Electrical weirdness - what happened advice!

[_cjj]

Hi,

I've got a 1.6 HDI dispatch, roughly 2010 in year. Here's some of the general 'might need to know' bits:

• Battery is a bit weak, at 12.3v ish. Has started, unlocked etc fine but is almost always in eco mode

• Everything generally works - no other issues I know of

• No water ingress triggers

• My lexia chose a good time to start playing up, but generic OBD2 reader showed no P codes

So I had the van running on the drive to test out a dashcam. It has a rear camera which I'd wired up to an accessory 12v, but - when testing it - I found that it was supposed to be wired to the reverse light and was on constantly. So I removed the wire I'd attached - nothing suspect about this part of it - and also tidied up the job. The dash cam has been wired up for a while with no issues, and this was just testing out the rear camera part. When I'd started the van, it did struggle a little bit to start up, so the battery was a bit weak at that point.

Went to start it up after I'd turned it off and removed the 12v feed to the rear camera, and turning the key had it beeping through all the possible faults (brake failure, airbag failure etc), and the dipped beam symbol is lit up - but the dipped lights won't actually come on. Tail lights seem to come on with ignition and won't go off, and it doesn't crank - you can hear a relay click but that's it. Dash looks like this:



I have tried all the usual candidates - I'm 99.9% sure that the jobby I was doing was unrelated, and I didn't do anything stupid/accidental in the 12v wiring - it seems just coincidental. I did try some brief BSI resets, but achieved nothing. Disconnected the rear lights and door looms just in case there was a short.
I've ordered a new battery just in case it's anything weird like that, but I'm stumped otherwise.

Is this a weird "having a tantrum" PSA thing that will - hopefully - either resolve itself overnight, or with the battery disconnected for a while - or even with a new battery?

[GiveMeABreak]

You should only wire accessories like a dash cam directly to a power source and never by splicing or taking a feed off other wires as these vehicles have CAN data networks and wiring-in non compliant devices can cause electrical problems.

I suggest you use a piggy back fuse to either a permanent live or switched ignition live in the passenger compartment fuse box.

[_cjj]

You should only wire accessories like a dash cam directly to a power source and never by splicing or taking a feed off other wires as these vehicles have CAN data networks and wiring-in non compliant devices can cause electrical problems.

I suggest you use a piggy back fuse to either a permanent live or switched ignition live in the passenger compartment fuse box.

The dash cam is wired that way - the one I spliced off was for an unused switched live (for the towbar plugs that are not doing anything) that was only going to a little camera. It worked fine and started with it that way, and has since been removed, but doesn't appear to be related

[ozvtr]

Replace the battery, particularly if you are suspicious of it.

Weird electrical problems can be attributed to a "bad" battery. It might not look bad at a glance, but it could fail when a load is applied. And a bad battery could run the car fine in the morning but stop the car running in the afternoon! They can give up without any prior warning. Typical life span of an average car battery is about 4 years.

Battery should only be tested using a load tester, multimeter won't tell you much unless the battery is DEAD flat!

Eco mode only cuts in after a system has been running for 30 minutes without the engine running. Typically it's the radio, but even just the ignition on and (apparently) nothing else on, will cause the car to go into ECO mode (after 30 min). A lot of people do work on their cars with the ignition on and loose track of time. They think there is something wrong because it went int ECO mode...it's normal. If you don't need the accessories on, turn the ignition off. If you do need the accessories on, you've got 30 minutes, then it will shut down.

[_cjj]

Replace the battery, particularly if you are suspicious of it.

Fitted a brand new one today - no difference

Managed to get lexia working today - nothing particularly obvious came up. Ones in bold stayed after a clear.

BSI:
F406 (Oil Pressure sensor)
F40A (Oil gauge)
9528 (Absence of command of the starter)
F5FF (Unexpected re-initialisation fault coming from the BSI)
F9B8 (Power Latch relay fault)

Injection:
P0104 (Flowmeter signal)
P0691 (Fan high speed control)

BTC:
F9B8 (Power Latch relay fault)

ABS/traction control:
communication error

Airbags:
9651 (supply voltage ignition switched +)

Radio
C917 & C918 (Front R&L audio output fault)


I wasn't actually sure if the ABS one was a smoking gun, or if it just doesn't have a module for that on the van

[ozvtr]

Do you have a power distribution/management module that sits over the battery?

[wheeler]

Eco mode only cuts in after a system has been running for 30 minutes without the engine running. Typically it's the radio, but even just the ignition on and (apparently) nothing else on, will cause the car to go into ECO mode (after 30 min). A lot of people do work on their cars with the ignition on and loose track of time. They think there is something wrong because it went int ECO mode...it's normal. If you don't need the accessories on, turn the ignition off. If you do need the accessories on, you've got 30 minutes, then it will shut down.

That’s correct for a VAN/CAN system but full CAN eco mode strategy is a bit different. The Dispatch/Jumpy went straight from being not multiplexed to full CAN.
On full CAN the amount of time you get out of eco mode depends on how long the engine has ran for. If the car is in eco mode & you start & run it for 2 minutes you will get 4 minutes out of eco mode, if you run it for 8 minutes you get 16 minutes out of eco mode & it goes like this up to a maximum 30 minutes out of eco mode.
On the later systems that have a BMS this will also influence eco mode trigger times.

[Gbh]

Guys in need of help I had a abs fault on my car and I read on here the possibility of a broken wire so I took the covering off the loom and found nothing put back together now I have more issues like no speedo brakes faulty airbag fault etc I've done the bsi reset and still nothing I know I never unplugged anything or found a broken wire what do I do now?

[Gbh]

I had a abs intermittent fault I read on here it's possible broken wires so I took the covering off the loom and found nothing I recovered the loom and now I have no speedo braking failure airbag or resistance bolts failure can anyone help please