Berlingo Forum

Hi,

I’ve recently purchased a 2005 2.0 HDI desire and am mainly really happy with it. On Monday I took it for a full service which included a cam belt, water pump and auxiliary belt change. It was working fine and drove it home without problems. However, later that evening I tried to start the car and there was nothing – it didn’t try to turnover, all the dash displays were blank and the central locking didn’t work. The only thing that showed any signs of power was the mileage display which was still working. I tried again a little while later and all seemed fine except the radio clock had reset itself . All seemed well yesterday (I used it a couple of times) but this morning I opened the car using remote central locking, turned the ignition key and all the dash lights were working but when I tried to start it, everything went blank, except the mileage display, and the car wouldn’t try to turn over. I opened the bonnet and checked the battery lead, which although slightly loose seemed to be connected, and tried again and the car started OK but again the radio clock had reset. I took it back to the service station who checked the battery which was fine. Any ideas what the problem could be? Thanks. Chris.

it looks like bad connection,, and i'd blame that lead at the battery,,, the clock always resets itself when power is disconnected and that lead has to be tight,, for connection reasons as well as recharging, so either tighten terminal or get a new on to replace it

Thanks joemc20. I thought it might be the connection but I think it is quick release so not sure how to tighten it. Also I wondered why the mileage display was still live when everything else appeared dead (as expected, the mileage display went off when the battery lead was completely disconnected). I hope it’s not an ECU or BSI problem…(by the way, what is the difference between the ECU and BSI)?

i dont think its BSI... thats the onboard computer and has all the details of speedometer,, the ecu is the engine control unit,, its housed beside battery and controls the workings of the engine and its sensors, your battery terminal could be worn or the quick release itself,, some people put a screw in between both to ensure connection but i'd perfer to change fitting if its that

The usual reason for say the milometer working but nothing else is that there is only a slight electrical connection, only allowing a small amount of current to flow just enough to run the milometer but nothing else.

This is used purposefully on old minis as a kind of immobiliser, there is a removable fuse put on the main battery cable and a thin wire bypassing the fuse , this allows the radio to retain its memory so you didn't have to retune it every time you removed the fuse but, stops the car from starting.

However, forget to put the fuse back in and try to start the car and you would have to retune the radio anyway, oh, and replace the thin wire you have just burnt through trying to start the car!

Thanks for everyone's help with this. I'm a bit paranoid about ECU faults as I had to scrap my last car because of this and don't want to be in the same situation with my Berlingo. I started it several times yesterday without any problems so I'll have to see how it goes. I'm going to clean the battery terminals over the weekend and hopefully that will help.

Yeah that's a good idea bit of wirexwool can work wonders!

Another place to check is the battery earth to the body , they can corrode here, in fact most cars seem to suffer from this, moving it to another good point on the bodywork can sort things too.