Car electrics playing up

[James83]

Apologies for asking a car question on a bike forum, but there seems to be a lot of knowledgeable folks lurking here.

I have a 2001 Seat Ibiza S TDI 1.9, which we've had for a couple of years, and over the last year its developed a few unusual ticks. Firstly the central locking now doesn't (It did when we bought it), as my other half found out at a service station in the middle of nowhere. It'll lock on the key, but won't unlock and the remote doesn't work at all. At the same time this occurred, the radio started turning itself on, even when the car is off and key out of ignition. Interestingly though, this issue seems to have cleared up for reasons best known to itself.

Now, the other issue is that most of the time, the fog light icon is dimly lit on the dash board. This one’s weird because IF the symbol is there, then the fog light and the rear windscreen wiper switches both operate the front windscreen wipers instead of their respective devices. Once every 10 journeys or so, the fog light symbol does NOT light up and then the fog light and rear window wiper function normally.

Anyway, because I rarely use the car (I have the bike, the missus drives the car) I’ve not really done anything about it, but I’ve got the spring cleaning bug which for me manifests as doing DIY and the car is my target, so I want to fix these issues (And a rust spot). So, apart from checking all the fuses, which is my first port of call tonight, where would you start looking to find the cause of these gremlins?

[Nexus Icon]

Firstly, I'd be checking the earth straps for corrosion plus any secondary earth points hidden behind light clusters, etc.

Odds are, that's your problem.

If that fails try disconnecting the battery for an hour to reset the ECU. That probably won't work but it should reset any faults which are showing (they'll still be stored in the ECU memory if you need them later).

I can't think of anything else that would fundamentally screw with all different electrical items.
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Greetings from Shitsville!

[Biker100]

+1 for checking earths first.