Active Security Sounder

[PTR200Jag]

I have now come to the conclusion that my alarm sounder (Active Security Sounder, according to Jaguar parlance) is having a battery problem and drawing excess power from the main battery.

It appears to be hooked into the Body processor Module and interestingly enough I have had a B0322 fault showing occasionally.

Has anyone seen this fault code ? Does it refer to the alarm sounder?

Anyone disconnected the sounder and had any problems with the car ?

[mike020150]

Strangely, the only reference I have to that DTC (code) refers to GM and an aircon issue! Mike.

[PTR200Jag]

Ha, Ha, that's what I found too!

Anyway, in conjunction with Orkney we have both disconnected the sounders now, his 308 and my XK8.

He reports no faults found using all alarm functions etc and no spurious legends popping up yet.No doubt he will report back, in due course, himself.

The XK8 sounder is easy to get to, had to take the front offside wheel off and get the inspection hatch in the liner open, no big deal, the sounder can be seen easily and pulling off the plug revealed a six wire connection.
The connector was taped up and everything put back on the car.. so when I power up later in the week we will see the outcome of total disconnection of the sounder.

I am charging another of my batteries AGAIN (!) to fully ROAD test the car over the weekend if I get a chance.

[mike020150]

I seem to recall that I had no issues when I simply disconnected the sounder on an X300 (similar electrical architecture) for a few days before I could find a replacement sounder. However, my tests at the time weren't extensive! Mike.

[PTR200Jag]

That's good to know! Hope the XK is the same..as I have not had any beeping alarms since I got it I won't miss it !!

My purpose in this process is to stop this battery drain and maybe solve the cars erratic electrical warning messages.

"Currently" , almost 24 hrs after disconnecting the sounder, the battery voltage is at 12.81....this from a fully charged battery at 13.1 volts.
As the battery will settle down to a nominal 12.6 ish I will know after a couple of days if the discharge has stopped or slowed to an acceptable level.
I will take readings/timings, over the next few days.

[PTR200Jag]

The situation at the moment is that after disconnecting the sounder the main car battery is holding its charge and maintaining the 12.6 plus that it requires...the car is in the unlocked state.

Previously, three or four days sitting in the garage would have dropped the voltage to at least 12.3...... although adequate for starting the car it really shouldn't be down at that level. Twenty days or so saw the battery down to less than 12, nearer 11 actually.

So four days in and it seems much better plus, having disconnected the sounder, there are NO spurious messages coming up on the dash... a damned good thrashing around country roads, bumpy sections, stops/ starts etc has produced no messages either.

The result is by no means definitive as it could do with a couple weeks checking voltages to be sure but having put the car battery on the drop tester and got the all clear on it I am happy with the battery, so, its just a matter of monitoring now.

Out to a SuperCar Meet tomorrow so some more gaz guzzling exploits.

Sounder? who needs one

[mike020150]

Simple solutions are always the best ones! Mike.

[PTR200Jag]

Just to update the thread there have been no issues with the sounder disconnected.
The car is now Sorn in the garage and I am running battery checks every day to see how long it now takes to drop voltage to an unacceptable level.
Next part involves disconnecting the battery after fully charging it and recording the voltage drop again.

Having bought an electronic drop tester I can confirm a good battery so I may do a current drain test again whilst everything connected and compare it against the last one,,,another thread on here.