R50/53 What to do next????
What to do next????
Where to start..... 03-R53 has sat for about a year without leaving the driveway. Decided to resurrect Mary Jane and after filling all the fluids and charging/replacing the battery I got her running again. While purging air from coolant the coolant reservoir tank split in the usual place so today i put in the OEM replacement. While purging air from coolant yet again i noticed the battery and air bag light was on. Went to take her for a test spring anyways and while backing out of driveway I noticed power steering was not working at all and the temp gauge started to rise past the halfway point. Shut her off and let her cool down and the reservoir tank was empty again. Filled it back up and went to start her up again and nothing. No lights and no dinging from key. Now this leads me to believe that I have a loose ground somewhere???? So the way I see it i have a couple things wrong and I’m looking for some guidance from the pros on this forum.
1. Car will not start and no action when key inserted.
2. Power Steering not working, worked fine when car put in garage.
3. When is the air bag light on all the time.
4. Grounding, where to start to look?
Any help you folks could render would be a great help. Thanks in advance.
1. Car will not start and no action when key inserted.
2. Power Steering not working, worked fine when car put in garage.
3. When is the air bag light on all the time.
4. Grounding, where to start to look?
Any help you folks could render would be a great help. Thanks in advance.
Voting alternator, although unfortunately you can't get the car running to check the charging voltage now. These cars hate hate hate battery / low voltage and charging issues.
Power steering is a huge power draw (100A circuit) so if the car wasn't charging the (new?) battery, seems like it wouldn't take long for the steering to shut down followed quickly by the rest of the car.
The overheating could be the water pump and/or thermostat gone bad, but it also could just be that last bubble you needed to burp out of the system (there's always one).
Would recommend re-charge the battery on a plug-in overnight or swap in a known good fully charged unit, make sure it holds at least 12.6V resting. In the mean time, check the negative and positive battery cables, and the ground strap leading to the right upper engine mount and make sure all are clean, bright, and tight. In the morning see if you can get the car started and running long enough to check the charging voltage (min: 13.6V or higher). If no bueno, then front end maintenance mode to swap out the alty and "while you're in there" possibly the water pump and thermostat, blower oil service, and seventeen other prudent things others will recommend doing.
Good luck this weekend, looking forward to hearing how this one worked out...
Power steering is a huge power draw (100A circuit) so if the car wasn't charging the (new?) battery, seems like it wouldn't take long for the steering to shut down followed quickly by the rest of the car.
The overheating could be the water pump and/or thermostat gone bad, but it also could just be that last bubble you needed to burp out of the system (there's always one).
Would recommend re-charge the battery on a plug-in overnight or swap in a known good fully charged unit, make sure it holds at least 12.6V resting. In the mean time, check the negative and positive battery cables, and the ground strap leading to the right upper engine mount and make sure all are clean, bright, and tight. In the morning see if you can get the car started and running long enough to check the charging voltage (min: 13.6V or higher). If no bueno, then front end maintenance mode to swap out the alty and "while you're in there" possibly the water pump and thermostat, blower oil service, and seventeen other prudent things others will recommend doing.
Good luck this weekend, looking forward to hearing how this one worked out...
Ok, got a new multimeter to check battery and just like RedSky455 said it started again the next morning. I checked grounds under hood and back at battery and cleaned up both. I only have 12 volts at the battery so I’m guessing the alternator i replaced 8 years ago just died again..... Old battery had a little bit of swelling to it before it was replaced so I’m wondering if alternator was on its way out before parking her.
Well she is running again thanks to the alternator by RockAuto.com. Air bag light is still on but she drives well so I will attempt to tackle that another day.... Thanks for all the help.
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R50/R53 :: Hatch Talk (2002-2006)
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