Coupe won’t start

[Rex Kapriellian]

Hi all,

my battery is about 4 years old now (bosh) lack of use and on/off the tender isn’t holding a strong charge anymore. I can crank but not start(was running fine a month ago). I ran into this issue before and a fresh battery solved the problem. What or how or where and at what value is the car looking for voltage to get everything lined up for start. Very possible I floored it a couple time as well. I did have the gauge cluster and dash out to work the AC and heating system, i learned not having the cluster connected will drain the battery, and now the battery is no longer accepting a good charge.

1) is this common on CSI’s and why
2) which battery would use today

 

[Mal CSL 3.0]

Batteries will only last about 5 years in my CSL. Recently I put up with a near end of it's life battery for a few months until it let me down completely. Thankfully I did not stall in traffic as that would have been an absolute disaster, not to mention highly embarrassing as would have caused a huge traffic jam. I had just pulled off the road for a photo op, then out of the blue it just wouldn't start.

I wont be so lazy / stingy again. So once they start underperforming, better to just bite the bullet and replace. And also nothing quite like a new battery to also generally improve overall performance.

 

[adawil2002]

Even with my regularly used CSi, driven between 15,000km & 20,000km per year, the battery will only lasts 4-5 years. Even if kept on a tender.

 

[teahead]

You getting spark?

Pull a spark plug wire and stick a screw driver in there and get it close to something metal and crank.

 

[tferrer]

Our injected cars need a very steady and strong 12-13V to be happy and are very sensitive to fluctuations in voltage. The miracle that is the ECU is very finicky...get a new battery and you should be fine...

 

[halboyles]

Starting is only part of the electrical problem. If your battery is low and the starter draws most of that current turning the engine over, you might not have enough spark to achieve ignition. Even a small drop in battery voltage lowers the chance of good ignition. Here is a graphic of the charged states of the battery that is rather dramatic in its interpretation of voltage.

 

[Rex Kapriellian]

You getting spark?

Pull a spark plug wire and stick a screw driver in there and get it close to something metal and crank.

I confirmed it with a carb cleaner. I can get it to idle on spray.

 

[ChrisWrench]

Fuel problem, remove the feed hose from the rail and put the hose in an empty clear plastic bottle, hit the key, and see if you get any fuel.

 

[Rex Kapriellian]

Fuel problem, remove the feed hose from the rail and put the hose in an empty clear plastic bottle, hit the key, and see if you get any fuel.

Possible. That was my first instinct, I will do that as well to rule out the pump. This might be a compounded issue. Old pump and battery. waiting on wallot’s .

 

[mulberryworks]

I've had some issue with the battery in our Boxster going flat for lack of use. An engineer friend pointed me to an article that says acid stratification is often the cause. I couldn't get the battery to take a charge initially, but removing it and give it a bit of bump and slosh got the acid mixed up again and it took a full charge. He also suggested a smart battery tender such as the one linked below. If I needed to rely on this car I'd replace this old battery with a new one and the smart tender. Since it's not on the road currently, I'll nurse it along for a bit longer.

https://web.archive.org/web/20170718052514/https://batteryuniversity.com/learn/archive/what_causes_car_batteries_to_fail

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08F37P7H3/?pldnSite=1

 

[Krzysztof]

Agree. Battery sitting with no use is just getting bad and even 2-3 years might be too much for it.

I have new battery and after few months of car standing it's SOH (State-Of-Health) is below 80% while battery exchanged same time in the car being driven is ~100%

Newest battery changers has specific mode to keep battery slightly working (charging-discharging).

Looking for the best battery two ways are recommended by experts:
1. Look for OEM battery from scrapped car (as long as it was not hit which can kill it in short period of time)
2. Select the heaviest one from the same group of capacity


Regarding the fuel it is really a pain because of ethanol in the gas.
It collects water and is causing corrosion.
What is more it is also eating up all rubber which was working fine for standard gasoline.

I know some owners of car museums are draining the fuel completely for car stored not because of fire risk but it is causing clogging carbs and diaphragms to crack/getting brittle. That was not the case in the past with no "eco" additives.

You need to check if it is only for free revs/idle or only with pedal being pressed. It will help you to find where to look for (standard fuel path, pump or idle valve).

 

[tferrer]

Race gas, though expensive, has a much longer shelf life - 3 years. This is assuming you don't have 02 sensors (usually high octane race gas is leaded and will kill an O2 sensor ) If you aren't running/driving within that time window, you may need to drain it but that presents other issues because you can't get every last bit from the system and what's left will have even more air exposure and hence more potential issues.

Startron additive has worked well for me and it's very cheap insurance.

 

[Redrumm3]

Race gas, though expensive, has a much longer shelf life - 3 years. This is assuming you don't have 02 sensors (usually high octane race gas is leaded and will kill an O2 sensor ) If you aren't running/driving within that time window, you may need to drain it but that presents other issues because you can't get every last bit from the system and what's left will have even more air exposure and hence more potential issues.

Startron additive has worked well for me and it's very cheap insurance.

I have used VP C9 Racing fuel for years for this very purpose. It is unleaded, has no ethanol or additives and a long storage life. It can be purchased in 5 gallon pales.

https://vpracingfuels.com/product/c9/?c=220&

 

[Storage Andy]

On the topic of battery tenders. I made a change this winter based upon some that I saw at Jim Taylors garage in Gloversville NY this past summer. I went out and got a NOCO 4 bay 2 amp charger/maintainer/desulfator. Between cars, boats, tractors and other motorized toys I have to deal with a lot of batteries every year. Adding to the issue is the cold in the northeast. With this unit I was able to connect four cars without having to take the batteries out of them. The cords are fairly long and you can connect via a clamp or bolt on eye connector. It was fairly reasonable price wise as well. It's very similar to the charger that I use on my fishing boat. But has a three year warranty.

Our local convenient store, Stewarts, sells a 91 octane non ethanol gas that I have been using for years in everything from lawn mowers to old cars. I have never had a problem with storage. Which in some cases can be up to eight months. Right now it is around $4.10/gallon.

As far as batteries are concerned many of you are probably of a different mindset than me. But I stopped buying $200 and $300 batteries a while back. I just didn't see the value in them based upon how long they were lasting and performing. Walmart/NAPA or even Home Depot ones work just fine for me. I have deep cell marine batteries from Walmart that take a beating getting used fishing and charging constantly that are over 5 years old. In fact when I was at Mr. Taylors collection I only asked his tech one question. Where do you buy batteries. (He has an incredible collection of probably 150 plus cars). His response was NAPA or Walmart!

 

[Krzysztof]

Good that you're able to buy non-ethanol gas in US. UE is forcing to be more green.

I'm pretty sure it can be bought somewhere here as "for special application" or so, but was not checking that so far. Good point to check during 2022 (as a plan ;-) ).

I agree NOCO or C-Tec are ones of most famous good changers to be use for cars and motorbikes standing still for a long time.

 

[Rex Kapriellian]

So looks like no Fuel pressure at the rail. Time for a new pump and a battery. What’s a common replacement for the pump other then what Walloth offers?

 

[Rex Kapriellian]

Place holder: fuel pump relay PN

Bosch 0332 019 150

 

[adawil2002]

So looks like no Fuel pressure at the rail. Time for a new pump and a battery. What’s a common replacement for the pump other then what Walloth offers?

Maybe just a battery first.

The E28 Fuel pump has the same flow rate as the original one & is 1/3rd the price. Will need to make short wiring harness from the original plug to the new pump & wrap some rubber sheet between the new pump & bracket as the E28 pump is a smaller diameter.

 

[Rex Kapriellian]

Maybe just a battery first.

The E28 Fuel pump has the same flow rate as the original one & is 1/3rd the price. Will need to make short wiring harness from the original plug to the new pump & wrap some rubber sheet between the new pump & bracket as the E28 pump is a smaller diameter.

Good to know! I actually swapped out batteries with my 2002 (known good) but a new batterie for sure.
I do have a pump for my tii coming from Walloth, and when I attempted to add a CSI pump, it was showing the same pump for both application. 120 euro’s new. Has anyone used their pumps on a CSI? I’ll look up an e28 pump meanwhile.

 

[adawil2002]

Be sure to check the ground at the fuel pump relay above the ECU. If there is no ground the there is no start.

We lost our fuel relay ground causing the car stall. Figured it out, regrounded the relay & haven’t had an issue since 2016.