75ZT Community

Might seem a daft question but when the battery on Bingley is too flat to start the engine, all the lights come on bar the indicators. Is this a normal occurrence? Never known a car behave like that. But it's every time the battery is too weak to start the car. Just wondered if it was a quirk of the ECU (Engine Control Unit) or a possible problem that needs solving. Only realised as the car has been stood for a while in the garage due to me being unable to drive, and I've not had chance to run it for periods of up to four months. Anything under three months and it starts on the button but any longer and the battery is too flat. Just a tad confused really haha.

Normal behaviour. It's some kind of warning from the car's behalf saying it's unable to start. Had this a few times ago as I used to leave mine and go abroad for a long period. At first, the car would jump start (by plugging cables from any car battery into my car's). This did cost me 2 batteries in 2 years as it would be completely flat for a long period and repetitively through the year and would stop being able to recharge itself.
Now I disconnect the battery (the red cable only) before I go and connect it back each time I am back to use mine

To clarify, yes it's normal behaviour but no it's not the car trying to tell you anything. When you try to start, the voltage dips suddenly, so the starter is released. The voltage then recovers a bit. The dip and then recovery causes various ECUs to reset, and the light switch ECU (LSM (Light Switch Module)) is one of these. When it resets like this it turns the lights on. You see the same behaviour when you change the codings using a T4 (Testbook version 4.Computer Diagnostic System). On some cars, the wipers operate too! Freaks owners out at the Nanos sometimes.

If you think about it, the designers would have to be quite daft to design a system where if the battery was low, it turned all the lights on to try to drain the battery even more. If they wanted a warning, they would have put a warning light or a message in the message centre. It's simply a result of the electronics.

Oh, and a solar panel can help to keep the battery topped up. I use one on one of my cars plugged into the lighter socket because it's a later car. Early cars the cigar lighter isn't live with ignition off, so I need to modify the car to use one.

We also use a larger one on our 'van and it keeps it topped up over the winter.

More correctly clarified by Duncan than by myself. The lights blinking etc was sort of a personal interpretation ...

Concerning the solar panel, I have one and it's a great solution, but in my case, I cannot use it because my car stays in an underground parking box with no light source inside when the box is closed and locked... Unplugging the battery seemed to be the easiest solution for not wasting one every year. Last time mine has been changed in 2010

Samarkand wrote:More correctly clarified by Duncan than by myself. The lights blinking etc was sort of a personal interpretation ...

Ah I see. No worry, but I have heard it before where people have said it's fact. 'Because they read it on the internet'.

Concerning the solar panel, I have one and it's a great solution, but in my case, I cannot use it because my car stays in an underground parking box with no light source inside when the box is closed and locked... Unplugging the battery seemed to be the easiest solution for not wasting one every year. Last time mine has been changed in 2010

Ah, that kind of stops them giving very much power. Long wire?

Hi Duncan, I'm afraid not for the long wire, she's on the 3rd underground level of the parking...

Samarkand wrote:Hi Duncan, I'm afraid not for the long wire, she's on the 3rd underground level of the parking...

VERY long wire?

Actually I wasn't serious.

But then maybe you could get a bulb put in the box?

(Still not serious).

Mine's sat in the garage so doubt a solar panel would work very well as the garage light doesn't work and the window is blocked by shelves filled with crap