in extreme cold the battery doesn't hold a charge

Hi,

I have a C3 1.6 Hdi 2007 which after the bad weather has picked up a few faults mainly electrical.

1) in extreme cold the battery doesnt hold a charge for long and on mild days after bein sat for a day or 2 struggles to start so i am putting that down to battery on its way out

2) LHR light cluster: this has been driving me crazy as the fault happend over a month ago and then over night the VM fairies fixed it and went away. the lights seem to work when they please i have checked the voltage and all connections read 8 volts. can the battery problem have an effect on this? the loss of voltage i am thinking somewhere is waterlogged, any suggestions on where to start looking? and if it is water logged could this be the cause of my battery drain?

I would be very grateful on any suggestions on where to start looking as i dont have any wiring diagrams or locations of connectors etc


-- Pete --

Hi PeterD222G, welcome to the forum!

1) in extreme cold the battery doesnt hold a charge for long and on mild days after bein sat for a day or 2 struggles to start so i am putting that down to battery on its way out

This sounds likely to me, also considering the age of the car (and hence the age of the battery).

i have checked the voltage and all connections read 8 volts.

Too low in the voltage department. Should be 12v or a bit more.

Check that the connectors are not showing signs of burning or corrosion, do a visual inspection. The first connectors to check are the ones that connect to the cluster, they are the easiest to get to.

i am thinking somewhere is waterlogged, any suggestions on where to start looking? and if it is water logged could this be the cause of my battery drain?

It could, but it will be possible to see the water. I have not heard of water in the rear clusters, they seem quite well sealed, but Citroen C3 has water in the headlights topic - here is quite common and easy to verify. The electrics don't tend to get waterlogged on the C3 apart from the headlights servo inside the headlight assembly.

Hi C3car,

Cheers for the help, the cluster looks fine and doesnt show signs of water, i took the voltage reading from the connector and on inspection it looks like there was a previous fault (before ownership) as some of the wires to the connector have been exposed (as to get a reading from there instead of the connector, i also took a reading from there). my next option is to rip the interior to trace the wiring back.

Thanks

Pete

my next option is to rip the interior to trace the wiring back.

I see your thinking there, especially as someone else may have been in there too, but my suggestion is to check the other ends of the wire before getting to the middle. If the light cluster is one end of the wire, the other end is a plug at the BSI in the glove box.

The supply for rear light cluster is from the BSI. You can also pull the plug from the BSI and measure the resistance of the wires to prove its actually the wire rather than the BSI feeding bad voltages.

On a 2002 to 2006 shape car, the rear light clusters are on a 16 way black plug (pins 11 and 15). The 11 supplies RH tail light and 15 supplies the LH tail light and the 2 number plate lights. Its worth checking if the voltage at the number plate lights too, as a good voltage here would indicate the supply from the BSI is ok. Yours being a 2007, I would think is very similar and well worth checking for those pins on that plug.