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Gramac66

New Member
Hi,

over the past few weeks I’ve had an intermittent hello light on the dashboard to indicate the eco stop / start is not available. I was advised by research that it maybe the auxiliary battery at fault. I have total purchased a ‘smart’ battery charger which tells me the battery is fine and fully charged.

what is it likely to be ? It was serviced yesterday but they wanted £100 to plug in their diagnostic tester when it was likely to be a battery which costs about £100 so I declined.

Any suggestions are very welcome.

thanks. Gramac66
 
Could be your main battery ain’t upto repeated starts, the aux one only runs the accessories that are switched on, but the main one starts the car
 
I thought the auxiliary battery controlled the stop/ starts ? It is referred to as the stop/ start battery ?
 
Why don’t you charge both batteries and see if the stop start returns. If it does then you’ll know it’s one or the other battery, or buy a diagnostic and read the fault
 
I removed the auxiliary battery to charge but it wouldn’t charge as the ‘smart’ charger said it was at full capacity. I will charge the main battery tomorrow to see. It makes sense that it’s a battery as it’s not been used much during the lockdown and where it has was only for small journeys.
 
Gramac66 said:
I have total purchased a ‘smart’ battery charger which tells me the battery is fine and fully charged
Click to expand...
Smart charges are dumb. Replace the starting battery.
Gramac66 said:
I removed the auxiliary battery to charge but it wouldn’t charge as the ‘smart’ charger said it was at full capacity
Click to expand...
The battery charger is looking at battery voltage. A battery can give fully voltage off load, and fall off a cliff the moment it's asked to do something like start the engine.

This is most notable on a traditional (not this modern crap) charger. If the battery won't start the engine properly, a traditional charger will show a rapid drop in charge current, as the low capacity battery fills quickly. This is easily spotted, and so a clue to the issue. A "smart" charger simply sees the battery voltage is at the maximum it should be, so terminates the charge, even though the battery is effectively dead, as its capacity has dropped to a point it's useless.

Any battery more than 5 or 6 years old, will be well past its best, especially a tiny starter battery, cranking over a huge V6 diesel engine.
 
Also your service should include diagnostics enabled to install outstanding updates, never mind
 
S O L V E D

It was the auxiliary stop/ start battery. Despite the ‘smart’ charger saying it was fine, it was clearly not. Cost £94 to replace from Euro Car Parts delivered and an easy 10 minute job to swap out, only requiring a 10mm Long reach socket. LR main dealer wanted £96 plus VAT to diagnose the issue so I reckon I’ve saved twenty quid with this excellent forum. Thank you.
 
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