Something new...

[1781cc]

Ever since I have decided to keep this car, its like fate has decided to test me... the latest weirdo issue I have is that while driving to Bristol today in the pouring rain, the car's dash appeared to blink intermittently, specifically the brightness on the mileage and trip mileage counter, the date and time bits (LCD)

This also appears to be easy to invoke by pressing two switches on the drivers side window buttons up at the same time while the windows are already at max and nowhere to go - presumably simulating a load drain.

The Nav system also threw a wobbly a few times and said: "Check Navigation DVD" but would come back after a few minutes. If I turned the stereo system off, I get a loud pop sound after about 5 minutes, almost like someone turning a guitar amp off.

I am not electrically minded, so these might be odd assumptions, but is it likely to be water ingress somewhere creating a short, or an earthing issue, or something else thats going to cost me thousands and thousands to fix?

I am in Bristol all week, thankfully brought my VCDS cable but am working now, so can't scan yet, but I suspect it'll just come up with the usually quiescent error.

Additionally for background, I've been trying to find this random battery drain issue, over the weekend I had the car on the CTEK and she was fully charged this morning, but two minutes into my drive and the dimming thing happened. So I know its not the battery (or is it?) - the error I had with the previous door handle on the O/S Rear should be gone though as its had a new handle (awaiting secondary microswitch from Germany) but the Kessy system now works on that handle (I replaced it thinking water ingress as others have experienced)

Alternator flutter maybe?

Any help appreciated