Member Since: 29 Jun 2013
Location: London
Posts: 17
HDC/special programs fault - Could this be linked to battery
I have been going through a fault finding process after the car dropped to access height whilst doing 50mph along A406.
Another issue has got me wondering about the battery and would appreciate others opinions and experiences.
The battery was replaced in 2015 (so just over 7 years old). It was charged Thursday (registered 12.7 volts both with a tester on the battery and ECU diagnostic tester), the car was driven Friday locally for shopping and has not been moved for 27 hours but I have been locking and unlocking quite a bit, opening and closing the tailgate (I have interior lights turned off) and running the diagnostic in that time whilst ai fix a sunroof pipe leak and do some fault finding
I have a Ring smart charger that I use a couple of times a year just to reconditioned the battery and top up. This morning (engine cold) using a direct battery tester it registered 12.24 volts. Having the ignition on using the ecu diagnostics it registered 11.95 volts (12.03 max).
Leaving the ignition for several minutes whilst playing about I received two fault messages on the dash in addition to the bonnet and door open message as I have been checking these, “special programs not available” and “HDC system fault”
Using the Ring charger I checked the power going into the battery from the alternator, completing the alternator test three times all came back with a “F07” error pointing me to a “poor functioning regulator”.
Checking the power going into the battery both under load (lights, air con, stereo on) at 2000 rpm and under no load at 3000rpm I was getting 14.92/14.90 volts, very little difference between the two.
With the engine off after 30 minutes of the engine running whilst running the alternator test the battery was registering 12.84 volts but interestingly I was no longer getting the special programs or HDC fault messages after leaving the ignition on for several minutes as I did before I ran the engine and putting some charge into the battery so I am guessing the battery is at fault with these two messages.
Could the battery be the problem here? Could the battery also be the cause of the “poor functioning regulator” message on the Ring charger?
Many thanks.
20th Aug 2022 1:48 pm
gstuart
Member Since: 21 Oct 2016
Location: kent
Posts: 13747
Hi
Personally a rough period for a battery on these is around 5 x years , with the engine off battery shouldn’t drop below 12.6 Vdc
A low battery can cause all sorts of errors and must confess would be tempted to fit a new battery , I went for a yuasa 019 from halfords as then if anything went wrong would be considerably easier going back to halfords instead of messing around trying to send one back that was bought off line
Battery chargers I got a Ctek , plus if it helps I fitted a 12s socket which then allows me to then charge my main battery via that socket without having to lift the bonnet up
Hope that helps
20th Aug 2022 2:59 pm
Danno
Member Since: 29 Jun 2013
Location: London
Posts: 17
Thanks for the reply. I have ordered the battery, was already looking at the Yuasa HSB019, and will pick it up Thursday. Hope it will at least solve the intermittent lose of communication to control module error but doubt it will solve the suspension drop… but keeping my fingers crossed.
21st Aug 2022 2:28 pm
gstuart
Member Since: 21 Oct 2016
Location: kent
Posts: 13747
Ur so welcome and indeed fingers crossed will resolve some of the error codes , have been really pleased with my yuasa 019
Plus hope u don’t think I’m trying to teach u how to suck eggs , please give the new battery a full charge
Regarding the suspension I found the easiest starting point was to ensure the suspension was set to normal ride height , measure all the wheels from the centre of the rims to the bottom of the wheel arch’s
Then pull fuse F26 from the engines fuse box, leave it overnight then remeasure in the morning , sometimes ur see just one corner has dropped allowing u to see quite evidently where the leak is
Ref ur interior lights , I personally replaced all of mine to Leds , also before I forgot u can get one of these plug in volt meters which are very useful
Member Since: 29 Jun 2013
Location: London
Posts: 17
When it comes to these types of faults you are more than welcome to teach me to suck eggs. It is very easy to over think the problem and miss the simple fault finding steps.
I’ve checked the struts for leaks using that method, after 24 and 48:hours no change in height. I kind of wish it was a leak as fault finding the electrics going to be tedious.
I have an iCarsoft v3.0 iid and recorded the initial faults, didn’t know what was relevant to this issue so cleared and checked again after running the car locally.
2 faults:
U0122-87 State: Intermittent Lost communication with vehicle dynamics control module and,
U0416-86 State: Pending Invalid data received from vehicle dynamics control module.
Both can be a symptom of poor battery condition hence the swap with a new one.
Whilst I was giving the car a once over I did find water ingress in the front driver side footwell, wasn’t much consider the volume of rain last week, I check regularly so it has only been the past month it has happened, got a makeshift solution out of the air intake until a new drain nipple arrives.
When I replace the drain nipple I am going to take the brake light switch out and have a look as I understand arcing within the switch can cause these fault codes.
Had no work done to the car since December 2020 and fault only happened in the last 3 week. If brake switch good then onto wiring and connections of height sensors under wheel arch… assuming that is ok then onto compressor and then abs… basically a process of elimination.
Have a Ring smart charger with crank and alternator test functions + and digital volt meter.
Thanks again for your feedback
21st Aug 2022 10:00 pm
aja4x4
Member Since: 14 Apr 2019
Location: Westbury
Posts: 2459
U codes are information codes not fault codes they can occour for a number of reasons but do not affect the running of the vehicle and can be ignored.Andrew
D3 2.7tdv6 2005
D4 3.0 SDV6 Commercial died and gone to LR heaven
D5 3.0 SDV6 HSE
22nd Aug 2022 6:18 am
Danno
Member Since: 29 Jun 2013
Location: London
Posts: 17
When I pick up the battery I am going to take the car for a longer run and over 50mph since that speed triggered the lowering of the suspension with warning lights and fault messages. I printed the fault codes that were originally displayed (height sensors and exhaust valve) don’t they have appeared since clearing and doing local (under 50mph) runs so it is something specifically being triggered at 50+ mph.
Whilst I was fiddling under the drivers side I have had a look at the steering angle sensor sleeve, the plastic sleeve looks slightly off centre to the union joint, but since I have never looked under there before I have no frame of reference, if it has slipped or if it is even possible that it can slip. Wiggled the steering and their doesn’t appear to be any slack or signs the sleeve has broken but I have recalibrated the SAS, will see if that makes a difference.
UPDATE: Picked up the battery today, gave the car a blast and no issues. I think the angle sensor was the fix. Will still fit the new battery as the old one doesn’t seem to be holding it’s capacity as well.
23rd Aug 2022 12:58 pm
JeromeW
Member Since: 11 Nov 2022
Location: Braintree, Essex
Posts: 3
@Danno - sorry Ive broken the Suspension fix you thought you had I tend to be able to break the software here at work when the developers give me new releases to check, so nothing new really!
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I tend to be able to break the software here at work when the developers give me new releases to check, so nothing new really!
