Good afternoon,

 

our S-Max is now showing “turning system off to save battery” on the VDU every time we get in and out the car.  Has anyone experienced this before?

5 minutes ago, dsg1104 said:

Has anyone experienced this before?

Just a few thousand people !!

You just need to charge the battery for 12 or more hours with a Smart charger. Make sure to charge the battery while it is connected to the vehicle. Connect the positive charger lead to the battery terminal and connect the negative lead to the chassis earth point, NOT the battery negative.

Thank you.  I am useless with cars.  Is this something a new battery would fix.  

2 minutes ago, dsg1104 said:

Thank you.  I am useless with cars.  Is this something a new battery would fix.  

If you've never changed the battery in over 5 years, or don't know when it was changed, changing it won't hurt

Just now, dsg1104 said:

 Is this something a new battery would fix.  

Yes and No.

Fitting a new battery will only solve the problem for a few months before the same thing will happen again (and again, and again).

Now it is possible that your 2017 car might be in need of a new battery, but that is not the cause of problem. All modern cars have the vehicle charging system set to only just put the minimum amount of charge back in to the battery to save emissions. If you do lots of short journeys then over a period of weeks the batteries State Of Charge (SOC) runs down.

You will always need to charge the battery every few weeks/months depending on how long your journeys are and how often you use the car. It's sad, but that is the way cars are these days.

Thank you, that’s a great help.  Would you happen to know the battery being low could affect the handbrake? My partner has had issues with it being set, resulting last week in it rolling when she was not in the car.  Garage said it all looks ok. 

6 hours ago, dsg1104 said:

Would you happen to know the battery being low could affect the handbrake?

If the car has Electric Parking Brake (EPB) then a low battery state of charge, may affect it's operation although I've not known of any specific case. A low battery SOC does stop 'Hill Start Assist' and/or 'Auto Hold' from working as these are turned off by the vehicles management system to save battery power.

That’s great, thank you so much for the advice.  Will order a charger and get on it.  Is there a good charger you would recommend? (Sorry to be a pain, just clueless on this and don’t want to be ripped off).  

1 minute ago, dsg1104 said:

Is there a good charger you would recommend?

I'm pleased you asked 👍

@StephenFord is our resident battery charger expert, I'm sure he will be able to give you some good advice

16 minutes ago, unofix said:

I'm pleased you asked 👍

@StephenFord is our resident battery charger expert, I'm sure he will be able to give you some good advice

Well, if you insist! If you have access to a mains outlet, many on here use the MayPole battery charger, it's reasonably priced and does many functions of a more expensive unit. Just connect to your battery, plug it in, and leave it do to it's thing automatically...

MayPole battery charger...

.....and the picture 😉

On 3/7/2024 at 1:05 PM, dsg1104 said:

Is this something a new battery would fix.  

As Dave says, it certainly won't hurt, (other than your wallet), but it won't necessarily cure the problem altogether, either. Admittedly I'm a low mileage/irregular user but I've had the same issue with both my current and previous cars almost from new.

If you don't already have a "smart" battery charger, I'd recommend you get one anyway, as virtually all modern** cars have similar issues as explained by Unofix above.

Other brands that have been well recommended are the C-tek MXS 5 and Noco Genius 5, which as implied are 5A so slightly less charging time, plus some extra functions, but about double the price of the Maypole. User guides for all are easy enough to find on the web with a quick search.

(**My wife's 10 year old car gets even less use than mine, and is still doing fine on its original battery, but it doesn't have an "intelligent" polar bear saving charging system!😀)

Apologies I thought I posted but thanks all for your guidance and advice