Electronic wierdness windows, radio and seats

[Stempy]

Three niggly electronic faults still to trace on the C5.

One is the operation of the rear windows which is kind of random. They mostly work from their own switches but sometimes not. The front drivers door switches for the rears rarely have any effect and sometime work back to front so up is down and down is up On occasion, the rear nearside window will open of its own accord

The radio will sometimes not switch off with the ignition. When it does this all control of it is lost. It can mostly be cured by starting the engine and switching off again but sometime I have to pull the fuse.

I've tried the BSI reset procedure which sometimes makes the windows work for a short while and sometimes not. Lexia doesn't report any errors but interestingly won't operate the rear windows via the actuator test.

Heated seats still don't work, heat pads check out ok but no volts from BSI to the stat control. I think this is the engine running feed that stops the seats heating when the engine isn't running.

Any electronic whizzes on here had these issues and dealt with nthem successfully?

[myglaren]

Three niggly electronic faults still to trace on the C5.

One is the operation of the rear windows which is kind of random. They mostly work from their own switches but sometimes not. The front drivers door switches for the rears rarely have any effect and sometime work back to front so up is down and down is up On occasion, the rear nearside window will open of its own accord

Mine misbehave a bit, rear nearside will only open from the driver's control, not close.
Works fine from the door control.
Also none of the windows auto-open/close from the driver’s control pad but work fine from their individual switches.
I gather from other posts on this problem that it is possible to strip and clean the control pad and one fine day I may do just that.

The radio will sometimes not switch off with the ignition. When it does this all control of it is lost. It can mostly be cured by starting the engine and switching off again but sometime I have to pull the fuse.

I've tried the BSI reset procedure which sometimes makes the windows work for a short while and sometimes not. Lexia doesn't report any errors but interestingly won't operate the rear windows via the actuator test.

Is your battery definitely in good health as these problems could be associated with a somewhat deteriorated battery.
Try removing it and giving it a full trickle charge. May help and also may indicate the need for a replacement battery.

Heated seats still don't work, heat pads check out ok but no volts from BSI to the stat control. I think this is the engine running feed that stops the seats heating when the engine isn't running.

Any electronic whizzes on here had these issues and dealt with nthem successfully?

Have you checked the Maxi-fuse in the hidden fusebox under the main engine bay fusebox?
There are also two fuses in one of the boxes in the car, IIRC the one in the passenger glovebox.

[Stempy]

Thanks for that. Battery is a year old so should be ok. I did strip the drivers door switch panel and clean it but I may try again and repaint the conductive layer on the rubber pad and see what happens. Perhaps I was too vigorous with my cleaning!

Haven't checked any 'hidden' fuses though all the visible ones check out ok.

[handyman]

Hi Stempy, your battery may only be a year old, but if its showing undervoltage, the car does go into another mode. Best way is to get a voltmeter on to it and check the output reading, not just across the terminals but to the end of the starter cable and likewise to the earth terminals. Its also worth checking ALL the earth terminals. You only need the voltage to drop by under one volt & the car goes into sulk mode & starts to play silly buggers.

We had many similar niggles on my brothers Mk1 C5. Seems like many of the contacts need to be kept scrupulously clean. Are you prepared to buy contact cleaner wholesale?

The other simple thing worth checking is your battery terminal clamps for dirt or corrosion. If in doubt, get a bit of sandpaper & give them a buff up on the posts & clamps. Use only sandpaper, not other abrasive papers as they leave traces & not coarser than 120 grit. 30 or 40 might be a bit too coarse!

H

[Stempy]

Voltage test results as follows;

Ignition off 12.8v at terminals
Ignition on 12.5v at terminals
Engine running 13.8v at terminals

Potential difference between battery negative terminal and chassis earthing strap 38mV
Potential difference between battery negative terminal and engine earthing strap 67mV

How does that sound?

[handyman]

Hi Stempy, your battery terminal voltage looks lowish. Try taking a reading on the posts, then on the clamps. See if you get a voltage drop. That'd point to dirty terminations. Are the terminals tight?

Take a voltage reading from the - ve battery terminal to the +ve terminal on the starter solenoid. Likewise from +ve terminal to the chassis earthing points. Might be worth checking the crimping on the +ve battery clamp. Its a know failure point as its a crap way of making a joint that carries such a high load that is subject to corrosion.

You need to be checking for voltage continuity, not resistance.

H

[Stempy]

So, during my other recent works I also cleaned every plug, socket, earth clamp, battery clamp and terminal posts. The niggles remain but today I had a good old play with the Lexia and it appears that all the problems I have stem from the BSI. Using the actuator test in the BSI menu I can get all the non working bits to work all the time the Lexia is connected. Sadly disconnecting the Lexia returns it to sulk mode, so it would seem there is some kind of glitch in the BSI progamming that a BSI reset wont cure.

Wondering whether to dare a BSI initialisation with the Lexia but a bit afraid of bricking it. I have a spare BSI but it's a bit useless being that they're vehicle specific.

[Hell Razor5543]

Have you tried the battery reset routine? It can clear some glitches that C cars come up with;

http://www.frenchcarforum.co.uk/forum/v ... 11&t=40407" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Stempy]

Yes, on several occasions, it has cleared some faults but I'm still left with a remaining few....

[Mandrake]

Voltage test results as follows;

Ignition off 12.8v at terminals
Ignition on 12.5v at terminals
Engine running 13.8v at terminals

How does that sound?

13.8 volts with the engine running is too low, and if it never goes any higher than that the battery will never be reaching a full charge.

With all accessories off and the engine idling for at least 5 minutes (to replenish any charge lost during starting) it should rise to about 14.2 volts. Anything less than 14.0v with accessories off is not good. Relatively small differences in charge voltage for a lead acid battery result in large differences in the percentage of charge obtained.

If you had the headlights on high and the rear window heater and the blower all on, 14.0, maybe 13.8 would be acceptable, (or at least typical) as long as it rose back to 14.2 with some of them turned off.

Somewhere in another thread I posted the voltage reading on my Xantia with various accessories turned on, I'll see if I can find it.

[Mandrake]

Found it:

http://www.frenchcarforum.co.uk/forum/v ... =3&t=47002" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Stempy]

Interesting, I will have to check it again now I've cleaned everything up and test with various loading. Sorry to hear your Xantia is on the way out after all the effort that's gone into it.