AU - Dead ?????

[valiant81]

Hi Every one;
Just a quick one, and I think I know what the answer would be, but i just thought I would run it past the brain trust !!

Ok here goes......

I have a 1999 Ford AU ford fort that now only has 50,000Kms and is in real good order for it's age. Any way I've never had a problem with the car not wanting to start. I've only do a couple of Km's per day and a bit more on the week ends.
Yesterday afternoon I went to go out and tryed to open the drivers door with the remote ( never had a problem before ) and nothing, no responce from the drivers door, the little red light on the remote was nice and bright when one of the buttons is pressed, tryed several times and no go !! ended up opening the door with the key and tryed to start the car.

All the dash lights came on, but no responce from the car at all when I tryed to start the car , but i hid have lights , the horn workrd and the radio spang into life. I even tryed moving the gear lever through it range to see if I had a faulty inhibit switch. Still no good aand ended up phoneing the RACV for help ( I could have taked the 4x4 to go out, but didn't ).

After phoneing the RACV I then whent out and tryed once more, this time the remote control worked and i was able to start the car. Later last night when i went to go home, ( 10pm ) I also had no further trouble starting the car.

Me thinks I have a battery that may need a bit of a charge ( remember I only travel about 3 Kms per day ) and the battery may down a bit and causing all types of problems with the electrics in the car. I will put the battery on charge and see how i go, and a bit of a drive wouldn't help ether.

So over to the brain trust ...... and thanks

[Uncle_Ken]

How did you go? Sounds like u need a new battey.
UK

[revcore]

Car batteries always seem to fail the most during winter. If it doesn't hold a charge you'll need a new one...something with a good amount of CCA.

[11ford11]

battery needs charging due to lack of use - trickle charge low current for 24-48 hours - lack of use can damage battery so probably worth trickle charging once a month if not being used - short drives take more out than gets put back in

[Spurious]

Buy a new battery.

If you don't drive it much, get a battery charger & trickle charge it about once a week to 10 days

[valiant81]

Hi Guy's;
Thanks for the input one and all, I ended up puting the battery on charge just after I posted this inquirey. The battery is still on charge and so far so good. The car starts a lot easyer now, so think I've nailed it. Will see how it goes and IF I have any more trouble, a new battery it will be. But i will also mesure the charge voltage once the car has started just to see if the aultenator is charging.

I do have access to a multi meter and also a battery load tester if i start to have problems. I just thought that, yes sounds like a flat battery and what threw me was the remote not working when I tryed to start the car on friday afternoon. I thought I would ask the brain trust first to see if it was just more than just a battery problem or some think else.

When i now think about it, if the central locking will not un lock the car and one uses the key to gain access, maybe the central locking being inopertive cause the car to not start and act like the gear leaver was not in P or N.

What do you all think, as this is my first late model ?? car and my last fords were XA and XB's. Totaly different cars. Automotive electronics certainly have progressed over the last few years.

It was bad enough when I used to work in the electronics industry repairing the little black boxes that we all like to watch, yes from crt's to plasma and now Oleds televisions, all I can say is thank god I'm not on the tools any more. Car electronics and all of the trickery that the newer cars have, one should have trained in the automotive industry.

Any way thanks one again one and all.

[11ford11]

low voltage causes different modules to shutdown or send incorrect information which then needs to clear and or see correct voltage......................

[valiant81]

Hi every one;
Well it happened again, the car refused to start again. On Sunday I took the car for a run of about 100 Kms after having the battery on charge since Saturday morning. On Monday no problems and again today no problems, untill I went back into town and tryed to lock the door using the remote control. Zip, nothing and the central locking unresponsive and also the car not wanting to start again.

Exactly the same problem as last friday afternoon, and this time I left things alone and again called the racv. This time I was around and after checking the battery and cleaning the terminals , bypassing the starter relay under the bonnet and the starter motor burst into life so no problems there. Still no go, so were to now.The racv mechanic even checked the battery in the remote and it checked out ok still 12 volts in the little battery. Sound like the central locking or the engine management problems ????? I hate intermittant faults like this, and you can be sure as eggs are eggs by tomorrow some time, the car will not play up

Any way the car is now on it's way to the racv depo and I will give them a ring on Wednesday afternoon to see what they have found.

I will keep you informed of the out come, but if any one else has a idear, please don't keep it to your self

[mik]

I would probably have a check of all your earth's , your car is not on lpg is it, you do hear about the odd electrical problems on occasion with aftermarket wiring jobs and lpg.
as far as doors unlocking goes after putting a battery in my au pendant i found it became unreliable ,
apparently the circuit boards are a bit delicate and you can crack them with a battery change,
I replaced my pendant with a newey and that problem went away.
i dont think that effects your engine starting though?

[Mr Hardware]

I've always stolen a battery out of another car just to ensure it's not the culprit

[valiant81]

Hi everyone;
Well my AU ford lives again, no not the battery, but the problem turned out to be the BCM module, and is a common problem with a lot of the ford cars around this error.

From what I've found out about the problem and it's caused by dry solder joints around the relays and there are about 4 on these boards and this would be a easy fix if you are handy with a soldering iron to rework the joints and the other problem is that the contacts in the relay need cleaning.
The bigest problem with the relays are that they are sealed and are not easy to open up. Would be easyer just to replace the relays as they are only soldered in place. Element 17 or wes components ( look them up on line ) would be the best place to get replacements.

What did I end up doing, well the car was at the local racv repair centre and I let them do the change over. All I had to do was pay at the end and reprograme the remote and job done.

Thanks you guys for all of your inputs, offer of advise etc...