Bliper/clicker Not Working

Central locking still works fine when operated with a key.

Gave up on the blipper when it became very intermittent and I had to drive to work one day with all the indicators flashing intermittently! This was summer 2005 actually.

I know there is some kind of black box in with the radio, but every time I try and mess around in there it seems to have weird knock on effects so I havn't bothered until now.

This is a series one I believe its an IR system rather than radio? Certainly requires line of sight to the rear mirror when it did work.

hmm, must look for the screw so I can get some batteries to stay in there too.

Hi Dr Tim

The Mk1 plip receiver is in the overhead light. Spring out the light cover to find the little black box/pcb with 3 IR rec devices. These normally point to the sides and front which is why the Mk1 remotes are a bit iffy from the rear of the car. Normal trouble is dead batteries in the Plip. XM handbook shows how they are changed.

Regards

XMexc

thanks xmexclusive, yes the first thing I tried was new batteries but didn't help, in fact got worse:-(. Looks like the bliper has been repaired or possibly just damaged sometime before I got it, and now failed (again?). Either that or the incar electrics have issues.

Its not my most pressing problem, but opening with a key just isn't quite the same.

Did they only come with one blipper?

Hi Dr Tim

Mk1's only had one blipper as standard but reportedly they are capable of being reprogrammed to suit another receiver. The plips are actually a standard item produced in a number of different outer cases for different PSA cars. I know because some years ago I bought and fitted a replacement 2 Plip set to a MK1 estate I then had. This new black roof module plugged straight into both the wiring and the roof light. The only difference was that this later module had an extra (4th) rear facing sensor and I never had any remote blind spots.

Regards

XMexc

Thats interesting xmexcusive, though to be honest mine always had a dead spot at the front rather than the rear as long as there was line of sight to the sensor).

To be honest, I've got other tings more urgently requiring hard cash on the car, but if I can sort it out cheaply, that would be cool. Willl try fresh batteries and maybe popping the sensor out to have a look,.

OK got the plip working to the point where the red light comes on about 90% if the time.
Lots of decaying crud in there, not sure if it was originally padding of some sort or just accumulated crud. Anyway, cleaned it off the legs of the little chip, maybe there is a dry joint there too that I managed to semi-rectify without soldering iron (need new one).Mind you when it worked I dont think the red LED always blinked.

However central locking not working at all, not even occasionally (stopped using it when it went intermittent).

So I guess its either the receiver, the infrared LED in the plip or maybe the black box?

Any ideas how to fault find apart from swapping out parts?

btw my IR receivers face rear, left and right.

I have pics of the parts if make/numbers are or any help.

tia

Hi Dr Tim

Have just had a look in the plip spares box. Most of the stuff is Mk2 but there was a bag of Mk1 bits, enough to make up 4 sets but will need to sort through them to find out if they are sets or orphans. I will also try to look out the Mk1 Xantia remote reprogamming instructions as these should work with Mk1 XM remotes and this would get over the orphan problem. Will also see if I can turn out enough on the Mk1 central locking wiring to see if one of the el chepo Mk2 replacement kits can be made to work in a Mk1.

Regards

XMexc

Just an offshoot of this, does your S1 have a factory alarm, DrTim?

My SEI doesn't appear to, but then it is very early.

It does have ultrasonic sensors in the vents which 'look' factory, however they may be from a 3rd party alarm that was previously fitted, so I don't know.

On the plip issue, if its any consolation, I too get the same intermittent symptoms.
Works fine some days, very flaky on others. I've replaced the batteries but its the same.

Interesting thing with the LED, I've noticed when its working, the LED flashes once and (un)locks the car, however when it fails, the LED flashes slowly 6 times in sequence with each press of the button... no idea what thats about!

Hope you get yours sorted soon

Cheers

Ciarán

Hi all

Interesting thing. If you have an early infrared blip, get a mobile phone with video capture and point the blip at it and press the button you will see it light up like a torch on the screen of the mobile, so you know for sure the blip is firing its IR beam!
Now i must admit i have read this somewhere but i cant remember for the life of me where, so if someone has posted on here previously with this info i apologise profusely

I only got a key when I bought mine so don't have any of these problems!

Yeah Dean, good tip, my camera does "see" the IR output from my TV remote but not from the S1 blipper even when the LED is lighting up. Looks like the IR sender is gone in the blip, or maybe the driver electronics, chip falling apart/whetever.

re factory alarm, not really sure, it looks like it had some non-standard LED fitted just below the radio, the alarm has never made a noise only flashed the lights, immobiliser disabled due to flaky wiring,

re S1 car the blip is the least of my worries having got the MOT report back from the indie today :-)

Hi Dr Tim

It does look like the red led is not standard, but in fact it is. It will flash slowly to show the alarm is enabled, and quickly when the alarm is triggered, it will continue to flash quickly until you turn the ignition on, this is so u can see if some horrible little Herbert has been playing with your car while it was unattended. Also when you turn the ignition off the led will illuminate when the motion sensors detect movement I think it will do this for ten seconds or so, just so you can see if they are working. To the side of the led should also be a button (which also looks like some home made affair) which disables the interior motion sensors. If you have the sensors they are mounted on the dash at each corner of the windscreen.
The alarm system also incorporates a rock sensor and immobiliser, Which you obviously know about .
This alarm is fitted to cars without the immobiliser keypad, Hope this helps.

Hi Dean,

Wish I'd known all that back in 98!. I have never seen that LED flash, however I do have the motion sensors and it has been known to flash the lights (but no audio alarm) when sunroof left open in wind.

That one is a keypadless car, which I like:-). Also no LCD display, which I also like.

Needs plenty of work for MOT though, and indy not even sure if they can source one of the parts needed.

later

What part is needed? I'm currently braking a mk1 2.0i to replenish my own stocks and if its a bit i already have in duplicate you could have it for the price of postage.