SLROC Forum

Hello,

Only had a quick glance at sorting this, but it got dark!
Yesterday I took the Rangie round the back of the house for a wash down. Once finished I went to move it back and found the drivers seat had moved all the way back by itself....

Tried to move it on the switch and it did nothing, then just moved a touch forwards. Left it yesterday, hoping that maybe it would sort itself out overnight, maybe water had got in somewhere.
Got home at lunch today and tried the seat. It moved forwards a bit then nothing. The presets don't recall either.

Had the switch out and all connectors were good, and checked all the relays / connectors under the seat as well.

The puzzle is the way it moved right the way back on its' own?? The passenger seat works as it should, all fuses are good. Could it be a relay or maybe the ECU?

One other thing. When driving at night I've noticed that the battery light is on the faintest glow, I really only see it when there's no street lighting, it's really really dim. Tried switching everything on and off but it doesn't affect it, the battery is only a few months old.

[Edited! - just thought i'd brave the cold and went and had another mess around with the engine running and sat on the drive. (rather than trying to look at it whilst driving unlit roads at night) The light comes on a bit more when main beam / blower and other things are on 'full'.
The battery is getting 14.25v from the alternator, but even though I had a good run on Friday it was still sluggish starting. The battery was actually new in August 2011! Doesn't time fly....]

Oh, and the seat seems to be working now.


Thanks,

Very dim light on the alternator is usually the beginning of the end for the alternator .......... often it's the diode pack that's failing hence you can get a charge when running, but when switched off the battery is discharging via the alternator.
In days of yore you could get the components to repair the alternator, that may be tricky nowadays. Pity as the windings (the main bit) are probably fine its the peripheral elements that are bust.
Simplest test is to park car with a charged battery, disconnect the battery and then reconnect next morning and see if it starts happily. If it doesn't then it may be something more prosaic like a poor earth strap.

Good luck!

There are a few articles on the net regards the problems with RRC electric seats. First of all the passenger seat does not have anything to do with the ECU. Its wired from the switches to relays so often it will be ok while the driver side is not.
The drivers side one has a ECU under the seats, it also controls the mirrors, possibly water has affected the mirrors and cause the ECU to fail ? seems unlikely but guess its possible. The ECU,s are prone to the battery failing, it will leak and the bugger the board inside, this is a big issue as they are extremley expensive. Often folk will replace the the battery before it fails or just remove it and not worry about the memory function.
I would think the ECU is at fault, what I would do is isolate the mirrors from the ecu and then see what happens.
Also if i remember correctly the ecu wont work if the car is in gear or the doors are open, I cant quite remember the actual situations but again it could be a fault with a door switch.
Mine has also failed but my car is off road only so its not important although I did get it working then got water up to the steering wheel and after that it never worked again.
If I do require to make it work I will wire the relays direct to the switch and bypass the ECU.
Hope this helps.

Rod

Hi
I also have had phantom seat movement mine took off whilst I was driving , it moved all the way forward and tipped toward the steering wheel , it made for a very awkward drive home , as said above the battery was leaking inside the ecu causing short . I was unable to remove seat for proper access to the gubings so I wired a electric window switch onto the forward and back motor only so it would pass its mot
I also had a dim glow on the battery light it turned out to be the after market immobiliser fitted the kind where you fit a plate into a slot on column shroud which makes a contact for the car to start , all the big cables that normally went to ignition barrel were wired into a cluster of small cables , they weren't up to the job and the contacts on the slide plate would heat up , I reconnected the heavy cables and left only the starter relay working through the immobiliser . No more heating up and no more red light on

Thanks for the answers guys.
I think I just need a fine day to go out and have a good mess with it.
I like your idea Rod, of by passing the ECU altogether, I don't really need the memory function anyway.

Cheers.