Yesterday morning I attempted to start my vehicle which has a Ghost immobiliser fitted.

The car had a monumental fit and dozens of faults flashed up ranging from ‘water in the fuel’ to ‘gearbox fault’ and everything in between.

Inconvenient, as we were in the Outer Hebrides, and had a ferry to the mainland to catch.

Luckily we were able to limp to the ferry with the multiple faults - including just one headlight, and a failed speedo!

In case I had cocked up the Ghost sequence, I cycled the system a few times, put it in Service Mode etc, but the faults didn’t clear - on previous occasions this has worked.

On arrival I called Ghost and spoke to a very helpful chap but to no avail. I then decided to try and limp to Inverness - big mistake as the vehicle started to smell as if it was overheating, and I quickly reversed course back to Ullapool at a snail’s pace.

Called Ghost for the second time and spoke to one of the rudest blokes I think I’ve ever had the pleasure of dealing with. When I tried to get a word in edgeways, to explain I had already had an initial call with Autowatch, he told me to ‘shut up and listen if I wanted his help’ - for the record he didn’t come up with anything I hadn’t already been told by his colleague.

The garage in Ullapool tried to clear all the faults with their diagnostics machine, and also de-powered the vehicle a couple of times, but now the vehicle wouldn’t even start, and to add insult to injury, the steering lock wouldn’t disengage which is going to make recovery more interesting.

My questions are:

Has anyone had a similar experience with the Autowatch Ghost immobiliser, and if so, how is it fixed?

If it is unrelated to the Ghost, is there something else I should be looking for?

Vehicle now has 640 miles to travel to get back to me….

Any thoughts or advice much appreciated.

Last edited by bestman on 7th Oct 2023 3:30pm. Edited 1 time in total

Sounds more like a problem with a ground stud in the front wheelarch - the giveaway is one headlight not working, check that side first.

Thanks Phoenix, will try that.

100% earth stud if a light and speedo is out, whichever side the light is out it'll be that side earth stud. L405 SV Autobiography LWB SDV8, finished in Aston Martin China Grey by ETO division.

Thanks 4RRS and Phoenix,

Your help is much appreciated.

Sounds like the forum has cracked it - I will report back!

Definitely the ground stud I had exactly the same symptoms, fix the stud and problem solved and normal service resumes including the headlight

Good luck, if you can get the wheel off and you have a few rudimentary tools you can probably bodge a fix to get you home I am sure, watch out as the boot probably wont open as that sometimes locks out in this instance, unluckily for me i have the 4 seat version and there is zero chance of getting in the boot

Here's the link to what happened to me and the fix

https://www.fullfatrr.com/forum/topic65812.html

This is where the ground point is, front of the offside arch, there is one the other side as well with just 2 connections instead of the four here...

Thanks also to DrF and Haylands - amazingly helpful.

Thanks All,

Diagnosis was spot on - all sorted for a grand total of £79!


ATB

Nick

Thanks for confirming - a pity the garage in Ullapool couldn't do more than plug in & shrug shoulders, it's not exactly uncommon.