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bleeping dash and ABS lights..

smallspeed

smallspeed

New member
on the way home last night i pulled up at a junction and the dashboard started beeping (from behind the clocks) and the ABS and "!" light's came on.. As i sat there staring at my dash the battery light started flickering too but really dimly.. Occasionally if I've been doing a few short trips I've had the ABS light come on before when I first start the car (although never heard the beeping) so I gave the throttle a little blip and the warning lights went out and the dash stopped beeping.. Next junction same story, and again, and again.. I assumed maybe the battery had died and needed replacing.

I pulled up outside my house, no beeping, parked, turned off. Then I thought I'd re-start the car incase the battery was dead, as I was pretty sure if it was flat enough to trigger the ABS light it would be totally flat, plus I had only driven about 1 mile in stop start traffic since the beeping first appeared.. Anyway, cranked, fired, everything fine, no sign of any warning lights..

Went out this morning, car started first time drove to work. Had one stop at a roundabout, and the beep and warning lights came back.. Blipped the throttle, problem went away, hopefully never to return.. It seems it happens when I apply the brakes rather than if the car is just sitting ticking over, so Im wondering if its brake or ABS related

Anyway, I don't think its the battery (correct me if Im wrong) as the car starts fine, and seems to be holding charge, but Im wondering if there is a second battery somewhere for the ABS system or if a short, a dodgy relay or a dying fuse in the ABS circuit might cause something like this?.. Doesn't happen all the time, just occasionally

If anyone can shed any light on this beeping, and the ABS/battery warning light I would be really grateful; I get the feeling it might be expensive, but im hoping not!

Thanks in advance

Ben

PS.. I had just driven about 450miles in two sections so the battery should have been fully charged?!

PPS.. I have been really slack; I replaced the front brake pads a month ago, and couldn't get two sets of pad wear sensors. I have a second set now, but only have one side fitted to the car at the moment.. Could this cause the problem?.. Its not caused any issues for the last 3 or 4 weeks, so Im thinking not, but thought it worth mentioning incase

PPPS.. Assuming the ABS wheel speed sensors feed the OBC digital speedo, they are all working correctly, although my rev counter did "pass out" for an hour on saturday. Turned off and restarted the car and it came straight back to life. OBC was working fine, just the rev counter needle went to sleep!
 
Ben
My car is a Carrera 4. If I don't get the ignition key exactly lined up with the "on" position (due to wear in the ignition key barrel) after spinning over on the starter then my electrics will not work, but the engine runs, and a short while later my ABS will bleep.
I overcame this a long time ago by simply operating one of the electric windows, after starting the engine to check if the key was lined up correctly, if the windows worked OK then all the rest functioned OK.
hope this helps
Regards, Les.
 
I had the ABS warning light problem during the early days of ownership (but no buzzer). Like you, blipping the throttle got rid of the light. I also found out that my ABS was indeed working intermittently (a few hairy skids on track [:-]).

Unfortunately I solved it by doing two things at almost the same time. First I fitted a new battery and second I removed and cleaned all the wheel sensors and vacuumed out the hubs. One of these actions must have fixed it. [8D]

I agree that your 450 mile trip should easily charge up the battery but that depends on the battery being any good. How old is it?
 
im not sure.. i've not changed it so its over 12months, and its a bosch silver jobbie.. its been in storage over the winter, but the battery was on a conditioner/charger in the car in a garage, so not on the floor or anything.. hopefully the battery is ok

i don't think the elec windows thing will be a problem as everything else seems to work, just the bleeping thing and the ABS light, so maybe if its still doing it by the weekend i will have the wheels off, fit the braided brake lines, the NS pad wear sensors and clean-up the wheel speed sensors

fingers crossed that fixes it!

ben
 
Ben,

This sounds a lot like the good old "clock contacts" problem to me. The bad solder joints on the inside face of the clock back panel cause all sorts of problems with the charging circuit - the blip of the throttle to fix it is a good clue. I had all sorts of problems with mine, including the speedo (and spoiler) refusing to work and the charge light not going out until you rev to 3K or more. The ABS system is particularly sensitive to battery voltage and is likely to throw up all sorts of problems which are completely unrelated to ABS if the voltage is off, for whatever reason. Humour me - get the soldering iron out!!!

Regards

Dave
 
humour is the right word, my soldering (like my welding) looks like robot-bird-s**t!.. [:D]

is it just dodgy contacts on the clock? tell me more and i will post comedy pictures of my metal blobs and splats!..
 
Check your charging rate with a voltmeter,it sounds like the voltage regulator is on its way out. With engine running it should be at least 13v.
 
Ben,

If you have a look at John Miles' web site (www.porsche964.co.uk), under the "Technical" section you'll find a detailed desription of some of the common clock problems and a very good illustrated guide to fixing it.

If you do a search on Rennlist in the 964 Forum using "clock solder" you'll find a host of threads which desribe many of your problems in detail - all of which are attributed to the renowned clock solder joint problem.

To quote one of the posters on Rennlist - "Many people think the brain of the car is the DME - but, believe me, it's that damn clock!!!"

Regards

Dave
 
thanks guys!.. well i think the car has answered the question this morning; i got 1/2 way to work and it died and wouldn't start.. either the battery is foosed or it's not charging. I will do some invesitgating tonight and see what i can find; hopefully its an easy fix..
where is the best place to check the charging rate? Im thinking the output directly from the alternator will prove if thats working, then check the battery posts; if the battery is not getting a good charge the problem is in the voltage reg unit.. does that make sense or are there some oddities in the system I have not taken into account?..
 
Use a voltmeter which you can buy for about £ 10 to £15 from Maplins/Halfords. Connect it directly to the battery terminals. With engine running you really want a min of 13.5volts. The ABS needs this sort of voltage to run so if it lower than this the ABS light will come on. I'm fairly confident that your alternator needs to be removed and overhauled. Don't be just happy with fitting a voltage regulator to it. I can talk you through the process of removing the alternator if need be , there is a bit of time involved & I don't know your level of expertise. Good luck.
 
Thanks for the responses guys.. I think Im going to solder the clock tonight as that seems to be a common issue on renlist with similar associated issues. I will put the battery on charge overnight and connect it all back up tomorrow morning and test. I will check out the voltage at idle and hopefully this will sort it out.. Watch this space!

ben
 
Ben, if your Bosch silver jobbie has the indicator window, don't just charge it overnight, charge it until it goes green. That will be a very good indication that the battery is still good.

I find this indicator really useful. As my car mostly only goes out once a week, the indicator gradually fades to black. It will then go back to green after a good thrashing on a trackday, letting me know that my alternator is doing its job. [:)]

p.s. last time I let my car stand for over a month the silver went so low that it took 2 days to fully charge (back to green). Bosch also advise against using boost charging for the silver.
 
That buzzer thing rang a bell (or buzzer) with me. I think it means very bad!

I checked in my handbook (pages 34 & 35), there are 3 levels of warning:

Warning light (on the facia) for brake pad wear and washer fluid level.

Warning light and central warning light (!), which is the red exclamation mark that lights up on the centre console, by your left calf (assuming right hand drive). Until I sorted out my rear spoiler, mine came on everytime I looked at it. This is for brake fluid level, handbrake, fan belt, oil pressure, low fuel, rear spoiler, cabriolet (if you have one).

Warning light, central waring light and warning buzzer. The warning buzzer is located between the large instrument cluster and the rev counter and produces a repeating intermittent tone which lasts for about 7 seconds. This is for brake pressure, ABS and differential warning (hence your ABS warning light came on?).

If you press the red (!) central warning light, it will cancel the light and the buzzer.

Hope you have enjoyed reading the above, I was just showing off that I read my handbook, its amazing what a mine of interesting information you can find in it!
 
Thanks for that.. I don't have a manual with my car, so its all good information.
As for the ABS, I'm not convinced it would be causing the issue Im having; the battery is dead, and I still think that is triggering the ABS warning. If the battery is dead enough that the engine won't run then I think that might be enough to trigger the buzzer.. There's not a lot I can do tonight, so I've removed the battery and its on charge, the clock is out and being re-soldered. I will put it all back together tomorrow and check whether the alternator is charging with the engine running (couldn't test it tonight as I didn't want to jump start the car and cause any other problems).
If its the alternator then its coming out tomorrow night and getting taken to my friendly local car electrical guys who re-build that sort of thing; they re-con'd my midget dyno for a tenner cash, so if they can do something similar on the 964 im going that route rather than replacing it for 350 quid or whatever a new one is!
 
well i re-soldered all the points on the pins and anything else connected to the PCB on the back of the clock, and everything is now reading around 0.2 ohms.. before a couple were higher (one off the scale) so hopefully this will help.. Ran out of gas for the soldering iron though, so will have to wait until tomorrow night before I can re-assemble and test out the car.. battery should at least be fully charged by then!.. fingers crossed it will have sorted it otherwise I guess the weekend is going to be spent taking the alternator out!
ben
 
Make sure the guys overhauling the alternator also machine the slip rings otherwise the new regulator wont last long. What a great way to spend the weekend, I couldnt think of anything better. While the alternator is out take the fan blades off and clean / polish or paint this will really make a good weekend!!!!
 
Yep, hopefully the weather holds out as I will be working outside! I had a few other jobs i wanted to do but I guess they will have to wait for now. Will be cleaning up and painting the fan/housing if the alternator comes out, just a question of what colour to go for... [:D]
 
well it was the voltage regulator that was shot.. they replaced it, cleaned up inside, replaced bearings and slip rings, and re-assembled. Didn't bother re-winding as the resistance was good and there didn't appear to be anything wrong with that side of things. Grand total £25 cash!.. Spend a tenner in halfrauds on the way home on paint and primer, so will be the proud owner of a red fan with polished fan housing in about 10mins when the primer is dry and I can dust over with some red enamel paint..

should all go back together tomorrow then hopefully will be up, running and back to rude health again by lunchtime!.. will post pics of my weekends handiwork on monday

ben

ps.. thanks again guys for the sanity checks and pointers along the way
 
Ben, just for your info, the previous owner fitted a new battery (the current Bosch unit) about 2 or 3 days before I bought the car (so that must have been December 2005). I remember this because he wasn't too chuffed at having to replace the battery when we had already agreed a deal!
Steve
 
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