Hey guys, my mk 6 is having some problems when you start it up. Sometimes when your start it the digital gauges go up and down and the mileage resets itself from trip back to overall and rarely you can hear the central locking resetting too, could this mean that the battery is on its way out? Could this also be why the RCL rarely works? I recently took the car from my home in Central Scotland up to Aberdeen then along to Inverness and back down the A9 home. This is just short of a 400 mile round trip so you would think the battery would have got a good charge out of it. We stopped at a lay by just outside Perth and killed the engine and all lights except the inside one for about 10 mins and by the time we tried to start the car again the battery was dead. Is there anyway to give it more power or am i going to have to get a new battery?

Steve

Hey guys, my mk 6 is having some problems when you start it up. Sometimes when your start it the digital gauges go up and down and the mileage resets itself from trip back to overall and rarely you can hear the central locking resetting too, could this mean that the battery is on its way out? Could this also be why the RCL rarely works? I recently took the car from my home in Central Scotland up to Aberdeen then along to Inverness and back down the A9 home. This is just short of a 400 mile round trip so you would think the battery would have got a good charge out of it. We stopped at a lay by just outside Perth and killed the engine and all lights except the inside one for about 10 mins and by the time we tried to start the car again the battery was dead. Is there anyway to give it more power or am i going to have to get a new battery?

Steve

At the age your car is, that is the usual end-life of a car battery. I would shop-around your local Ford Fast-Fit centres for a new one, of a top brand. Some are naff, in terms of warranty, but you can still get Exide, Crompton, etc., plus the Ford product, FOMOCO, which is very likely O.K.

However, it could be the alternator also. My wife had a knackered one in her 30 month old Corolla. At least a Ford one is a lot cheaper. Other times it is the charging regulator, not replenishing the battery. If you end up at a Ford centre, have a new battery put in the remote key. They may charge £5-7 for that, even though the CR2032 battery is only £4 for 2 at Tesco (energiser brand -- Panasonic is dearer).

Hey thanks for the reply, i had to replace the battery when the car was about four as it kept dying once it was turned off for any length of time. Ive had the key fob battery changed many times and it works for the first few days then it becomes intermittent again after that which makes me think its because the car battery doesnt have enough power in it any more to operate the RCL.

Steve