S-Type 4.0L V8

Haven't used the car for 3 days, I keep it garaged when not in use.
Went to work this morning, pulled off the drive, about 5mph, can't go quick due to the immediate turn and drop onto the roadway.

Got an ENGINE FAILSAFE MODE in the message centre. And a red light.
Went off after a couple of seconds
WTF!!??
1/4 mile up the road, stopped to turn at the lights, again ENGINE FAILSAFE. Again, off again after a couple of seconds. Everything normal.

Now there's a little rumble in the underpants department..................

Anyway, no restricted power or anything, got to work just fine with no other instances.

As you do, thinking all day whats going to happen on the way home.

Absolutely nothing!!!
No lights, no messages, nothing.

Right then. Out with the computer, plugged in, scanned with IDS, came up with this lot.
Seems the culprit is a "disagreement" between my throttle pedal sensors.





I'm not so fussed about the other DTC's showing, although I have to say I'm surprised at how few there are considering the age of the car and the lack of general maintenance it had before my ownership.

Looks like I'm off to buy a throttle sensor or three then.........

 

Maybe wet?

Could be worth drying it out.

 

Cars been in the garage for 3 days, no rain this morning so no wet on my shoes.
Haven't checked for dampness in that area, but a good idea, I'll do that just now.

 

Bone dry in that entire area.
Going to have it out over the weekend, see whats' what with the potentiometer in there.
Been thinking about it, and I was messing about in that area, in the fuse box in the kick panel, a while ago when i started work on this car.
Could well have loosened something somewhere.

 

Stab in the dark from down here.

Battery is a tad low, and we all know how hissy these beasts are with battery oomph??

 

Number One on the list of possible culprits. (the battery, not Grant)

Graham

 

Certainly possible I suppose, although it is used regularly for work. Only about 7 miles each way and at this time of year in the UK, with the headlights and heater on due to early morning starts and late finishes.
It's parked up now for the night so I'll test the voltage first thing, see what the meter says.
Incidently, the battery is about 18 months old and the last time I checked, the alternator output was right where it was supposed to be. Doesn't rule out a dying cell, but I'll check it again just to be sure.
I'm well aware of what cold weather snaps can do to batteries, and we've just had one here, so could be the culprit.

Thanks everyone for the input.

 

The 7 miles is a very bad sign...

 

You're supposed to say good things, not "that's a bad sign" !!!!!
It's not my fault I live close to work.
Besides that, I'm getting old, my commuting bike is off the road whilst I decide to get round to painting it, and it's getting cold.
And I won't use the tourer just in case I do drop it on any slippy corners at this time of year.
I'm just an old wuss these days

 

Sorry... but it's nothing like enough to recharge a battery.

A ctek or the like is likely going to be needed - or more driving.

 

Um, actually it is, unless you can prove somebody forced you to live there.

As previously mentioned, such a short commute is tough on your battery. And on a practical level, a longer commute is safer, too. Statistics show most accidents happen within ten miles of one’s home. I moved eleven miles away to be safe.

 

Rule of thumb when I did Auto Electrickery 101, was, "the alternator takes approx 30 minutes to replace what you just used to start that engine, PROVIDED it started on the first try".

Then add to that the "sleep time" of up to 45 minutes, that battery is getting belted hard.

OK

Alternators were 55amp tops in those days, and we are now at 120amp and rising.

BUT

The batteries are bigger and take longer to charge, so probably evens it out.

A battery minder hard wired via the engine bay fuse box, and simply plug it in when at home, just think of it as your "special Tesla".

 

@JagV8
@KR98664
@GrantFrancis

You are all correct as usual and I shall stand so

Tested the battery this morning, 12 volts exactly.
About 0.3 down on recommended from what I've read elsewhere on here with the electrics.
Car started normally, tested again, 13.7 volts at idle.
Switched on headlights and blower fan, temperature and fan speed where I normally have it, voltage steady at 13.7 volts while idling.

Battery tender it is then. I'll let you all know if it makes a difference.
Car probably won't get used for a couple of days now seeing as I'm off again, so it will be a relavent test of the battery.

Thanks again for the input

 

Engine off, after a long stand, 12.3 would be low. 12.6 is right.

 

Rock 'n' Roll then, target figure acquired.
Thank you.
Kicked the car out the garage, got some work to do on a couple of bikes, and one of the ramps I need to use is sunk into the floor.
I'll plug the battery tender in tonight.

 

Now if you really want to get slick, and avoid the hassle of connecting and disconnecting an extension cord:

1) Install the tender onboard, and secure the male plug (for household current) so it protrudes ever so slightly from the front of the car, with the prongs pointing straight forward.

2) Slowly drive into your garage, and nudge the protruding prongs GENTLY against the far wall.

3) Install a household current receptacle into said wall, precisely where the prongs left their marks.

4) Each time you park, simply drive up slowly until the onboard male plug mates with the receptacle on the wall. The tender will automatically power up and keep the battery at full power.

Problem solved! Let me know if you need any more help.

 

Actually Karl, being the thinking brain you are, do you think you could develop the following:

We now have wireless charging for our mobile phones don't we?
How about developing a big mat that we drive our cars onto, and that wireless charges our batteries instead?

You might want to ask Elon Musk though, he's probably already got the patent on the idea..................

 

One step ahead of you. Wireless charging is a piece of cake. The only issue is sensing when the battery is fully charged so you can turn it off. I've come up with a very simple solution.

My wireless charging design has a plug-in cable to sense battery state of charge. Operation is very simple. Drive onto the wireless charging mat. Connect the sensing cable. When you're ready to leave, unplug the cable and drive away. I think consumers will love the wireless convenience.

 

You've still come back to the 'plug something in bit' though.
Can the smart sensing technology that a lot of chargers have these days not be integrated into the wireless side of the charging system?
I'm no where near up to speed on wireless charging tech, but my thought is that with the wireless charging on mobiles these days, do they sense the battery charge level and switch off or do they just keep charging until you remove the phone off that area?
Could be a pretty bad state of affairs if they don't switch off, especially with LI-ion batteries.

 

You'd need a state of charge sensor on the car and a (radio/wifi/...) back channel from car to charger.

All doable but not fitted in cars designed in about year 2000.

I suppose it'll be very inefficient due to the air gap. Plugging in will be far more efficient.

It's already the case that if many electric cars are bought then we have nothing like enough power station capacity to cope and we'll need some huge infrastructure spending. Anyone got the many billions to spend? OK to divert it from health / old / students / housing / etc?