OT: Mechanic help required.

[Goobs]

Evening all,

Wondering if there are any mechanics on the board that can give a bit of advice and solve an issue.

I have a Peugeot 3008 and earlier I noticed the wipers on the car had come on of their own accord even though the engine was off. I sorted it out and walked to the shop. Whilst there someone knocked on our door to let my wife know our headlights were on.

I keep turning the headlights off but then about 10 minutes later they come back on again. The stem is turned to off and the keys are in the house and the car is odd and locked so I don't know why this is happening.

Obviously at this rate my battery is likely to be flat by morning. So If anyone can help I need 3 questions answering.

1 what is going on?
2 is there anyway to stop this?
3 do I need to disconnect the battery?

Thanks in advance

[exilecanada]

Ahhh the joys of modern day cars stuffed full of electronics My advise would be to Google the problem, I wouldn't be surprised if it's a known issue, which may lead you to a cause and remedy. Yes, disconnect the battery, if the gremlins persist it'll kill the battery.

[Croydon Claret]

Electrical gremlins can be really hard to diagnose, especially remotely over the internet

I used to see a similar situation with rear tail light clusters. When the indicators are on then the brake lights also illuminate. The issue is caused by a bad earth meaning that the electrical flow coming out of the indicator bulbs can't get to earth through its own connection but, because it shares a common earth with the other bulbs, then the current finds an easier path through a nearby bulb causing it to illuminate.

I don't know whether the headlight fuse for a 3008 is under the bonnet or under the dashboard but the first thing I would check is the fuse box underneath the bonnet to see if water has got into it and caused some connections to become rusty. If that's the case then a circuit could be inadvertently routing to earth via nearby connections.

Failing that it could be the headlight relay which is faulty, which will either be inside the same fusebox or under the dashboard. Given that the wiper is also doing the same thing then that also has a relay but the odds of 2 relays going rogue at the same time is slim unless there's common water damage

Unless there's obvious signs of rust on the relay connections then you couldn't really say if it's faulty without using a multi meter

There's also a fusebox under the dashboard but the chances of water ingress under there are extremely low

I'm assuming that your headlight and wipers are controlled by different stalks/switches which should rule out an issue with the switches themselves.

Those are the only visual inspections I think you can do before you need to call in a professional as electrons are extremely hard to see with the naked eye

Quickest temporary fix would be to just remove the fuse for the headlights overnight until you can get it looked at. Safest fix is if course to disconnect the battery

[exilecanada]

I found this online, it's a known issue on other Peugeot models as well, as I suspected: A common cause of Peugeot 3008 wipers staying on, with possible linked electrical issues like lights coming on, is a fault in the under-bonnet fuse and relay box (BSM), specifically a Body, Safety, and Security module failure.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5XRZWkRLIkE

[Goobs]

Thanks for the responses. I have disconnected the battery and will hook it up to a computer in the morning. As the FIL has one apparently.

[GetIntoEm]

Id also check for water ingress after last weekends weather

[Hendrickxz]

Suspect a bad earth somewhere. It could be a wire in a vulnerable place that's become coroded. My wife's old Fiesta went bonkers like this with wipers, lights and indicators all going iffy at once. It was a dodgy earth in the door pillar. Found the fix on a Ford knowledge base. Like someone else said, try a forum for your model/make.

[FulledgeClaret]

I used to Work for Citroen(same cars different clothing) the fault you describe was usually the underbonnet fuse box or the internal BSI(Built in System Interface) getting water in them,engine bay fusebox is under the bonnet of course the BSI behind the dash looks like a fuse box but does a lot more than just a fuse box it holds all the coding for the CAN network and as the name suggests it interfaces all the other systems on the car. if you get it plugged in with a diag machine that can read the BSI and other CAN network systems (not all of them do) you will probably find coherence or undetermined faults in numerous systems if its the BSI causing the problem. before throwing money at it You could try a BSI reset, google it for how to do it it is easy and requires no special tools or knowledge.
if it does turn out to be the BSI in most cases they can be repaired. https://motortronics.co.uk/product/bsi-replacement/

[rosswallacefreekick]

I found this online, it's a known issue on other Peugeot models as well, as I suspected: A common cause of Peugeot 3008 wipers staying on, with possible linked electrical issues like lights coming on, is a fault in the under-bonnet fuse and relay box (BSM), specifically a Body, Safety, and Security module failure.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5XRZWkRLIkE

I had the same problem on our 3008 — wipers would come on randomly, even if without the key in the ignition!

Turns out ours wasn’t haunted, but the cause was a bit more frightening on the wallet: an electrical board was on its way out. Stopped working completely shortly afterwards.

The garage managed to find a board from a breaker’s yard, but was a few hundred to fix from memory.

[Hendrickxz]

Did you manage to resolve this? Just interested to know what was causing it. . .

[exilecanada]

I'm also interested in the cause/remedy.