Car alarm even without battery

i don't know about your specific model but, for a lot of cars, it's under one of the front wheel-arches behind the wheel-arch liner.

Has the car been standing for a long time without being used? Have you tried re-charging the battery with a mains powered charger?

It's only been standing for a few days. I can't try recharging because it's not near my house.

My problems are solved. The anti-theft alarm sounds when a separate lead on the positive terminal clamp is disconnected. The battery got drained because the direction indicator lever was off-centre when the ignition was switched off - blinkers stay on permanently with no warning given, taking 1 amp. A kind passer-by once warned me that I'd left the lights on and I discovered this apparent design fault.

I can now charge the old battery indoors. It will be useful to keep the spare battery charged, in case it happens again.

Interesting. I've never heard of the indicators working when the ignition is turned off. Some cars turn on the side and tail lights on the side that you are indicating, so you can use them as parking lights at night without using extra power to run the other pair of lights (next to the kerb) which aren't needed.

As I always cancel my indicators as soon as I've parked (having indicated that I am pulling into the kerb) it was a long time before I discovered that feature. I think my Mark 2 VW Golf had it.

It’s not a design fault, it’s a feature on many cars (certainly on VWs and Audis etc) and is meant to be used as a “parking light”.

Tim

Seat is allied to VW. What's the point of a parking light, especially as it drains the battery?

Required by law still I think on unlit roads at night and some other places too.

my 1971 Ford Cortina did this. Parking lights are to enable the vehicle to be seen if parked after dark.

I have certainly encountered it in more than one of my various vehicles over the years, it is no surprise.

To stop you getting ticketed when you’re parked near a junction or parked facing the “wrong way” towards oncoming traffic. Both situations require the use of a parking light to keep you legal.

If your head hasn’t been buried deep in the Highway Code recently, it’s worth the reminder of section 249 that states vehicles must display parking lights – sidelights – when parked on a road (or lay-by) with a speed limit over 30mph.

If the road has a speed limit of 30mph or less, you don’t need to leave on your sidelights, as long as:

your spot is in a recognised parking bay or lay-by, or you’re facing in the direction of the traffic flow, close to the kerb, and at least 10 metres (32 feet) from the nearest junction”.

Tim

Maybe not a design fault. A common way to leave the lights on, on one side of a vehicle, is to leave the indicator switch on, on the side you want the lights to remain on, as parking lights.

It is now, and has been for many years, but when many of us started driving, it wasn't easy to do. It would have required a much more complicated (expensive) indicator switch, and probably a relay. Normal indicator circuits were very simple, and used a single pole double throw centre-off switch. The side lights were of the correct brightness for parking, whereas indicator lamps themselves used about five times the power.

But back then, the same laws applied, so you could either leave the sidelights on or buy a small clip-on red and white lamp which you could hang over the top of the side window if you needed to leave the car at night in a place where lights were required.

Thanks everybody. I suppose the fully charged 50AH battery would stay lit for 50 hours before the battery is too weak to start the car, as happened to me. I was in a marked parking bay near my house so wouldn't need a parking light. I must have nudged the blinking lever when exiting the car.

On those cars which have the feature, does it also require the light switch to be left in the sidelight position - does it extinguish two of the four lights that are turned on in sidelights position. That would be an added safeguard against accidentally leaving the indicator switch in L or R position during the day when you wouldn't notice that your side/tail lights (on one side) are on.

I had it on one or both of my VW Golfs (Mark 2 and Mark 3) but that was

No - 1amp, for 50 hours, will completely discharge a 50aH battery. It would be unlikely to start.

In message snipped-for-privacy@news.individual. net>, at 16:21:45 on Tue, 21 Apr 2026, Tim+ snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.co.youkay> remarked:

Or from my observations, as long as at least a third of your car is parked on the pavement.

Or you could fashion your own from a lamp holder, a meat paste jar and a red sweet wrapper.

Chris

no

yes

I assumed all cars did this, don't think I've had one for decades that didn't ...