Clio
Hi, just thought I’d ask you all if anyone else has had this problem. About two years ago the interior dome light started to illuminate, but only dimly and randomly. Id be sitting in the house and the aftermarket alarm would start deafening the neighbours, making me jump up with cricket bat in hand running to the window. So I went to look at it and ended up stripping huge amounts of the car trim. Here's what I checked:
1 Dome light itself for shorts
2 Wiring leading to dome light from earth point and MTU
3 Both door switches and boot switch for continuity and functionality
4 Wiring leading to door and boot switches
5 Checked that the doors and boot were actually pushing the switches.
6 All connections from the MTU to the above components.
7 All connections on the MTU
8 MTU wiring including earth.
So basically it came down to the fact that the MTU seemed to be "leaking" current through it (The MTU gives a PWM'd earth to the dome light to dim it.) causing the alarm to think a door had been opened.
What I did:
1 Cleaned all connections and earth points.
2 Tried taking the bulb out.
3 Disconnected the battery to try and "reset" MTU and alarm.
4 Disconnected switches and shorted them out where necessary.
5 Hit MTU a few times by hand (I was getting desperate)
6 Disconnected the alarm wire from the dome light to alarm brain.
None of the above worked and for two weeks the problem persisted. Middle of the night, day, rain, sun, cloudy, parking up hill, down hill, on flat. By the third week I had lost the plot, wasn’t arming the alarm and had to remove the bulb to stop the battery from going flat during the night. So one morning I went out to the car swore all sorts of nasty words at her, threatened to sell her to a bunch of "travellers" and kicked the tyres, literally.
Guess what.... the next day all was well!!! Never happened before or since. Renaults need tough love sometimes.
1 Dome light itself for shorts
2 Wiring leading to dome light from earth point and MTU
3 Both door switches and boot switch for continuity and functionality
4 Wiring leading to door and boot switches
5 Checked that the doors and boot were actually pushing the switches.
6 All connections from the MTU to the above components.
7 All connections on the MTU
8 MTU wiring including earth.
So basically it came down to the fact that the MTU seemed to be "leaking" current through it (The MTU gives a PWM'd earth to the dome light to dim it.) causing the alarm to think a door had been opened.
What I did:
1 Cleaned all connections and earth points.
2 Tried taking the bulb out.
3 Disconnected the battery to try and "reset" MTU and alarm.
4 Disconnected switches and shorted them out where necessary.
5 Hit MTU a few times by hand (I was getting desperate)
6 Disconnected the alarm wire from the dome light to alarm brain.
None of the above worked and for two weeks the problem persisted. Middle of the night, day, rain, sun, cloudy, parking up hill, down hill, on flat. By the third week I had lost the plot, wasn’t arming the alarm and had to remove the bulb to stop the battery from going flat during the night. So one morning I went out to the car swore all sorts of nasty words at her, threatened to sell her to a bunch of "travellers" and kicked the tyres, literally.
Guess what.... the next day all was well!!! Never happened before or since. Renaults need tough love sometimes.
