthing is not a connector, but cable tie moulded together with clip holding it to boot metal arm. You can either break that cable tie if you have ankther of the same, or you cou.d try to put small flat screwdriver into this hole (from or the other side of the tie) in order to remove tie from teeth that holds it in place and thus release it.

Roverlike wrote: That brownmthing is not a connector, but cable tie moulded together with clip holding it to boot metal arm. You can either break that cable tie if you have ankther of the same, or you cou.d try to put small flat screwdriver into this hole (from or the other side of the tie) in order to remove tie from teeth that holds it in place and thus release it.

Sorry, careless typing - yeah, I know it's not a connector :lol:

No haven't got any spare ones. Maybe I'll just bust it and use a normal cable tie...

Ok , two things. Just remove the harness from that cable tie . In fact remove them all from the hinge . If you want to replace one of them ,I have some and ill post one to you .The shot of yours on the hinge is where mine has had the dealer cut the tie to give the harness more flex and room to move and check the wiring in that area . The boot switch should not put the light on when it is closed ( boot shut position ) . If it comes on itermmitently , that could be the cause as the system is sensing the boot being opened .
Hope that makes sense .
John

sworkscooper wrote: If you want to replace one of them ,I have some and ill post one to you.

Thanks John, that’s really kind of you.

sworkscooper wrote: The boot switch should not put the light on when it is closed ( boot shut position ) . If it comes on itermmitently , that could be the cause as the system is sensing the boot being opened.

I checked it really carefully – if you make the contact between the spring and the round thing, the light comes on; lift the spring off the round button (whatever it’s called), and the light goes out…

Hogweed wrote:

sworkscooper wrote: If you want to replace one of them ,I have some and ill post one to you.

Thanks John, that’s really kind of you.

sworkscooper wrote: The boot switch should not put the light on when it is closed ( boot shut position ) . If it comes on itermmitently , that could be the cause as the system is sensing the boot being opened.

I checked it really carefully – if you make the contact between the spring and the round thing, the light comes on; lift the spring off the round button (whatever it’s called), and the light goes out…

That is how boot switch works. You can put screwdriver through boot lock and you will see how lock moves and make and release contact of the spring.

Agreed .

I had been experiencing my alarm going off, usually about once a day, thankfully it seemed always to trigger in the afternoon.
Since I put my new battery on, it has not happened.
My old battery kept draining after a few days, and would not sit over 11-12 volts unless the engine was running.

Sundance

You will, most probably, have damaged wires in that loom where it is kinked by that brown clip.

They are not easy to spot as sometimes the copper core is broken but the plastic sheathing remains intact.

When I checked mine there were 4 broken wires in there!

David Aiketgate wrote: You will, most probably, have damaged wires in that loom where it is kinked by that brown clip.
They are not easy to spot as sometimes the copper core is broken but the plastic sheathing remains intact.
When I checked mine there were 4 broken wires in there!

Thanks David – the only thing I don’t understand about that is that the alarm is apparently triggered by current flowing to earth, so I’d have thought broken or intermittent contact couldn’t trigger the alarm? What I mean is, when you close the boot, the circuit is broken by the boot switch, so no current can flow, no matter what you do to the wires in the loom. Or am I missing something?

Second thing… if you even remember, how did you establish that the wires were damaged? Difficult when you can’t see inside the insulation… and I don’t really want to start cutting them all open just to find out…

Wow. Spooky. After the car being silent all night (or maybe it was the sleeping tablet), as I typed that last sentence, off went the ****** alarm. So it definitely isn't the boot switch, as I prevented it from closing with a bit of tape last night.

Wires would need to be bare, without isolation in order to make contact to metal car body or another wire inside, which also needs to be bare in order to set alarm off. If wire is broken inside within insulation, and not bare, then you will not have closure of circuit for alarm going off.

Roverlike wrote: Wires would need to be bare, without isolation in order to make contact to metal car body or another wire inside, which also needs to be bare in order to set alarm off. If wire is broken inside within insulation, and not bare, then you will not have closure of circuit for alarm going off.

Thanks, that’s what I thought… OK, next thing. Does the little light on the dash respond to boot open, or boot/bonnet open, or boot/bonnet/doors open?

Maybe I’ve been looking in the wrong place… maybe it’s the bonnet at the front? Is that switch easy to remove and examine?

I want to be sure of the boot and bonnet switches before I consider the doors…