Oil light, immobiliser and relays going mad

[KitsonRis]

Went to lock the Clio this afternoon after working on it and it wouldn’t lock. The light on the fob was going when pressed. Looked inside and the immobiliser light was going mad and so was the oil pressure light. Opened the door and you can hear a relay in time with the oil pressure light

Put the key in the ignition and turned on (didn’t start the car) and all was fine. Took the key out and the oil pressure light was very dim and the immobiliser light was off. Locked and unlocked the doors and waited. And then it started again. Can’t seem to find what could be causing this. It was fine when I last was working on the car and put it away.

All I was doing this afternoon was removed the front arch liners and cleaned and kurusted behind there. Did get a little hand sprayer to rinse off the mud and cleaner.

My two thoughts are either the battery is low - it was a new battery back in October/November but I charged it the other week after not being used for several months and I’ve had the car “running” but never more than 5 mins and I had to start it many times. But it never got lazy at starting.
Or the car is currently in front axle stands so the front is tilted up so is it thinking low oil pressure? But this wouldn’t cause an immobiliser issue and not lock?

In the mean time I’ve disconnected the battery and it’s stopped 🤣 but any other suggestions?

Edit: I have just thought, there is an earth strap behind the passenger side arch liner which if I remember is a little green/blue. I wonder if that is causing it as I did spray water under the arches. But why would it cause this when the ignition is off only? I didn't want to try and start it while on axle stands to see if it still worked, might drop it tomorrow and check.

 

[KitsonRis]

Put the battery back on just now and it was all normal, no flashing lights. Car started fine. All happy....until about a minuite later there was a relay going crazy in the engine bay then that stopped after about 30 seconds. Couldn't remote lock the car. Looked at the dash and the immobiliser and oil pressure light was on and flashing. Opened and shut the drivers door they both stopped flashing, opened the door they started to flash, shut the door and it stopped. I literally have no idea what is happening! 🤷‍♂️ taken the battery off for now and will give it another look later. But the car starts and all that and the flashing stops when the ignition is on, just when the key is out of it then it decides to go mad

 

[KitsonRis]

Just in case anyone stumbled across this in the future with a similar problem….I charged the battery last night and put it on. All seemed to be working normal. Started the car all fine and left it after and all was still fine. I foolishly didn’t measure the voltage of the battery before I put it on charge. But giving it some more juice has seemed to have worked. It was just odd that is was “fine” when the ignition was on but going mental when the key was not in it. Oh well.

 

[VenomUK]

Just in case anyone stumbled across this in the future with a similar problem….I charged the battery last night and put it on. All seemed to be working normal. Started the car all fine and left it after and all was still fine. I foolishly didn’t measure the voltage of the battery before I put it on charge. But giving it some more juice has seemed to have worked. It was just odd that is was “fine” when the ignition was on but going mental when the key was not in it. Oh well.

I was going to suggest this as mine does funny things if I leave it for a while not being on charge. Mine sits there locking and unlocking itself which usually indicates that the battery is getting low.

 

[KitsonRis]

I had a feeling that it could be battery related but with electrical stuff I never know. The last time it was doing something similar the battery was properly ruined and had no charge. I should try and sort out a trickle charger for it really.

 

[VenomUK]

I have one of those CTEK MXS 5.0 which does a very good job but arent cheap. Although I think some of the solar smart chargers are a lot better now if you haven't got a mains hook up for the charger.

 

[Darren S]

That's exactly how mine behaved, a good 10+ years ago.

It drove fine one Saturday morning - with no previous issues. Then about an hour later, I made another short journey and this happened once I tried to restart it. Luckily, Halfords was just over a mile away and they had a matching battery in. Fitted it and all was fine again.

It just surprised me that as a car that was used daily, that there were no tell-tale signs that the battery was about to give up?

 

[KitsonRis]

That's exactly how mine behaved, a good 10+ years ago.

It drove fine one Saturday morning - with no previous issues. Then about an hour later, I made another short journey and this happened once I tried to restart it. Luckily, Halfords was just over a mile away and they had a matching battery in. Fitted it and all was fine again.

It just surprised me that as a car that was used daily, that there were no tell-tale signs that the battery was about to give up?

I hope the battery on mine isn’t on the way out as is brand new! I thought I had a battery drain on it as it went flat in three days last week. Ive tried to diagnose it yesterday but couldn’t (will double check tomorrow) and then it wasn’t giving bad readings on the multi meter suggesting that it isn’t draining anymore. I’ve put the battery back on and monitoring any voltage drop (none over 24hrs so far), currently at 12.5V. But I can’t lock the car remotely for some reason?! Starts up and turns the immobiliser off fine but just won’t remotely lock. Piece of scrap.

 

[VenomUK]

Have you tried jumping the battery? While it is hooked up to a running car and give it a minute or two and then see if the locking mech works then? I can’t see the battery going bad already but it does sound like silly little things playing up that usually point towards a bad battery

 

[KitsonRis]

Have you tried jumping the battery? While it is hooked up to a running car and give it a minute or two and then see if the locking mech works then? I can’t see the battery going bad already but it does sound like silly little things playing up that usually point towards a bad battery

Good shout. Bit tricky at the moment where the car is parked, might see if my jump leads will reach over as the battery is on the wrong side with no room next to it, typical.