peugeot 307 electrical issues

eset12345

having some electrical issues with my car

peugeot 307 1.4 16v 2004

They all started at once a few days ago, so presumably they are all related in some way.

there was a small puff of smoke from in or near the glovebox fusebox, I presumed a blown fuse or something, but all the fuses have been pulled and checked and they are fine, i've also unplugged all the wiring and there's no corrosion or anything in there (common fault seems to be water getting in to that fuse box and corroding bits)

anyone have any ideas?

A short somewhere? A dodgy earth? Some other wiring issue?

Other than the problems listed the car seems to start and drive as it always has.

Issues

Wipers don't work like they used to, they won't 'park', often stopping mid screen, one click down won't do a single wipe, it will do 5, like pulling it in to squirt wiper fluid, and they won't turn off as quick as normal, ditto the back wiper, wont do a single wipe, will do 5 or so fast slides and won't park.

Front and rear position / sidelights lights stay on after the engine and all light switches are turned off and key removed, will still stay on even after locking car and leaving a long time.

Centre console light where the AC dials are also remains illuminated once car us off / locked.

Air bower / AC stopped working

Handbrake warning light / beep / dash display always staying on, ive checked fluid level and the switch by the handbrake seems to work correctly, checked for continuity presses / depressed.

So is there a common component or single bit of wiring that will cause all the issues? Or has something fried and taken out the rest with it, but it seems to be a rather mixed bag of things to go at once, if it's not somehow related.

Strider590

Your smoke was the cabin air fan resistor pack, these are the things that were causing fires in Vauxhall Zafira.
Usually when the resistor packs go, it's because of overheating, caused by rusted fan spindle, caused by not replacing the pollen filter and/or clearing leaves/debris from the drainage ducts under the windscreen scuttle.

Wipers stopping mid screen in probably from damage caused when using the wipers on a frozen screen.

It sounds to me like this car gets a lot of abuse (or lack of mechanical sympathy) and not a lot of TLC, combine this with Peugeot/Citroen wiring standards and things don't look good.
Something they've always done is use cheap/nasty wiring connectors on their cars, people used to think it was a joke when folks used to say "only ever steam clean a French car engine bay, if you want to scrap it the next day".

My 306, the last model Peugeot ever produced that was actually fun enough to drive to be worth the hassle of ownership. The headlights used to turn off over speed bumps and even small pot holes, it was "great fun" on country lanes at 11pm.

eset12345

Strider590 wrote: »

Your smoke was the cabin air fan resistor pack, these are the things that were causing fires in Vauxhall Zafira.
Usually when the resistor packs go, it's because of overheating, caused by rusted fan spindle, caused by not replacing the pollen filter and/or clearing leaves/debris from the drainage ducts under the windscreen scuttle.

Wipers stopping mid screen in probably from damage caused when using the wipers on a frozen screen.

It sounds to me like this car gets a lot of abuse (or lack of mechanical sympathy) and not a lot of TLC, combine this with Peugeot/Citroen wiring standards and things don't look good.
Something they've always done is use cheap/nasty wiring connectors on their cars, people used to think it was a joke when folks used to say "only ever steam clean a French car engine bay, if you want to scrap it the next day".

My 306, the last model Peugeot ever produced that was actually fun enough to drive to be worth the hassle of ownership. The headlights used to turn off over speed bumps and even small pot holes, it was "great fun" on country lanes at 11pm.

still doesn't explain why all these issues happened at once, clearly they are all somehow related, they are all electrical issues all that started at exactly the same time.

if you don't know the answer to the issues and just want to have a pop at french cars, it would be best if you didn't reply because it helps nobody.

and frozen windscreen, come off it, the wipers just don't park themselves (electrical issue), again started to happen right after the puff of smoke, and will often park mid screen, they can be made to park by turning them off in the correct place.

it has zero to do with mechanical sympathy or the car having a hard life, clearly the puff of smoke has damaged something somewhere and affected other electrics bits.

looking at fuse / wiring diagrams and the like it would appear most of the issues run to the same few fuses and via the same circuits, so are obviously related, one particular fuse deals with right sidelights front and rear / air conditioning / ashtray lighting amongst other things, and these are most of the things that have gone wonky at the same time, but that's where my electrics knowledge ends

angrycrow

The common component that controls all these functions is the BSI (built in system interface) this unit includes the cabin fuse box. If not for the reference to the puff of smoke I would suggest checking the battery first as low voltage can cause the BSI to misbehave. Sounds more like something in the BSI has gone pop.

The BSI needs to be code matched to the main ECU so you cant just drop in a used unit. There are various online companies who will repair your existing BSI and rate appears to be around £150.

Here is the procedure to reset the BSI which you can try for free but I suspect is unlikely to help on this occasion.

Put the driver's window down, lift the bonnet and ensure all equipment is switched off.

Ensure all doors are closed and remove key from the ignition.

Wait for 3 minutes, disconnect the vehicle battery and wait 15 seconds.

Reconnect the vehicle battery, wait a further 10 seconds (do not open doors.).

Switch on the side lights through the driver's window.

Switch on the ignition and check system's functionality.

Hold lock button on key down for 10 seconds.

Remove key open & close door test central locking system.

Start the engine and complete the system's check.

Failure to follow this procedure could result in incorrect operation of many BSI related items

AdrianC

Another vote for BSI.

Like all vaguely modern vehicles, the 307's electrics are multiplexed. Rather than being separate circuits, with electricity flowing neatly through battery - switch - lightbulb, the electrics are basically a computerised network. The switch tells the computer to do something, which may or may not take other factors into account.

And we all know how reliable 10-15yo computers would be, even in your home, rather than the harsh environment of a car.

dingends

do you know someone around you with a diagnostic interface and Diagbox or peugeot planet? reading some fault codes from the car might help locating whats going on and what is not working properly - might head over to peugeotforums.com and ask your question over there, the guys are in general very helpful.
avoid the dealer if you can as a diagnostic over there will be expensive
cheers,

Strider590

eset12345 wrote: »

still doesn't explain why all these issues happened at once, clearly they are all somehow related, they are all electrical issues all that started at exactly the same time.

Are you sure you didn't just happen to notice them at the same time?

eset12345

Strider590 wrote: »

Are you sure you didn't just happen to notice them at the same time?

no, they were all used shortly before they stopped working.

I pulled in to park somewhere to have some lunch, and whilst I was stopped there with the engine running is when the smoke appeared, so I checked the fuses etc.

when I went to drive off I noticed the handbrake light was staying on, I would have noticed if it was like it before, it beeps at you every few minutes, the wipers weren't wiping correctly and the blower wasn't working, tried to demist the windows, the lights remaining on, I noticed when I got out to check under the car to see if the handbrake cable was sticking.

so it's either the items going are related in some way or they all just happened to go at the same time.

it could of course the the blower resistor as you say that produced the smoke, maybe it melted through something else as well, but I don think there's much wiring around behind the blower motor, from a quick look when I checked things over most of the other wiring seems to run higher up under the dash.

I might have another poke around and then take it for a diagnostic, will something like a halfords / ATS one be fine? they seem to be cheaper than a main dealer, and £40 - £50 is better than wasting time trying to figure out whats wrong with it.

on a side note, are the lights staying on and handbrake light staying on an MOT failure?

angrycrow

Somebody else mentioned posting on the Peugeot forum. There are several people on there with the proper Peugeot diagnostic software (planet) which does much more than the kit Halfords have access to. If one of them is local they may be willing to drop by for 5 minutes and check the codes for beer tokens.

Personally I would not trust Halfords to know which end of the lead plugs into the car.

In answer to the person who asked why all these issues arrived at the same time it's because they are all routed through the BSI unit so when they go wrong all sorts of random things can misbehave.

eset12345

angrycrow wrote: »

Somebody else mentioned posting on the Peugeot forum. There are several people on there with the proper Peugeot diagnostic software (planet) which does much more than the kit Halfords have access to. If one of them is local they may be willing to drop by for 5 minutes and check the codes for beer tokens.

Personally I would not trust Halfords to know which end of the lead plugs into the car.

In answer to the person who asked why all these issues arrived at the same time it's because they are all routed through the BSI unit so when they go wrong all sorts of random things can misbehave.

checked on their map and the closest guy is about 70 miles away.

may just book it in to peugeot dealer for a look in that case.

I see you can buy the diagnosic kit on ebay for less than £100, but I haven't got the first idea how to use it, i've only had those little code scanners before, and it may just be chucking good money after bad.

Lorian

was it raining when it happened?