Electrical Gremlin on the wife's Audi A3?!

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300CE

MB Enthusiast
Joined
Apr 25, 2010
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1,474
Location
Sidcup, Kent
Car
1990 300CE
Had a couple of electrical issues crop up this morning and wondered if any of you helpful & knowledgeable folks had any ideas at all?

1) The computer on the dash keeps (inconsistently) flashing that the boot is open when it is shut.

2) The rear window wiper has stopped working.

3) If you turn the alarm on, it goes off after about 5 minutes (or what seems like the alarm, more like a warning siren as it isn't overly loud). I'm wondering whether the system still thinks that the boot is open which is why it's going off?!

I've checked the fuses and they're all ok. I'm wondering whether it's a relay, a dodgy earth or maybe something has got wet as it's been p**sing it down most of the day.

The car is still under it's 6 month warranty so hopefully this will be covered, however, any ideas as to what it might be would be appreciated :thumb:
 
Older VW/Audi's are notorious for these kinds of problems...all stems from the drainage holes in the plenum under the windscreen blocking up, which causes a water leak into the car, and VW/Audi put all their body control ECU type thingies under the passengers feet. Not uncommon for all the windows to go down during the night,or the central locking to deadlock you inside the car. Take the battery out and check and clear all the drains in there.

Not so sure with your car- as said above, check the boot light switch! :thumb:
 
Cheers chaps, you could have hit on something there Tiff - the squirter for the rear wiper is pumping the water through (you can smell the fluid) but it isn't coming out. It's possible that this is leaking in the car somewhere and has got some of the electrics wet?! I'll check the drain holes tonight as well.

I've had a look for the courtesy switch in the boot, but it doesn't seem to have one that i can see.
 
Cheers chaps, you could have hit on something there Tiff - the squirter for the rear wiper is pumping the water through (you can smell the fluid) but it isn't coming out.
I had that on a car once - I opened the tailgate and water poured out from around the trim! The pipe had come away from the nozzle.

Funny follow-up ... a couple of years later somebody did a small amount of damage to the rear of the car while it was parked outside our house, and it went off for an insurance repair. I then had a phone call saying they were going to have to replace the whole tailgate as it was really rusty inside :D
 
I had that on a car once - I opened the tailgate and water poured out from around the trim! The pipe had come away from the nozzle.

Funny follow-up ... a couple of years later somebody did a small amount of damage to the rear of the car while it was parked outside our house, and it went off for an insurance repair. I then had a phone call saying they were going to have to replace the whole tailgate as it was really rusty inside :D

It certainly sounds plausible that this could be the issue - there absolutely no water around by the tailgate (that i saw anyway), so am assuming it may have broken somewhere further down. Car is booked in for diagnosis tomorrow morning so fingers crossed all will be resolved.
 
Is it a hatch back?
Had a similar problem on a 5 series BMW estate, turned out to be broken wiring located near the rear hinge
 
Is it a hatch back?
Had a similar problem on a 5 series BMW estate, turned out to be broken wiring located near the rear hinge

Yeah, it's a hatchback Nigel - the symptoms are pretty much exact to that on the link. It's covered under the warranty & doesn't look to bad a fix.
 
Oh well, car went into Halfords Autocentre today (where the warranty company has an account). They couldn't find any electrical problem despite me telling them what the problem was (and writing everything down) and where to look (they didn't even take the back panel of the hatchback off).

They also stated that any water ingress will not be covered on the warranty - have told the missus to go and pick up the car and will repair myself, probably what i should have done in the first place :)
 

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