A costly mistake, please help!

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Originally Posted by TerryO

This is good advice, change the battery for a new good quality one
SNIP

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I agree that changing the battery is appropriate here, but to recommend chaging every 12 months is nonsense.

My first battery lasted 7 years (and 4 years is common).

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Originally Posted by waccampbell

So when a battery is showing signs of corrosion does this mean there is something wrong with it? I always just thought thats what they do after a while. It was weird because the positive terminal is like brand new but the negative terminal looks pretty bad, well did look bad.

If its doing something like this would it be worth replacing the battery as well?

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Corrosion means the seal around the post has broken. It's not a problem for the battery supplying the required power, but it's a huge problem for eating terminals, rusting out metal below the battery etc. The corrosion can cause a huge amount of damage to other stuff.

If a battery did that to me inside warranty I'd be wanting it replaced free. If it's outside warranty but still in use I'd be replacing it myself and possibly never using that brand again.

Here in NZ Exide are chronic for it, I refuse to buy them. My 10 year old century (long past retired from vehicle duties but does workshop 12v supply duties) just started doing it. My 5 and 6 year old supercharge batteries haven't done it yet and the 4 year old bosch hasn't done it either.
My 1 year old Century-Yuasa battery is identical to the supercharge.

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Originally Posted by Learner

I agree that changing the battery is appropriate here, but to recommend chaging every 12 months is nonsense.

My first battery lasted 7 years (and 4 years is common).

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I have had a similar run out of batteries, and yes, I got over ten years out of a N50Z Exide battery in my HJ Holden ute fitted with a standard 35 amp alternator.
But some times it is prudent to "wear braces as well as a belt" and by changing a battery in a vehicle that has a high reliance on electronics, before there is trouble is really cheap insurance.

As in this case were there has been corrosion from a battery that is starting to 'gas' and it has then gone on to causing other problems.
Treat the corrosion as the first warning signs of the battery starting to loose the edge from it's capacity to charge up to it's full voltage.
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The battery in my RRS is still the original and now over 6 years old and still working OK - despite freezing Canberra winters where the car is usually parked outside overnight.

So I don't think there is a need to change the battery every 12 months.

Garry

my boss had a leaking battery on his D3, not noticed for a while. The acid destroyed the ECU that was below it. Hope yours is ok. Best of luck it is only dampness. I hate batteries, I used to work in a telephone exchange with heaps of them, I replace batteries the first time they misbehave.

Cleaned up all the connectors and the PCB and put back in. Still no go!

I went and bought a new battery as well, but it seems that the guy gave me the wrong one, its only 730cca. It's a Bosch 58014. I think I was meant to get a 60038 in the Bosch models. I'll have to sort that out tomorrow/Monday.

Whilst I was buying the battery he did say they had a different diag tool than the GScan that didn't work the other day.

So I have 2 more chances up here I believe before I buy myself a diag tool, I've been looking at the Faultmate. Any recommendations?

http://imageshack.us/a/img443/8779/fzzw.jpg

http://imageshack.us/a/img200/4673/buz5.jpg

What are the symptoms now?

Still the same, just turning the key and not starting the motor there is a brake fault, dsc fault and flashing low range on the dash.

When you start the car and put it into drive then a suspension fault comes up and handbrake beeps to say please apply. Along with the suspension lowering and being stuck in Low Range!

It's been the same all along, hasn't changed one bit since the problem showed up.

Have a look at the IIDTool from GAP Diagnostic

Home - GAP Diagnostic

I have one for my L322 TD6 . Highly recommend. Excellent back up service.

Hope all works out

Gary

The suspension fault and subsequent lowering is likely to be the result of the hand-brake message/fault because that is what the suspension system does for any brake system generated fault.

What year model D3 is it? On early vehicles the TC module connected to the high speed canbus but on later vehicles the high speed canbus was input to then output from the TC ecu which would mean that a dead TC module would cause a lot of other ecus including the park brake ecu to be unable to communicate.

Did you manage to clean-up the sockets in the connectors?

Are there any other connectors nearby that could be corroded by the battery acid? To change ranges the TC module has to know that the gbox is in neutral so bad connections at the gbox connector could be a cause.