C5 II Revival drama

[thomas_Sweden]

I have a C5 Tourer 2005 3.0 Aut which I consider as my summer leisure car. Last winter, it was sheltered in farmer Palmgren's barn 8 miles away. This spring, I went there carrying a newly loaded battery and a compressor because I was told the back tires were flat. So I inflated the tires, connected the battery, waited the grace period for all systems to run up, and turned the ignition key.
The engine started with a somewhat itchy sound but run then smoothly without any trouble. However, we observed sort of mice infestment under the hood. Lot of collected grain and droppings, mostly in the electrical compartments.
I took home the baby on her own engine, all functional tests were running well.
Well back home, I gave her a few days rest before starting the cleaning procedure. There was a thick layer of mice s**t all over the electrical compartment with the central relais box (BSI) and the engine control box (ECU?). I cleaned everything with soap water but also with direct attack with the garden hose.
After that, the entire electric system fore of the mast went crazy. Wipers wiped unwanted, headlamps ran without being ordered, a single side lamp sometimes went on. Engine did not start. I bought a used BSI from a junkyard in Lithuania. It arrived in a rather bad shape regarding the mechanical clips and fastening elements.
I changed components back and forth, learned how to reset the "economy mode" which deconnects all electrical consumers until the engine has been started successfully. Which it did not.
Now I have scrutinised the Lithuanian box and found a fuse which was faulty. I replaced it and suddenly, the engine snorted to run!

[GiveMeABreak]

Well I enjoyed reading that!

I only happened to mention in my Blog yesterday about Citroen making an anti-rodent device available as an accessory for my Aircross!:

viewtopic.php?p=688911#p688911

[white exec]

A great read, Thomas. The car is in good hands.
A neighbour of ours had large chunks of his Suzuki electrics eaten (eaten!) by mice a few years ago, and that was on a car in daily use! Apparently they are fond of pvc insulation...

[Peter.N.]

I left one of my XM's parked up for a bit and found the heater air intake full of hazel nuts, something a bit larger than mice I would imagine, fortunately it hadn't done any harm.

Peter

[richo]

On C5 II how can you reset or alter the time period of economy mode, please?

[GiveMeABreak]

You can't.

30 minutes or less it what you get to prevent engine starting failure or problems with other ECU issues affected by low voltage. You'll need to drive for at least double the time you have used when accessories with the engine off to recover the time used. Having said that, if your vehicle is going into economy mode more frequently with the engine off, then that may signify your battery is in poor health. A battery over 5 years old is near end of service life these days - depending on conditions of use. The battery may start the car, but over time its ability to hold a charge and how much of a charge it can hold is greatly reduced.

[Peter.N.]

Mine invariably comes on in 'economy' mode Marc, and I have to start the engine to set the satnav but they are not being used as much at the moment. The red one had a new battery quite recently, still does it though. I think there is a problem with it somewhere because the starter turns somewhat slower that in the other one and doesn't always start first time. I checked it for voltage drop between the battery and starter but unfortunately it was in the warm weather and there was only a 1 volt drop and the car started instantly, I will have to repeat it in the colder weather. Also the starter doesn't always operate on the first turn, ignition switch?

The silver car has a pretty old battery and still starts first time and sounds much more lively, but also comes on in economy mode. Any thoughts?

Peter

[myglaren]

I would suspect the starter not spinning fast enough.
I had the same with one of mine, ancient and under spec battery the suspect but there was nothing at all wrong with it. New starter did the trick.
Put a new battery on it anyway,

[Peter.N.]

New starter and battery recently fitted - no improvement. I'm pretty sure there is a high resistance in the starter feed somewhere.

Peter

[Hell Razor5543]

If you can, try starting her a couple of times and then feel the various heavy duty cables. It is not unknown for them to break down over time, increasing their resistance (and limiting the power delivery to the starter motor). Any cable that feels fairly warm (or, possibly, hot) should be replaced.