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Can anyone offer me any suggestions on this before I suck it up and try dealing with an Austrian garage in my nonexistent German?
Our 58 plate Transit has been parked up in an Austrian campsite for 4 days now, I've moved it once in that time. On the road down the break wear warning light came on, this has happened before and is due to the wire working loose, I've confirmed it's the same this time but can't reattach the wire as the end has come off.
Other than that, nothing out the ordinary until last night when the remote key wouldn't work. Started it up, turned it off and the keys worked again for a bit but then stopped again. During the periods that the keys don't work all sorts of weird stuff is going on: Speedo lights flashing, gauge needles jumping about and audible clicks from behind the dash. I've let it idle for about ten minutes and all has been quiet for about half an hour now but I don't expect that to continue.
Not expecting there will be a quick fix but any suggestions welcome other than an exorcism for demonic possession?
Ta
My dad's 59 plate transit and his 62 plate range rover gave a plethora of warning lights when his battery was flat.
Every chance that if you have been in and out of the van a heap the internal lights have drained it low enough to give low voltage readings to the ECU. Especially if it's one of the dual battery models..... One will be drained and other will not
Both still started but went bananas . The the range rover refusing to movedue to a reported autobox fault
The fact yours has gone quiet after a period of idling suggests this would be similar.
In his case the battery was just banjoed by age and cold
In both cases replacing the battery cured all other reported faults.
Is it connected to the mains via a split charger? Might be worth disconnecting it and seeing what happens?
Cheers guys
No electric hook-up.
The battery light doesn't come on so didn't think it was that and all the internal lights are off so shouldn't be draining.
is the batteryflat and are the connections on properly. if theres a leisure battery disconnect it and switch everything off
No leisure battery and it starts fine so battery seems ok.
key battery?
Also - is there an exposed end on that ABS connection that could be randomly earthing?
Key batteries should be good, replaced not that long ago after one got wet. Will check that connection.
Don't forget the battery light indicated issue with charging circuit rather than battery condition
Battery light with mine was an alternator. But none of the OP's symptoms, just wouldn't start.
Pull the cover off underneath the driver's seat - it sounds like a dual battery model and the front battery is dead/on its way out (does dash, radio etc) The rear battery is for starting but it links them together for starting.
I had similar dash related craziness with my 07 when it was laid up for a year.
There's a battery under the seat, is there one under the bonnet too?
I suspect flat battery also, I've got a 57 plate and it did exactly that with a low battery when I tried to start it. If it still starts you need to drive it about for a period of time. Transits have a 'smart' alternator which wont typically charge below 2000rpm so idling will eat battery power rather than charge it.
The only batteries are located under the seat, see if you can get a multimeter on it and get a voltage reading, that should tell you if it's flat or not. There is a jump point under the bonnet but TBH when I have jumped mine I just connected directly to the battery using the drivers door for access.
When you say you replaced the key battery was that the battery or the key? My transit's key battery is inbuilt and re-charges from the ignition, not a typical cr2032 style coin cell. I've been led to believe this is common with transits (which explains the exorbitant fee for key replacement.) If you have the same then periods of inactivity will lead to a flat key - all you need to do to charge is turn the van on. Again if idling this is another drain on the 12v battery whilst the alternator isn't charging it.
Iain
Every time I’ve had those symptoms with a car it’s been the battery...
Every time I’ve had those symptoms with a car it’s been the battery…
Coming round to that idea.
Thanks for the input guys. It's calmed down after running it for a bit which also suggests battery I think. It'll get a good run tomorrow so we'll see after that.