I think weve killed our car....
 

We decided to remove the pictured item as its clearly not factory and was detracting from the beauty of the car.

The battery was removed when the work was all carried out.

Now with the battery connected, all the interior lights flash like indicators would. They do not turn off or on via the controls. The headlights work when turned on. When the key is turned the radio all turns on and works as normal but the car makes no attempt to start. The windows do not operate either.

What was this item we removed (we presumed it to be an after market alarm) and has removing it somehow disabled the car?
The pictures show the thing as it is now, and also where it was connected into the loom under the steering wheel. We love the car quite a lot and would hate to scrap it as we've somehow disabled it....

https://www.flickr.com/photos/189162.../shares/H6G1N7
https://www.flickr.com/photos/189162.../shares/o6H2z6
https://www.flickr.com/photos/189162.../shares/8UP835

Looks like some sort of ultrasonic detector to me, check the factory wiring for any signs of damage / breakage or connections that shouldn't be there.

If it worked ok before you removed the gubbins, it will work again once you find out where the issue is.

Had a look at where we've made any changes and cant find any obvious wire damage. Is it possible that device I removed was acting as some kind of bypass of the immoboliser or something?

With the key out all the interior lights flash, when turned they stop flashing but nothing of the car functions except the accessories.

Any ideas or people local to RG41 would be most most appreciated.

Many thanks to everyone who had a read and had a think, I've got it going!

It appears the earth return in the passenger footwell isn't quite making a good contact, I pulled the cover off to have a look as we have a fair amount of custom wiring there due to dashcam and lights etc

Immediately the lights stopped flashing and the car was acting normally. A jiggle of the wires and the fault returned, and the process was repeated. So its something there, I suspect the earth return as there is a lot going on down there, but what a huge relief! Now i know where I can have a better look in daylight and give the earth return a clean up and remake the connections.

It was a particularly nasty coincidence it was happened when I removed that aftermarket alarm thing, I thought I may have fried the ECU hah.. and the part was removed piecemeal, there was no chance of replacing it

Thanks everyone :)

Just read this and great to hear you got a result. Had something similar years ago with a Rover 416 when the main earth cable to the body fell apart and had exactly the same flashing of lights. Luckily easily spotted and fixed on the side of the road. :}

We have to look after our "earth"! :getmecoat:
Glad you got it sorted and thanks for sharing the result.;)