Hi guys hoping someone can advise please, i have an 04 voyager 2.5crd and fingers crossed up to now no issues apart from y battery. its an optimum battery and only firing at 400, i have been told by the battery place i need a new one but at a lovely price of 234 plus vat, she said this is the only one that is good for my car and the cheaper ones only last a few months, i dont really want to pay this if there is an alternative for my car so if you have same car as me could you please advise many thanks xxx

 

Optima ® Red Top 4.2

 

Did you say £234? This sounds like rip-off money to me. I was GIVEN a battery by a good mate from his wife's Merc. A160, as it had been replaced by the garage mechanics trying to fix an electronic control fault. He decided to keep the battery and later gave it me as we have a help-each-other agreement. (The new battery did not fix the fault).
It has never failed to swing my 2.8 diesel in the coldest weather.
It says on it Mercedes, made in Italy.
Caution: Whenever changing batteries on a vehicle, be absolutely sure you have the polarity correct, otherwise more grief than you can think of, inc. an alternator at £380.
Generally speaking, buy a battery whose name you've heard of. Many of the batteries sold in car accessory shops are of dubious quality, and will have a short life.
Leedsman.

 

yep that was the price inc vat from our local battery stockists, chrysler main was a similar price, at the moment the battery place have it on charge for 2 days for me, i am concerned how it just died though, i got to work in it left it then nothing, only troube we had was during winter with the battery x

 

battery has a full charge but still no start, however where the mileage is the code p051.4 cae on does anyone know what this means please xxx

 

Hmm, well P0051 code is:
I'd doubt this would cause it not to start as that's just a little heater to get the sensor up to working temperature quickly.

When you turn the key to kick the starter motor on, do you get anything, any clicks or does the motor turn over just not fire?
Also when you turn the key to kick the starter motor does all of the dash lights go out, radio turn off, lights in cabin dim? That's a sign of it being battery, but by the sounds of it this may not be your problem.

 

Ohh sorry, just re-read that and it's code P0514 which means
Which is the temperature sensor underneath the battery. This is normally used to control the charge current supplied to the battery. BUT it may also cause a problem when starting, as if the engine thinks the battery is too hot (or too cold?) it may not allow it to crank.

There are various posts about this temperature sensor from myself and others who have played about with it, and you can bypass it using a resistor to see if that solves the problem.
(BTW if that sensor is faulty it may not have been charging your battery properly previous which may have caused it to go flat)

Otherwise the other questions are still relevant on whether the engine turns over, etc.

 

If you have charged the battery separately and it tests out ok (the test is to see if it holds its voltage under heavy load*) and it will not crank the engine, the heavy power wiring circuit to the battery should be checked. The ground strap from battery -ve. to chassis, the engine/gearbox grounding strap to chassis, and the connexions to the starter motor and solenoid. Just follow the heavy wiring.The start current is in the low hundreds of amps so even .1 of an ohm resistance in any connector will render start impossible, but there may be some heavy "clicking" as you turn the key to start.

*On the battery there has to be a current stated at which the battery will not fall to less than 9volt under the heavy load of the starter motor. Do not confuse this with the ampere-hours capacity. (A.H.) I believe this is an EU regulation. Often there is a temperature stated as well.

Caution: Be very careful using a spanner/wrench on any of these heavy-current 12volt connectors while it is live. The battery is quite capable of welding a spanner to the nut or chassis should it be inadvertently used, esp. with a diesel battery. THERE ARE NO FUSES IN THIS CIRCUIT. A fire is almost certain to follow. Best disconnect the battery -ve lead while doing such work to be on the safe side.
Leedsman.

 

well touch wood my car is up and running, replaced with new battery , we did speak to an auto as we were drawing blanks a to what to try, chrysler said if it was the temp sensor all software etc would need re doing, a mobile engineer said it sounded like the immobiliser had locked me out x and he charged 60 quid an hr didnt want to do that as i hadd said to hubby i thought it was starter, anyways he was reluctant to look at it so i tapped it with a wrench and yayy it started and fingers crossed up to now shes behaving

 

Both Leedsman. Andy and others have messed with both the batterybuttonMOD and the battery button lead, neither have resulted in a 'no start' or a 'lockout'. £234 is a rip off. Using the word 'wrench' suggests you are in America with a CRD engine and 'tapped it with a wrench' suggests they tapped the starter motor to free off the bendix.

So long as it now serves you reliably and paid £150 not £250 for the easy solution you have your vehicle back. Thanks for letting the group know the outcome.