Nothing working except cabin lights
 

Hi,
Hope someone can help. I went away for holidays for about a couple of months. Could not unlock car with remote, so manually unlocked the driver door.

Understood the battery was low, so I connected a battery charger for good several hours.

Can't remember if I tried locking/unlocking with the remote, but decided to jump start. I know I connected everything correctly. Started the donor battery car, then tried to start, the dash lights won't come on, neither any ignition. All I hear is a clicks when I rotate the key between positions I, II, and III.

Admittedly, I can't remember the order of when the dash lights went off; whether before trying to jump start or after.

I have checked all fuses, in all three compartments and they are all intact.

A few observations:

1. If I disconnect the battery negative terminal and then reconnect it, the dash lights come on. They automatically turn off after a while but can be turned on or off manually. However, after some time, maybe 5-10 minutes, they can't be turned on or off manually either. If I disconnect and reconnect the battery again, the lights come on. However, they get disabled again.

2. In jump starting configuration, before the ignition, the current flow is around 1.x Amps. When the ignition switch is turned to position II, the current flow changes to nearly 5 Amps. However, nothing happens, as described above.

I have followed pretty much all steps listed in another forum here.

I can't open the doors, neither the tail, from inside the car.

I have replaced the battery on my remote as well, just in case it wasn't sending the signal or something.

Any help will be greatly appreciated, as I am not inclined to tow it to a garage unless I have a cost estimate. I am looking for an auto electrician/mechanic to come and look so that at least I have an idea of the problem.

Thanks,

Mag

Put the battery on the charger for 24 hours and try again.

Battery might have failed and may need replacing, can you "borrow" one to test everything?

Rule out potential problems one at a time, starting with the source of volts - the battery.

Cheers

Dave

Put a battery charger on the jumper terminals in the engine bay, wait 10min for the battery to take some charge, then you should be able to unlock the doors

Divide 90Ah by your charger output, add about 50% time, to determine how much time you need to get a full charge.

Eg: A 90Ah battery needs 90 / 5 = 18 hours to fully charge if charging at 5A all the time.
But the charge rate normally drops so you need at least 24hrs on a 5A charger

Thanks Harley and SwissXC90.

The scenario I have described in observation 1 is after I took out the battery and left it connected to my charger for almost a week. I have been in touch with the battery supplier over email (as the battery is in warranty) and according to the voltage reading, they believe the battery is fine. I don't know how can I be sure, perhaps, other than having a loner battery as Harley Dave suggested above. My battery charger tells me the battery is good (although it may not be very smart).

Understood, thanks

Can you try the battery in another vehicle? (Just to rule it out as the cause of the problem)

After that, assuming the battery is OK, it sounds like a bad connection somewhere (electrically) close to the battery - a bad earth connection is sometimes the problem when there are multiple issues occurring.

I think you will be best getting an auto electrician to pay you a visit as (s)he will have more comprehensive test kit etc., and ought to be able to pinpoint the cause, and hopefully the fix.

Cheers

Dave

Sounds like a cell has failed and the battery is sucking all the power from the donor vehicle (to put it simply). What voltage does it read an hour or more after being charged?

Hi Reggit,

Thanks for the suggestion. Clarification on measuring the voltage. Should I leave the battery connected to the vehicle for measuring voltage an hour or so after I remove the charger, as you suggested, or should it be disconnected from the vehicle?

I would charge it off the vehicle, leave it, then measure terminal voltage.

Perhaps leave a further hour and measure again, still off the vehicle.

Then, if you can, repeat each hour for 6 readings making a note of the values you find and let us know what you find.

This is to try to isolate the problem to being either the battery or the car.

Hence the need to electrically separate the two for both the charging and the testing.

If this isn't obvious to you, or doesn't make sense, may I respectfully suggest (again) you call in an auto electrician?

Cheers

Dave

Update:

I disconnected the battery from the car and brought it inside. Measuring the initial voltage in the car, then, turning the key to ignition, here are the readings:

Initial: 13.4v
Ignition: 12.5

Since then, took the battery out of the car (that was last night). It has been sitting inside the house since last night and voltage readings have been stable.

Last night: 9:15pm - 12.86V
Last night: 10:15pm - 12.84V
This morning through afternoon - all readings have been around 12.8V

Heading to the local Halfords to get the battery tested.

That all looks normal