Radio won't switch off when key is withdrawn.

[ukchris]

Hi everybody; I'm Chris and I'm a noob; please be gentle with me.

A few weeks ago I purchased a nice 2004 Skoda Octavia Estate 1.9TDI PD (130bhp). This car was previously owned by Glasgow Police; it has been well looked after and it goes like stink when you put your toe down.
Anyway; it was all working perfectly, ie: the radio would switch off and the interior light would come on when you switched off the ignition and withdrew the key. Excellent; but!!

Two weeks ago I had a company come to my house and fit a tow bar to the car. Now the radio won't go off and the interior light doesn't come on when the key is removed. The radio can be switched off manually of course, and the interior light comes on when you open the door.
I have checked the setting in the radio and it is set to "Ign On" which means that it should go off when the key is removed; this is how it was set before the tow bar was fitted. It's nothing to do with the radio settings anyway because the problem affects the interior light too.

I had a word with the maintenance manager at a local Skoda dealership, he sat in the car, started it and switched it off and removed the key just to check. He then explained to me about the "S Contact" circuit which controls the switching off of the radio and switching on the interior lights when the key is removed. He explained that it was a microswitch inside the main ignition switch that was defective; basically the car thinks that the key is still in the ignition because this microswitch isn't working. Great I said, and thanks. I had my mate who works as a mechanic, order me a new ignition switch and he fitted it today;..................no change! That doesn't seem to have been the problem after all.

Has anyone come across this before or have any other ideas? I would be most gratefull for any help or advice.

Thanks,

Chris

[martin1810]

Did the problem start as soon as the towbar was fitted. If the electrics for the towbar are not correctly done you can get strange electrical problems.

[ukchris]

Yes; the car was fine when I parked it up at 07:45 when I came home from nightshift; the guy fitted the tow bar at around 09:30 and after that the problem was there. The tow bar electrics seem to work perfectly when the trailer board is plugged in.
I can understand that the tow bar electrics could cause a problem to a cars electrical systems when the ignition is switched on; but not when the key is removed; I would appreciate an explanation of how it could, it might just lead to a solution.
The way I understand it; the wires for the tow bar socket just tap into the cars lighting wires at the back and only pick up power when a light is initiated in the car, ie; an indicator being put on, or the brake pedal being pressed, or the lights being switched on. Please correct me if I'm wrong in that assumption.

[martin1810]

I hope that is not how the towbar is wired. It hasn't been ok to do it that way, for years. On modern cars the power for additional towbar electrics must come from another source. The wire hook ups to the lights are just to tell a relay when to switch. I would find out exactly what the towbar people have done to the car. ASK...Did they fit a 7 way, bypass relay. Where did they get the power for the relay.

[ukchris]

I hope that is not how the towbar is wired. It hasn't been ok to do it that way, for years. On modern cars the power for additional towbar electrics must come from another source. The wire hook ups to the lights are just to tell a relay when to switch. I would find out exactly what the towbar people have done to the car. ASK...Did they fit a 7 way, bypass relay. Where did they get the power for the relay.

Now I'm worried; because I am fairly certain that no relays were installed. He basically soldered the tow bar electrics into the car wiring at the back. The only thing he put in was the indicator bleeper unit.
Can you please elaborate on what should have been done.

The company that fitted the tow bar are a supposedly professional company and I assumed that they knew what they were doing.

[martin1810]

The bit that beeps is probably the relay as this function is usually built in. Basically you should have a seven way by-pass relay. This has one 12v feed from the battery of fusebox and poers all of the towbar electrics. The lights, indicators etc are then connected to the relay unit to trigger it. So when you indicate, your rear indicator flashes and tells the relay to flash. The relay then flashes the towed vehicle lights but using power from its own feed wire, not from the rear lights. Maybe it's a coincidence and the radio fault is not related to the towbar. If you look in the towbar section you will find a sticky with info and pictures of what should have been done.

[ukchris]

Got it sorted; I'll tell you what it was just in case someone else comes up against this.

I took the car to a specialist Auto Electrician company and explained to them what was happening. They tested everything on the car; they had part of the dash out to expose the relay panel that's buried under there, he also had the fuse panel out. After about an hour of testing all the systems he deduced that there was a back feed when there shouldn't be but he didn't know where it was coming from. I explained to him that while fitting the tow bar, the guy shorted out one of the rear luggage compartment lights as he was exposing the rear bumper mounting bolts and had to replace the fuse. A few minutes later the auto electrician said "Got it".
The tow bar fitter must have pulled several fuses out while looking for the blown one; and he had put one of the fuses back in the wrong slot, causing a back feed preventing the radio from switching off and also interfering with the interior light circuit.
What a PRATT!!
At least it's all working perfect again now, that's the main thing.
I contacted the tow bar company to tell them how much it had cost me to get the problem resolved but the boss completely refused to pay the bill.
That company is "Auto Mobile" in Seaham. Avoid them like the plague.

Thanks for the help.

[Eshrules]

get an invoice for the work done and (if possible) a letter from the radio specialist, to state the cause of the fault.

Send both of these, along with a covering letter, to the tow bar fitting company and request they make an offer of reimbursement.

If they refuse, get in touch with Trading Standards who will advise you further.

Sale of goods act is applicable to some extent, but I'm not sure of the specific argument you'd use.

[evilCdw]

get an invoice for the work done and (if possible) a letter from the radio specialist, to state the cause of the fault.

Send both of these, along with a covering letter, to the tow bar fitting company and request they make an offer of reimbursement.

If they refuse, get in touch with Trading Standards who will advise you further.

Sale of goods act is applicable to some extent, but I'm not sure of the specific argument you'd use.

I agree to some extent but I would go further: the towbar fitting company was employed as 'experts' in that field and by delving into the cars electrical system he was acting as a competant person. Therefore, any faults he created he is responsible for. If he wasn't competant to remove and replace ANY electrical components then he should have said so and not touched anything.
I would as suggested get the reports and send them along with copies of the invoices as well as your reasonable costs to the towbar company saying that you are claiming the amounts from them and failure to settle up in full may result in you seeking recovery therough the courts (small claims court). I guess that you would be resonably successful in court as you have taking reasonable steps. They may argue that you did not allow them to rectify the defect but I would contend that the ignition key/radio on the face of it had little or nothing to do with the towball. The fitters incompetance with the fuses caused the unrelated fault.
Usually the threat of a small claims court to a professional company in these circumstances would be sufficient since their costs to lose the case would be higher than the bill you present. For you the action should be cheap to lodge unless you want legal representation but that is not what the small claims court is about.

Clive