I am posting this question on behalf of a friend who owns an Elegance 150 multijet. He was woken in the early hours by the sound of his engine fans running. Next the alarm activated on the car and he now has flat battery. As soon as he connects the battery the engine fans run. A while ago he had a message flash across his screen when starting the car saying "Engine hot, switch off engine". He took this as a spurious message as the car showed no other sympoms. With the battery flat he has all the load shedding messages. Has anyone experienced this type of fault ???
Technical Radiator fans running
- Thread starter croman
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Technical Radiator fans running
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Normal behaviour for lots of erroneous alarms with a flat battery, the issue here is the fans running even when the engine is cold (presumably)
Maybe a dealer could advise on possible software updates available for the car? Always worth a look at the cooling fan control system, might be something silly like a switch fault in the cooling system.
On the darker side... the ECU may be playing up, possibly water ingress, dodgy wiring connectors etc...
1st visit for me would be a dealer to get the stored codes read & interpreted.
Maybe a dealer could advise on possible software updates available for the car? Always worth a look at the cooling fan control system, might be something silly like a switch fault in the cooling system.
On the darker side... the ECU may be playing up, possibly water ingress, dodgy wiring connectors etc...
1st visit for me would be a dealer to get the stored codes read & interpreted.
DoIDon'tI
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My initial thought is (like Ffoxy has identified) a fault in the cooling system control circuitry - the alarm may be triggered by the voltage drop? Ditto for an ECU fault. If it's as simple as a shorted sensor (which would tie in with the 'overheat' message then there may be no codes to read. If it keeps happening try disconnecting the ECU (with the battery disconnected) then reconnect the battery (or find the fuse for the ECU and pull it) - if the fault still occurs then it's not the ECU.
May also be down to rodents eating wires..? Not unheard of, I had a mouse nest in the engine bay (in the middle of the engine 'V') of my old Citroen XM
I'm suspecting the mouse went and hid somewhere else when the engine started
Anyway, please let us know how your friend gets on - it's an unusual one.
HTH.
May also be down to rodents eating wires..? Not unheard of, I had a mouse nest in the engine bay (in the middle of the engine 'V') of my old Citroen XM
I'm suspecting the mouse went and hid somewhere else when the engine started
Anyway, please let us know how your friend gets on - it's an unusual one.
HTH.
Thanks Ffoxy and DoIDontI for your quick answers and I will be assisting my friend in the diagnostics. At present we are having a job locationg the sensors etc and as we are both engineers by trade these things should be fairly simple to recognise. Will let you know how we get on. Thanks again
Haven't had a chance to check the workshop manual as to whether the engine temperature sensors are +ve or -ve resitance coefficient.
If +ve then an open or high impedance (caused by faulty/corroded) connection could signal a false temperature.
If -ve then a low impedance (caused possible by water ingress) could cause a fasle reading.
I'm kind of hoping that open circuit or short circuit conditions will signal a system fault and turn the old warning light on the dash on.
As has also been pointed out it is not uncommon for false reporting to occur momentarilly.
If +ve then an open or high impedance (caused by faulty/corroded) connection could signal a false temperature.
If -ve then a low impedance (caused possible by water ingress) could cause a fasle reading.
I'm kind of hoping that open circuit or short circuit conditions will signal a system fault and turn the old warning light on the dash on.
As has also been pointed out it is not uncommon for false reporting to occur momentarilly.
To all thanks for your help and to assist all in the future the fault was water in the fan electrical p-lug/socket which short circuited the system and brought the fans online. They ran and overheated the solenoid welding the points together hence flattening the battery which activated the alarm. Cure: the fitment of a 'modified' plug and socket which is an integral part of the radiator electrical system - cost >>£200:00
