car totaly dead now C5

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nod
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car totaly dead now C5

Post by nod »

Hi,
I am having suspension problems and today I decided to check the maxi fuses, I disconnected the battery and lifted the fuse tray carefully the maxi fuse No 8 orange colour was OK put it all back together and now all the electrics are dead not even central locking working. any body know what I have done wrong.
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Re: car totaly dead now C5

Post by Peter.N. »

Have you got any life at all, i.e. lights? If not you must have a bad connection in the battery circuit, could be the battery connectors or the earth connection. Connect a meter between battery + and earth somewhere on the body or engine, should have 12v+. I suppose your battery is not flat - or you connected it up the wrong way round?

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Re: car totaly dead now C5

Post by nod »

thanks for the reply Peter,
I have had the battery on charge now for 24hrs and the meter on the charger has only gone down 1amp 3.5amps last night and now 2.5, so Iam thinking maybe the battery has has got so low that it has turned something off.
the car is totally lifeless cant even lock the doors nothing. could a low battery cause this, I checked all the fuses inc the maxi fuses and all is ok there.
I am a little afraid to put the battery back on incase its still dead. run out of ideas now.
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Re: car totaly dead now C5

Post by Peter.N. »

Can you jump it from another car? Sounds as though your battery may have died, you either need another one to try or a simple multimeter, perhaps you can borrow one if you don't have one.

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Re: car totaly dead now C5

Post by daviemck2006 »

A c5 is very prone to electrical problems with a dodgy battery. My c5 died totally and did nothing at all when the battery went. I got no warning about this at all, no difficult starting beforehand, just perfect, dead. As quick as that. A new battery cured it.

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Re: car totaly dead now C5

Post by nod »

Hi,
Thanks for the ideas, I will have to try and get the battery checked tomorrow. I had it on charge for 36 hrs and put it back in the car and nothing, no lights, no dash lights, cant even lock the car.
I checked all the fuses inc the maxi fuses under the fuse tray all OK, is there another fuse I don't know about somewhere or maybe a reset button, that could have tripped.
Run out of ideas now. all was well until last weekend and the serious suspension fault came on over speed bumps, when I got home I checked the fluid and it was really low, topped it up and all was good for a day but came back again so I checked all the fuses the pump was working and the car was driving OK except for the warning light, put it back together and its been dead since.
I have double and treble checked everything I touched and all seems OK. Cant even tow the car now as its sunk right down. Havnt had chance to try a jump start but maybe tomorrow I can organise that. But would the car be so dead, not even a glimmer from the dash board.
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Re: car totaly dead now C5

Post by Peter.N. »

The first thing to do is make sure you have 12 volts or so across the battery terminals when connected to the car, if you have nothing the battery is dead, if you have 12 volts time to look for a bad connection.

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Re: car totaly dead now C5

Post by nod »

Hi,
well today after work I managed to arrange a jump start and still nothing, put the cabels across and left the doner car running for 10 min and still completely dead Citroen, I havnt got a multy tester but now I am suspecting something really expensively serious maybe more than the car is worth, maybe BSI wh.ich I belive has to be done by a Citroen dealer inc the recovery charges. thanks for all the suggestions if anybody has any ideas
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Re: car totaly dead now C5

Post by GiveMeABreak »

I still suggest your battery may be the culprit - the C5 has a lot of electronics which do not like a weak or discharged battery - regardless if you have tried to jump it with a donor. If the battery is really old and end of life, even after a charge, it may not be enough once hooked up to the car's systems to be of any use. You really need to test it properly or get a known good battery and swap it. The car's systems need to be initialised once the battery is disconnected / reconnected too. If you don't get any sidelights on with the new battery, then as said, it could be a bad earth, faulty wiring / terminals.

If the battery has been connected the wrong way (polarity reversed) especially if being jump started and the leads were attached wrongly the circuits have been fried or one of the the fuses may have blown (a visual check is not always effective). Remember there are at least 3 fuse boxes on the C5, 2 in the passenger cabin (if you have a left hand drive these may be in the driver's cubby hole somewhere) and the third one is in the engine compartment.

The fact that the car was working ok until you played about with the maxi fuses / engine fuse box, suggests that this has either not been put back properly or a connection is loose. Double check all the connectors and clean these up with some contact cleaner. Not sure what else to suggest at this point.
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Re: car totaly dead now C5

Post by nod »

Well definitely did not connect the jump leads up wrong, checked and double checked that one but hope your write Give me a break and its just a bad connection somewhere. I checked the fuses maxi, the ones on top and the ones in the cubby hole inside. it is a left hand drive and there appears to be only 2 banks of fuses in there but all in the same place. The car is completely dead no lights no dash board no central locking, but the back tail gate is locked, and the jump leads were with the spare wheel under the floor, that was fun trying to get them out. I am taking the battery to be checked tomorrow, I put every thing back OK checked it all, is WD 40 a suitable contact cleaner to spray on the fuses?
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Re: car totaly dead now C5

Post by Hell Razor5543 »

NO!!! You want something like Servisol (which has been designed for use on live electrical circuits without shorting them out). WD40 was never designed for this, although the may have added one to their range.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Servisol-Switc ... 1493233000
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Re: car totaly dead now C5

Post by GiveMeABreak »

Don't use any release spray as this can react with some plastics. WD 40 is a brand and they do a fast drying contact cleaner from their specialist range here:
https://www.wd40specialist.com/products/contact-cleaner
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Re: car totaly dead now C5

Post by Peter.N. »

If its a Mk1 you have I've got the circuit diagram in fron to me, there are three maxi fuses, one feeds the ignition switch (MF7) the other two feed the systems interface (MF4&5) you need to check the voltage on the the ignition one especially, you really need a test meter they only cost peanuts now so its always worth having one, alternatively you can connect a 12v bulb across the test points.

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Re: car totaly dead now C5

Post by nod »

Ok thanks for all the ideas, I am having a go at it again this afternoon.
To go through the procedure of connecting the battery I cant open the windows so is it good enough just to leave the drivers door open
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Re: car totaly dead now C5

Post by lexi »

If you have no multi meter or measuring device, take the battery out of the car, following correct procedure. Put your jump leads on it and then touch the leads to each other momentarily. There should be a real crack of a spark when you touch pos and neg together. It at least shows you the battery is totally dead, or has some life. Check your earth lead to the body as well.
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