Hello
My question is...
I have recently gotten some intermittent warning light's coming on. My low oil light, and now my low coolant light's come on apparently at random time's and for random length's of time. Yes, I've checked and they are both at the appropriate level's.
My question regard's my battery. It is original equipment, my CF is an 04. Could these warning light malfunction's stem from the battery being on it's last leg's ?
Any thought's ?

 

Very good possibility. That battery is now 8 or 9 years old, and these puppies are very voltage sensitive.

 

Not to be nasty, but anyone running around with such an old battery in a car LOADED with sensitive electronics should not be surprised at ANYTHING.

Same can be said for allowing the battery terminals to look like they have dried out dog feces on them.

ALL computers need CLEAN, stable, filtered power. Your alternator puts out ripple-intensive DC and the battery is your main source of filtering.
(Outside of the filter networks on the module boards, the battery is the ONLY filtering you have.)



Turing off "preaching mode" now...

 

9 years out of my Harley battery.. and I expect the same from my Crossfire.

 

Now is your chance to preach.. since you don't have "charge" ports and separate "device" ports just how does the battery "filter" anything? The same wire feeding your battery is attached to the whole circuit of the car. Help stabilize the current I could buy... but filter?

 

Maybe it is because the sensors are faulty somehow. If it is an original battery then you should change it anyway, why risk being stranded far from home. A new battery is cheaper than a tow.
Don't listen to J.R. (MrMiata) he's cheap. LOL

 

Yep.. I hit 90 k on my Crossfire.. and I'm not going shopping for one with 30 k on the clock no matter how many say I'm headed for a tow truck with it!

And I'm even too cheap to buy new tires when I hit 50% tread.. even though I know I'm going to have to eventually buy new ones..

 

I've had a similar problem as mijobo2000 with the battery indicator. At first I thought it was electrical interference at a construction site since it only seemed to happen when I was passing through that area. It started happening more often so I swapped the 9 year old OEM battery for a new Bosch replacement. That didn't solve the problem so I installed new battery cables and a new Bosch alternator (generator). The indicator light still goes on and off. I've noticed it happens more at higher speeds or when it's hot.

 

"Stabilize" and "filter" are really the same thing here.

In effect, the great current-sinking capacity of that huge battery acts as a filter capacitor.

If you were to take a 'scope and put it on the positive battery terminal, you'd see a fairly 'quiet' dc voltage of about 14 volts.

Now, with the engine running (DO NOT REALLY DO THIS!) undo the battery cable from the battery - taking the battery out of the circuit. You will see a HORRIBLE pattern on the 'scope. This is because the car's alternator DOES NOT produce clean DC voltage, but the summed output of either 3 or 6 phases of AC that has been rectified. The voltage will be a fully rectified sine wave, NOT DC! (Ok, it's actually fully rectified multiphase AC, so it won't go all the way to zero volts between "peaks" because the 3 peaks happen at different times.)

It is the battery that filters this.

I am at work and must go now, if I can find pictures or drawings of this, and I know they exist, I will post them.

 

Okay, I'm good with that.. just a difference in perspective in the terms used.

 

" Not to be nasty, but anyone running around with such an old battery in a car LOADED with sensitive electronics should not be surprised at ANYTHING. "

Unfortunately, I am not in a position to replace part's simply because they MAY fail at some point. I do maintain my vehicle as much as is possible, but replacing a part JUST IN CASE isn't realistic for me.

SO, given the age of the battery and the recent indicator light's I was planning on changing the battery in the very near future to see if this help's with these indicator light's. I doubt it will, but I am hopeful it will make a difference.
I understand the coolant level sensor is not hard or expensive to change and anticipate doing that if the battery replacement doesn't rectify the problem. The oil sensor on the other hand sound's more difficult and expensive a project. If anyone has done this or has experience with fixing this, I would love to hear how it went or how difficult/expensive it was.

 

So if your advised to replace the battery because of ABS/ESP spoiler erect condition.. and a year later it still cranks like its on steroids, think we can rule the battery out.. ?