Electrical issues
Well not had the car long or done too many miles in it, a few 70ish mile round trips each at the weekends or so. As it appeared a wee fault occurred. I had my alternator changed as it wasn't charging the battery to high enough voltage. Starts were getting sluggish too. Garage confirmed alternator as fault and it was fitted with a new Lucas alternator.
Car was then picked up from local garage and I drove around for about 10 minutes on local A road > 50 mph. car was then parked up for a couple of days. Drive the car around 40 miles at the weekend, 1 trip 20 miles each way, fast A road. Following weekend 70 mile round trip with dual carriageway and fast A road diving. Park the car up. Go to car 1 week later and its dead, totally. No remote central locking or life. Enjoy the fuse box emergency bonnet release procedure. Check voltage on the battery and its real low, around 6v. connect up my ironically recently purchased CTEK charger which had just arrived (after reading the forum) and it does not charge the battery, keeps going into sleep mode. Borrowed neighbours booster pack and does not start car, when hooked up very, very dim bonnet light. Booster pack needs charged. Dig out my dads old, like really old 1976 12v car battery charger, hook up and check, voltage is just over 6v and needle is jumping between 0 amps and 4 amps, holding each state for a few seconds. After a while the cars alarm goes off, just as I'm under the bonnet checking voltage again. Ear hurts, a lot. No effect with the remote, put key in and it goes off. Remove key and a little later alarm goes off (bonnet and door are left open (window has dropped a fair bit also but won't go back up, no electrics!). I know its gonna snow now. This alarm thing happens a few times. Friend turns up with his 'juicy" van jump starter. This one is 600amp compared to last one at 300amp. Doesn't start the car. Though hear various clinking and noises of things coming alive. Find out the big jump starter needs charged also. Luckily he also brought jump leads, I can now daisy chain them with mine and reach for a jump start. When hooked up vehicle to vehicle electricals come alive, windows open and close, spoiler comes up and lights flash on and off. Car doesn't start, clicks on attempt to turn over. Measure voltage across battery and its up to 12.6V – hooked up to other car on. Are daisy chaining leads adding too much resistance?
We stand at chat for a few minutes pondering life.
Should have bought the RS, no the M3, no the RS4, look back at Porsche, it does look good. BLOODY START!
Another attempt - no joy. Heart sinks, wife's face says it all. Looks like more money getting spent and half the day gone. Some comment about having two big yellow boxes on kitchen bunker plugged in (booster packs). Hear the rugby from a neighbours open window, *****, I forget about that.
Friend leaves and I rehook up charger, still doing its flip flopping every few seconds. Another cup of tea doesn't help (the car or my mood). Decide to pull the battery and take inside manage to avoid the wife as its also going on the kitchen worktop. Charge up and charge bit more stable in the flip flopping, current seems to drop from 4-5amps to 3 amps, voltage is going up very slightly. I then try the CTEK again on full recond mode. Seems to initialise this time and pumps 10v when measuring across the battery. I then go and look through the cars file, it had a battery from RAC in early 2015. When I got the car in January it had a new Exide 80ah battery fitted. I monitor the CTEK and voltage is climbing to just a few millivolts under the CTEK table vs its status so looks like were now making progress. Through the rest of the day/evening the stages on the CTEK progress. Late at night reached stage 7 and voltage looks good.
Check again in the morning at its sitting at 13.6V hooked at final stage.
After work that day I fit the battery, and there's life. Start the car and it kicks in first time. Voltage before hooking up and on load and on idle all look good. HOWEVER, not all is well. Window is dropped doesn't want to go back up, console is dead, radio/screen after initial flash up goes off chrono clock makes a sweep and error message after error message on dash. Spoiler also pops up. CL not working, fans not working. Lights don't go on apart from rear right. Strange. I leave for a while at idle and let her warm up checking voltage across battery.
I decide to venture out and go for a wee roundy in the estate about ½ mile out and 3 point turn it back. PASM and dash still error messaging. Dad is round and suggests it may be a faulty relay or needs hooked up to a dealer computer (is he on commission? I got a fright at Aberdeen's dealer hourly rate whn I enquired about getting a new key flashed, how can they charge so much!). I check a few fuses and the all are OK.
Park up and switch off. Restart and find that the radio/sat nav screen comes on, windows will work and lights will come on (headlights) but they all go back off again fairly quickly and do not respond. If I switch off again and on and if I'm quick enough I can raise the window and lower the spoiler and open the front bonnet before this 'sleep mode" kicks in. some things link the rear lights, brake lights and horn still work. Others like the hazards, seats or spoiler wont. I just have no idea why this is happening. Car starts fine, electrics start but after a very short while literally a couple of seconds or so mist systems seem to power down. The PCM screen doesn't get past the Porsche splash screen before the console powers down.
Anyone any ideas? Any help would be most appreciated.
Cheers.
Well not had the car long or done too many miles in it, a few 70ish mile round trips each at the weekends or so. As it appeared a wee fault occurred. I had my alternator changed as it wasn't charging the battery to high enough voltage. Starts were getting sluggish too. Garage confirmed alternator as fault and it was fitted with a new Lucas alternator.
Car was then picked up from local garage and I drove around for about 10 minutes on local A road > 50 mph. car was then parked up for a couple of days. Drive the car around 40 miles at the weekend, 1 trip 20 miles each way, fast A road. Following weekend 70 mile round trip with dual carriageway and fast A road diving. Park the car up. Go to car 1 week later and its dead, totally. No remote central locking or life. Enjoy the fuse box emergency bonnet release procedure. Check voltage on the battery and its real low, around 6v. connect up my ironically recently purchased CTEK charger which had just arrived (after reading the forum) and it does not charge the battery, keeps going into sleep mode. Borrowed neighbours booster pack and does not start car, when hooked up very, very dim bonnet light. Booster pack needs charged. Dig out my dads old, like really old 1976 12v car battery charger, hook up and check, voltage is just over 6v and needle is jumping between 0 amps and 4 amps, holding each state for a few seconds. After a while the cars alarm goes off, just as I'm under the bonnet checking voltage again. Ear hurts, a lot. No effect with the remote, put key in and it goes off. Remove key and a little later alarm goes off (bonnet and door are left open (window has dropped a fair bit also but won't go back up, no electrics!). I know its gonna snow now. This alarm thing happens a few times. Friend turns up with his 'juicy" van jump starter. This one is 600amp compared to last one at 300amp. Doesn't start the car. Though hear various clinking and noises of things coming alive. Find out the big jump starter needs charged also. Luckily he also brought jump leads, I can now daisy chain them with mine and reach for a jump start. When hooked up vehicle to vehicle electricals come alive, windows open and close, spoiler comes up and lights flash on and off. Car doesn't start, clicks on attempt to turn over. Measure voltage across battery and its up to 12.6V – hooked up to other car on. Are daisy chaining leads adding too much resistance?
We stand at chat for a few minutes pondering life.
Should have bought the RS, no the M3, no the RS4, look back at Porsche, it does look good. BLOODY START!
Another attempt - no joy. Heart sinks, wife's face says it all. Looks like more money getting spent and half the day gone. Some comment about having two big yellow boxes on kitchen bunker plugged in (booster packs). Hear the rugby from a neighbours open window, *****, I forget about that.
Friend leaves and I rehook up charger, still doing its flip flopping every few seconds. Another cup of tea doesn't help (the car or my mood). Decide to pull the battery and take inside manage to avoid the wife as its also going on the kitchen worktop. Charge up and charge bit more stable in the flip flopping, current seems to drop from 4-5amps to 3 amps, voltage is going up very slightly. I then try the CTEK again on full recond mode. Seems to initialise this time and pumps 10v when measuring across the battery. I then go and look through the cars file, it had a battery from RAC in early 2015. When I got the car in January it had a new Exide 80ah battery fitted. I monitor the CTEK and voltage is climbing to just a few millivolts under the CTEK table vs its status so looks like were now making progress. Through the rest of the day/evening the stages on the CTEK progress. Late at night reached stage 7 and voltage looks good.
Check again in the morning at its sitting at 13.6V hooked at final stage.
After work that day I fit the battery, and there's life. Start the car and it kicks in first time. Voltage before hooking up and on load and on idle all look good. HOWEVER, not all is well. Window is dropped doesn't want to go back up, console is dead, radio/screen after initial flash up goes off chrono clock makes a sweep and error message after error message on dash. Spoiler also pops up. CL not working, fans not working. Lights don't go on apart from rear right. Strange. I leave for a while at idle and let her warm up checking voltage across battery.
I decide to venture out and go for a wee roundy in the estate about ½ mile out and 3 point turn it back. PASM and dash still error messaging. Dad is round and suggests it may be a faulty relay or needs hooked up to a dealer computer (is he on commission? I got a fright at Aberdeen's dealer hourly rate whn I enquired about getting a new key flashed, how can they charge so much!). I check a few fuses and the all are OK.
Park up and switch off. Restart and find that the radio/sat nav screen comes on, windows will work and lights will come on (headlights) but they all go back off again fairly quickly and do not respond. If I switch off again and on and if I'm quick enough I can raise the window and lower the spoiler and open the front bonnet before this 'sleep mode" kicks in. some things link the rear lights, brake lights and horn still work. Others like the hazards, seats or spoiler wont. I just have no idea why this is happening. Car starts fine, electrics start but after a very short while literally a couple of seconds or so mist systems seem to power down. The PCM screen doesn't get past the Porsche splash screen before the console powers down.
Anyone any ideas? Any help would be most appreciated.
Cheers.