Battery died and strang clicking sound started on long trip?

Barbarian · Post by **Barbarian** » 14 Sep 2006, 08:28

I drove down from scotland to devon for a holiday the other week and on the way down a clicking sound started which seems to be coming from my indicator, on the same trip about 3 quarters of the way down my battery died at a service station and the car would'nt start up again, I had to call the AA out and he replaced the battery, Problem solved and the clicking sound went away also. On the way back up after the holiday the clicking sound started again but i made it home and so far the battery has not died on me. But is this clicking in anyway related to the battery failing on me? It seems to have got worse the last few days and is an almost constant clicking unless i use the indicators. Im worried incase there is some electrical fault thats going to fry the new 80 quid battery? Its the 1.9TD model.

rowanmoor · Post by **rowanmoor** » 14 Sep 2006, 08:59

Does it click at the speed the indicators go if there is a dead bulb? If so then it sounds like the usual indicator problem. If so then it is totally unrelated to the battery.

The sensor circuit in the relay for detecting dead bulbs is over sensitive. That linked with the stalk getting old and worn means that the stalk starts to leak small amounts of current when in the center position (made worse by damp - hence it being so bad at the moment) and that trigers the relay to start clicking to indicate a dead bulb, but because the stalk is still in the center position there are no bulbs lit. When you use the indicators it gets the full current and idicates correctly.

There are 2 solutions:
1) Dismantle the stalk, clean it out, regrease anything that needs it and reassemble (stops the current leak).
2) Remove a certain resistor in the relay unit and replace with the correctly rated one for the IC they use. I have done this on my XM and it solved the problem. I think I found the instructions on here somewhere (otherwise it was ClubXM) - someone will probably pop up with a link soon or a search may find it.

Barbarian · Post by **Barbarian** » 14 Sep 2006, 09:27

I dont think there is any dead indicator bulbs but ill double check. It clicks faster than the indicators do. Its as if its only half clicking constantly when i use the indicators they seem to work normally.

wrinklet1 · Post by **wrinklet1** » 14 Sep 2006, 09:47

Just an idea,
check the small cable that supplies the alternator, it can break and wriggle about therefore making and breaking the connection. When this happens, you hear a ticking noise and also your battery doesn't charge. No warning lights will come on to tell you about this on your dash.
It happened to my car a few months ago, its worth checking out

Paul

jeremy · Post by **jeremy** » 14 Sep 2006, 10:27

The indicator clicking problem is common and is due to something in the circuit being the wrong value. There is a recentish post going into this very thoroughly and describing how to cure it.

I get this on our ZX at times - and we replaced the switch about 20,000 miles ago for new when the old one took up smoking. I find that putting the hazards on for a short while tends to stop it for a while.

jeremy · Post by **jeremy** » 14 Sep 2006, 10:34

http://www.frenchcarforum.co.uk/forum/v ... hp?t=19077

Post by **Peter.N.** » 14 Sep 2006, 11:48

I usually make that journey the other way round! How old was your battery? only they do tend to fail quite suddenly. Because they have a miltitude of very thin plates and thus a large surface area, they will go on staring the car, providing it starts first time, until they have very little capacity left and it doesn't take much to completely flatten them, once that happens they very often give up.

rowanmoor · Post by **rowanmoor** » 14 Sep 2006, 13:21

Barbarian wrote:I dont think there is any dead indicator bulbs but ill double check. It clicks faster than the indicators do. Its as if its only half clicking constantly when i use the indicators they seem to work normally.

Sounds like the usual problem then. There will be no dead bulbs, but the circuit is confused and when you are not indicating it thinks you are and that there are no bulbs connected, but you aren't indicating and so nothing lights up - just the relay ticking away at double speed.

slim123 · Post by **slim123** » 14 Sep 2006, 13:47

Had this problem years ago in a CX, turned out to be the Hazzard switch!!

Might be worth a try?

Regards
Slim

Post by **xantia_v6** » 14 Sep 2006, 19:23

It was me who originally posted the resistor change, which certainly worked on my old xantia.

On my current xantia, the resistor was already 1K, and I had no trouble with the ticking until a couple of months ago, when I had a couple of bouts of it few a few minutes. I did not get around to taking any action.

Then about 2 weeks ago, after a lane change, smoke started wafting out from behind the steering wheel. I was on a very busy dual carriageway with no hard shoulder, so I had to keep driving, and the smoke soon stopped, but next time I went to use the indicators, the stalk would not move.

I fitted a new switch from GSF (there are at least 3 variants depending on where the horn and fog switches are). Dismantling the old switch, I can see that it went into melt-down due to the leakage across the contacts. I am sure that it is made of flame retardant plastic, so not a great safety hazard, but it might be better to dismantle and clean your switch if you have the ticking phenomena.