Battery drain. Faulty door.
 

Hi there.

A couple of issues regarding the vehicle my wife has to use for work.

She looks after children for a private family. The car is an 06 plate diesel auto.



One of the rear power sliding doors has stopped functioning and needs to be operated manually.

There is an intermittent starting problem where the engine will turn over on the key without starting. Then the dials will 'jump' over to the right and the dash bleeps.

There is also the issue of the battery going flat without warning. This has happened at least half a dozen times. It has been replaced (although checked and found to be ok) and still goes flat.

The vehicle has been to a non chrysler diag specialist who cant find a fault regarding the battery drain.

I have done a couple of internet searches, one of which came up with battery drain due to the body computer unable to 'sleep' due to a faulty door sensor or relay.

Also i have been told of a similar battery issue regarding a faulty ABS sensor.


The car is a one previous owner, FSH dealer supplied used vehicle.


Are there any other ideas out there as to what the cause of this/these problems might be ?

Thanks.

Battery Drain.
 

Hi, I have a Grand Voyager 07 plate Executive & have been experiencing battery issues.

I have been testing for drain by removing the Neg. terminal on the battery and putting my Fluke across the battery & negative cable on Milliamps, you should have a reading of 30ma or less, I originally found I was getting 1.6 until I removed the IOD fuse. I then started to remove the centre console to eliminate the entertainment system as this is a common fault, but no joy. The next day I revisited and found that maybe I was not letting the vehicle go to sleep correctly, so I disconnect bonnet plunger and disconnected the neg lead and fixed my fluke across both, I then locked the car and watched as over approx. 10-20 mins found that the drain dropped to the recommended 0.01MA, now unless I cleared the fault by luck & removing & refitting the stereo yesterday it brings me back to my original suspicion, LIFE STYLE.

My car is generally used for basic school runs and mostly short journeys which I believe is using more power than what is being put back into battery, I have a 800a & 50ah gel battery currently fitted by Chrysler. I am now looking at upping the battery to the biggest I can get, I have seen some at 900a & 90ah but the length is too long (315mm) & I can't see how this will fit even with alterations (anyone know how please tell me) I have seen some which have a 760a & 95ah which I am tempting to go for, I think this is the way to go as with all the electrics in the car & if kids are like mine and love to play with electric doors then this will drain the battery on it's own.

I am also going to have a friend look at the electrical side in the new year again for me as I am no expert and want a second opinion on the drain side, but I am definitely going to go for biggest battery I can fit in.

Will update if I find anything new. The pain goes on!!!!

SchoolBus - One common problem showing up on vans in the states is the sliding door wire harness shorting to ground. This harness is mounted at the bottom of the door so takes a good bit of punishment as it moves everytime the door opens and closes. This can effect all three of your problems. Hows that?
The PCI data bus is a single wire communications conduit connecting all of the computers and monitors in the van. If that single wire is damaged in some way anywhere in the van, it can effect just about anything connected anywhere on the van. There is a sliding door monitor mounted in each door. It is connected via this data wire. There have been reports of this door wire harness creating erratic instruments, stalling, and fires. (09-10? have been recalled). Well worth taking a look at. Here's a video that explains how to access it:How to Fix Dodge Grand Caravan and Chrysler Town and Country Sliding Door Wires - YouTube

pb1 - It sounds like you're taking all the right steps. Yes, you have to let the system "sleep" for a bit before testing to get an accurate reading. Some say you can hold the two battery cables together for a few seconds. I'm not real comfy with that considering the number of sensitive microprocessors on the van. I'm a patient guy. I'll wait the 15-20 minutes.

I'm reading more and more posts stating problems with gel batteries. They may not be all they are cracked up to be. I've read a couple of post concerning Euro spec vans and apparent lack of battery power just in the last few days. One fix was installing some wizbang Bosch battery. If you continue to have these problems you might consider connecting a trickle charger overnight for maybe a day or two a week.

Thank you very much for your replys.

I will update on any findings.

Thanks raptor, I am going to invest in a new battery, probably wet cell type. I have posted a thread for my DVD stack flashing since disconnecting do you have any ideas for a reset code/mode?

I'm not up on entertainment systems. Only thing I can suggest is disconnect the negative battery cable for 2-3 minutes. Might reset it. If it's a code issue you probably have to let the dealer handle it.

Does the stack still operate ?

Some players have a default 'demo' mode which can be switched off in the menu's.

Otherwise its a security code.

Not had a chance to look into yet, I plan to work on over next couple of days. How do you put code in as there is no display just a stack at bottom of console?

Assuming the 06 is the same tray[ish] as the 05 - I fitted a Bosch S5010 @ 85/800, cheap as chips at £85 and was free delivery before 7am the next day. It can be fitted but you are correct it needs adjustments if not mangling :D

The end result was a 'glove tight' fit with zero space left and with 4 cuts to the battery tray and the complete removal of a heavy duty stainless steel protection piece. It was indeed a 'fettling' type of non standard fitting but it works well and has solved my problem with a 5 year battery replacement warranty.

If you still want a walkthrough with pictures ask !

Thanks, I have recently installed an AGM type battery which I believe works very similar to a gel style but better, I have upped the ah but at the expense of the cranking amps. The AGM charges 40% quicker than other batts & so far so good but have noticed a small struggle on starting in the cold morning due to lower CC. Had to only make 1 cut in tray, not bad, what stopped me going for Bosch type was the size, I was a bit worried about it putting pressure on the brake fluid filling point at back of tray. Would like to see fitting if possible as I thought I could cut the tray to fit but was a bit worried about bottle at back like I said, but so far so good with this batt, well it starts!!!

The cars are definetly battery killers! I was told recently there were some built in Sweden for the Euro market that was installed with 100cc & 100ah, whether or not this was true!

Tip to all if you have to remove your battery I would suggest that take any dvd's out of player first, as this apparently can cause problems as I have discovered, I now need a new one.

Thanks