For no apparent reason car horn engaged. Car had not been driven for at least 8 hours. Had to remove battery .When checking it out today I removed horn relay then reconnected battery....no horn when reinstalling horn relay...horn is already engaged.And now when car is started...warning light stating SERVICE (with a little wrench icon) is lit.

SOURCE: battery drain

My wife's 2001 Jetta TDI had the same problem. First we changed the battery. (It was just about due anyway) No change. We then traced the power drain to the in-trunk mounted CD changer. This was an aftermarket CD changer but we went to the same source that the VW dealership uses. Of course one blames the other. The CD changer was even replaced with no change. If we are not using the car for long trips we unplug the CD changer and no more dead battery! Neither the VW dealer nor the AV installer could give us a good working solution to this problem.

Brandon Johnson

• 253 Answers
• Posted on Aug 13, 2009

SOURCE: 97 Subaru Impreza Outback Wagon Occasionally Will Not Start

Hello, I was a Subaru tech for a few years and I agree w/ the other tech about the bad starter. Subaru starters are known for this exact kind of behavior when they are close to the end of their life. Forgive me, but I have to assume that everyone I help knows nothing about cars. You sound like the kind of person that is not convinced until you know exactly what is happening, So here's the breakdown. What happens, is when the starter engages the internal motor causing it to rotate. the positive and negative points (Brushes) make physical contact w/ a cylindrical shaft w/ separated plates providing power and ground to the copper wire windings surrounded by permanent magnets. Considering the enormous drag/load on this system from the engines resistance to rotate due to each compression stroke, a very high peak Amperage is channeled only through those two little brush contacts. They continuously spark inside of the starter, eating away at the brush contacts until they eventually wear away causing them to ground out. What's most likely happening w/ your starter is that whenever you start the vehicle, occasionally, by chance or (kind of like a roulette table) the brush contacts land on one or more of these grounded out spots. Even when you try to start the vehicle and nothing happens, the starter is still being influenced by amperage is trying to turn past this dead spot only very very very very slowly. This is why after you try to start it a few times it will eventually start, especially when you let it sit your actually letting the starter cool down. The more you try to start the vehicle the more the starter will become useless. The easiest test we techs have come up w/ when we get a no start concern, is to go out to the vehicle w/ a 3ft long bar, have someone sit in the vehicle and try starting it. If the starter brush contacts are stuck on a dead spot, we give the starter a good thud and if the starter starts working immediately we know it needs one. Some times it takes a few bonks to get it to work. If the starter is too far gone however, this test will not work and other procedures need to be performed in order to rule out all else as the cause for the concern. I hope this info helps...(subytech1)

SOURCE: warning service light on dashboard of renault clio

Hi i have the same problem serv suddenly highlighted and a picture of a seat as if the seatbelt not on. does the plugin cost a lot


Thankk Debbie

SOURCE: ITS A WRENCH LIT UP

its the check engine light