I'm a total newbie at fixing cars. Said car is a 2000 Xantia 2.0 petrol.
Knowing that cold starts demand a lot from the battery, I replaced the battery with a brand new one 2 months ago.
Regardless, now that it's cold, I'm having trouble starting. Yesterday I connected the battery to an 'intelligent' charger (CTEK MXS), and let it fully charge. Today we have a cold morning, and I have trouble starting.
However, the way my car behaves when it's hard to start feels weird. If the battery was flat, then I'd expect the starter motor to be slow, and progressively get slower and slower the longer I'm running it.
What happened today was:
- The gauges for speed, temp, fuel etc 'flicker' or 'jump up and down' like crazy while trying to start.
- Starter motor feels slow (or perhaps the engine is hard to turn).
- I keep the starter motor on for a long time -- maybe 20-30 seconds -- and the starter motor keeps running equally badly, no change.
- Eventually the car barely manages to start.
Is this something I should be able to fix myself (warning: I'm a newbie), or should I leave this to the authorized mechanic shop?
Thank you,