Hello everyone, I am hoping to pick some of your brains as I am trying to keep my trusty 15 year old K12 on the road.
It has had the common K12 electrical problems, like issues with the boot locking mechanism and it has had its ignition replaced.
The only other recent trouble I have had is that I have a leak in the back of the car. Replaced the gaskets on the rear light clusters, which improved it a lot, but somehow I still have some ingress. So the car had been a little bit damp with all this heavy rain we've had.
Other than that it has been wonderfully reliable and mechanically it still runs like a dream.
A few months ago though, it seems to have developed an electrical drain somewhere that causes the battery to run flat in a few days. Alternator was checked and found to be ok and the battery replaced with a new one as I didn't know how old it was.
Had a car electrician come out who couldn't really find anything, but suggested pulling the fuse on the radio as in his experience they could cause issues. Since I don't use the radio, I agreed.
Car seemed ok for a while, but several weeks ago I suddenly heard a relay type "click-clack" sound under the left side of the dashboard. To me it sounded vaguely like the locking mechanism, but without the actual heavier "thud" of the doors themselves unlocking.
The sound is very intermittent and I can not for the life of me find a pattern in it. Sometimes it doesn't happen for half an hour and then it may click once or even 4-5 times in a row within a space of 30 seconds. Whatever it happening, it seems to be draining my battery though.
So the car electrician came out again and according to him it was indeed the locking mechanism. When he hooked up the reader to the board computer it showed him that the locking and unlocking mechanism indicators both read "on" permanently.
According to him this means that the computer is getting a permanent or false signal to unlock the car, a charge possibly builds up which causes the intermittent firing of the relay. (which again does NOT unlock the car!).
He checked the locks on the car and the unlock button in the middle console and decided they were not faulty, but could not find what could send a false signal and concluded that it must therefore be a fault on the board computer.
If it is, that would mean an economic total loss situation for my trusty buddy. Can anybody corroborate this electricians story or have any wild ideas I can still try before I give up?
Much appreciate any thoughts.
It has had the common K12 electrical problems, like issues with the boot locking mechanism and it has had its ignition replaced.
The only other recent trouble I have had is that I have a leak in the back of the car. Replaced the gaskets on the rear light clusters, which improved it a lot, but somehow I still have some ingress. So the car had been a little bit damp with all this heavy rain we've had.
Other than that it has been wonderfully reliable and mechanically it still runs like a dream.
A few months ago though, it seems to have developed an electrical drain somewhere that causes the battery to run flat in a few days. Alternator was checked and found to be ok and the battery replaced with a new one as I didn't know how old it was.
Had a car electrician come out who couldn't really find anything, but suggested pulling the fuse on the radio as in his experience they could cause issues. Since I don't use the radio, I agreed.
Car seemed ok for a while, but several weeks ago I suddenly heard a relay type "click-clack" sound under the left side of the dashboard. To me it sounded vaguely like the locking mechanism, but without the actual heavier "thud" of the doors themselves unlocking.
The sound is very intermittent and I can not for the life of me find a pattern in it. Sometimes it doesn't happen for half an hour and then it may click once or even 4-5 times in a row within a space of 30 seconds. Whatever it happening, it seems to be draining my battery though.
So the car electrician came out again and according to him it was indeed the locking mechanism. When he hooked up the reader to the board computer it showed him that the locking and unlocking mechanism indicators both read "on" permanently.
According to him this means that the computer is getting a permanent or false signal to unlock the car, a charge possibly builds up which causes the intermittent firing of the relay. (which again does NOT unlock the car!).
He checked the locks on the car and the unlock button in the middle console and decided they were not faulty, but could not find what could send a false signal and concluded that it must therefore be a fault on the board computer.
If it is, that would mean an economic total loss situation for my trusty buddy. Can anybody corroborate this electricians story or have any wild ideas I can still try before I give up?
Much appreciate any thoughts.
