My Furby VRS is dead- Please Help

[Pacman70]

I'm hoping that I am posting in the right part of the forum

As the title suggests, my car is dead and will not start!

I cleaned the car this morning and have been to the tip a couple of times without any problems.

Went to pick my wife up from work and arrived without any problems. I did the usual as I arrived early, turned the ignition off and left the radio on. As my wife came out of work I went to start the car and dashboard lit up like a christmas tree and reset the clock and trip and the engine refuses to start. The interior lights wont come on when the doors are opened and the lights in the door wont come on either. I am unable to use the remote to lock the car as the alarm keeps going off, which means I can only lock the car with the key.

I can't do anything with the car tonight as it is now locked in at my wifes work but any suggestions of advice would be appreciated.

If you need any further information please let me know.

Phill

[WW_VRS]

If the dash lights go off when you try to start it, the battery is probably dead, try sticking a charger on it, you might get lucky. That said with the cold weather a deep discharge could have killed it.

Hopefully it is nothing too serious beyond that though

[maffwilson]

Most likely that a cell has gone in the battery, replace.

[AwesomeSarah]

Hi

I had an issue with my car

In the alternator was not charging the battery

So watch that one too

It was not the alternator , but the wire that goes to the dash was broken

Good luck and hope that you get it sorted , maybe charge the battery by trying to jum it with jump leads , but check to see if the charging light comes on

Sarah

[Pacman70]

Thank you All, will check the battery tomorrow when I can get back into the carpark

[AwesomeSarah]

Good luck , hopefully a cheap mend

Sarah

[WW_VRS]

Good thing is that if it is the battery, it is pretty easy to swap out, and if you can't be bothered, a trip to Halfords and they can fit it for you as well for a little extra IIRC. I dont know if a dealer would charge a lot (more) but probably it isn't too bad.

Batteries die in these conditions, for sure - most last between 3-5 years when the car is driven regularly but no guarantees

[bradfordfabia]

Same thing happened to me last year, turned off the engine while waiting for my mum to come out of the shops and turned on the ignition and nowt came on. Few mins later lights came on and faded away, alarm went on and off and windows went up and down on they own. To cut a very long story short the alternator was the problem.

[Pacman70]

I'm assuming the battery is the original from new. I do roughly 80 miles a day so I would hope that it would stay charged. Granted the trips that I have done today are only short i.e. 2-3miles each. If its the battery, any idea how much a battery will cost me?

[MoggyTech]

Battery will cost about £60. To effect a proper repair, fit new battery and have fault codes cleared (there will be a stack of fault codes logged) At the same time, have the alternator wiring checked. The sensing wire is prone to corroding/breaking at the plug support on the gearbox.

[DavidY]

I do roughly 80 miles a day so I would hope that it would stay charged.

It's no guarantee though - on my previous PD100 I did even more daily miles than you, but the battery still died after 3 years.

[Pacman70]

Battery will cost about £60. To effect a proper repair, fit new battery and have fault codes cleared (there will be a stack of fault codes logged) At the same time, have the alternator wiring checked. The sensing wire is prone to corroding/breaking at the plug support on the gearbox.

Thanks Moggy, I will let everyone know what the problem is.

I don't suppose there is anyone in Hull with a VAGcom that could clear the fault codes for me?

[WW_VRS]

IIRC the battery was a great deal more than 60 quid, this is a high Amp diesel battery, IIRC it was closer to double that from Halfords..

[rigsby]

Same thing happened to our lasses car last year, would not start even when i tried to jump it off , put a new battery on , and it has been ok ever since

The battery i used was a 275 battery meant for an LDV Convoy, from the dealer cost £42 + vat

[Pacman70]

Ouch :(, thats more than I was hoping but I dont have a lot of choice on the battery front

[Pacman70]

I will ring round tomorrow and see what the best price is. The only problem I have at the moment is going to get the battery but will worry about that in the morning.

[Pacman70]

I would like to thank everyone for the help and advice. The car is back on the road after fitting a new battery, which cost me £76. As predicted the car wouldn't jump start this morning! We spent roughly 40 minutes this morning using a Mercedes Sprinter to no avail.

The only concern that I have is that when I took the old battery out, it had a sticker on it saying if the disk on was clear or yellow it needed replacing. This disk was still green! Is there any significance to this and would it worth testing the old battery?

[ap0gee1978]

The 'magic eye' just shows the condition of the electrolyte, and while I don't have a full understanding of how lead-acid batteries fail, I gather you can have tickety-boo electrolyte and still suffer battery failure. It's a bit late to say now, but I had similar problems to you when I had a dodgy connection on the negative terminal on my battery, which took ages to diagnose. Then again, the battery died properly not long after that (3.5 years approx), so you would probably be in line for a new one, anyway! I do a good 50 miles a day, 5 days a week, so charging wasn't an issue...

[MoggyTech]

I would like to thank everyone for the help and advice. The car is back on the road after fitting a new battery, which cost me £76. As predicted the car wouldn't jump start this morning! We spent roughly 40 minutes this morning using a Mercedes Sprinter to no avail.

The only concern that I have is that when I took the old battery out, it had a sticker on it saying if the disk on was clear or yellow it needed replacing. This disk was still green! Is there any significance to this and would it worth testing the old battery?

Most likely a cell failed (there are six cells in total). Or it could have been antimony deposits that can build up on the negative plates, these act as mini batteries and reduce battery capacity. Sometimes the antimony settles at the bottom of the battery casing, and can short out a cell. The green eye is just an electrolyte check. Green level OK, yellow level low, Black battery goosed.