Demise of a C5

[Stempy]

Was working away from home last week when I get a call from the Mrs telling me the car won't start. Sods law dictates that she was about to leave to catch a flight and was now in a panic. I ran through the usual checks and the conclusion was that that the battery had gone flat over night (again) as it was randomly wont to do. OK I said, not to worry, there's a spare fully charged battery in the garage and it's a quick and easy job to replace it in the C5, albeit a bit heavy, so I run through what to do and ring off.

Five minutes later I get another call to tell me the battery is connected but the horn is going off continuously I think you can guess why. In the panic Mrs hadn't paid attention to the battery polarity. Not helped by the fact that Citroen in their wisdom colour the positive terminal black she had connected it back to front. Instant toast and public transport to the airport.

Initial diagnosis shows multiple blown fuses, burnt out alternator, every light on the dash lit up and alarm sounding continously. Amazingly it still started after a bit of coaxing, but not much else works. Consequently I've given to a local acquaintance who is a keen amateur mechanic and Xantia fan and seems dead keen to try and resurrect it. He's a Romanian and has a pal back home who is a Citroen specialist and mainly works on C5's. He says he will ship it back to him if he can't get it going here.

Still, every cloud has a silver lining, it means my hand now has been forced to go off and buy something which will hopefully not demand so much of my attention to keep it usable.

[CitroJim]

Cor, I'm shocked at the level of harm done

And all for a bit of reverse polarity protection... Spoiled the ship for a ha'peth of tar

Good luck to the person who is going to try and fix it!

Let us know how he gets on

What are you planning to get in replacement?

[Stempy]

Lesson to all, fit a big fat diode and inline fuse so this doesn't happen to you. I suppose at least the horn sounding was a clue, but alas too late.

Mrs has always wanted a Chrysler Crossfire, though I'd prefer a 350Z. Whatever, it will likely be a two seater now we have no dog to consider.

[lexi]

Hats off to wife for at least trying to get going. They are all scrap sooner ..........or later. Shame you lost your transport instantly like that though........and a few quid for whatever it was worth.

[Gibbo2286]

I can't say I've ever looked but I would have thought there would be a fusible link to stop damage caused by this event.

[GiveMeABreak]

With the almost complete reliance on ECUs and multiplexed systems on more modern cars, you would think that they would have a built in protection system at the battery source - I mean how difficult can it be when you think that most of newer type of battery chargers have that basic protection built in if you accidentally reverse the polarity!

A good warning to all, a shame it happened to you though.

[xantia_v6]

A common protection for ECUs is that they are powered via relays which have an internal diode in series to the coil, so they cant energise if the polarity is reversed. Not so effective if the relay has been replaced with a similar looking device without the internal diode.

[Stempy]

It really wasn't worth much, couldn't even offload it here for £400 and a dealer offered me £100 as a part ex., and still under 50k miles.

[Paul-R]

I keep banging on about Gumtree as a method of selling a car but you could try offering it on that if all else fails. Should get you more than scrap value at least.

Commiserations to you on this anyway.

How much MOT is/was there?

[Stempy]

MOT until end of Jan so not much left, in all honesty I'm glad to rid of it, shame though that is, as it was a bit of a liability.

[CitroJim]

Good excuse to get that 350Z anyway Stempy. That's what I'd have...