The time has come to replace the battery on my trusty Citroen Synergie. It has lasted nearly 6 years and 80K miles. It is the first car I have owned that has a coded radio, for which I have the code, and a factory-fitted keypad immobiliser. Should I just disconnect and do the swap and everything will be OK, or should I connect a spare battery or battery charger in parallel via e.g. the cigar lighter to support the electronics while the battery is out of the car?
I would naturally keep the positive terminal well out of the way while this was going on.
Thoughts, please?
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Darcy,
In order to prevent any electronic 'maladies' I would connect a memory saver via the cigarette lighter socket or connect another battery in parallel to maintain memory supplies etc. Who is going to own up if the radio code is wrong? No one!
Rgds
David
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Don't bank upon finding a helpful dealer, though. They are increasingly thin on the ground these days.
Best to take 'precautions' whilst changing the battery ;-)
Rgds
David
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Darcy,
As long as you have the code and the procedure for re-instating it, there will be no problem with leaving the vehicle sans battery during the changeover.
If you do experience a problem, the Citroen dealer should help. Failing this, check with an after market radio/casette dealer.
Cheers, Peter.
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You might be ok to just disconnect the battery and fit the new one as quickly as possible. I suspect that most radios etc have sufficient internal backup to allow temporary disconnection. I recently had to replace the battery on my 1995 Rover 820 and I just took a chance and did it quickly. Everything worked ok after the swop. I was more concerned about the disarming of the airbag as when I bought a previous Rover 827, the System wasn't working and had to be taken to a dealer to have it sorted. However I subsequently read somewhere that the airbag remains activated for up to about 20 mins after disconnection of the battery. (so be careful if you are tinkering around under the dash!). By this I assumed that it must have internal backup, and this appeared to be the case.
I would check with a Citroen dealer before you try it though.
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Re. Memory Saver - What is it? Where do you get them?
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Darcy,
Memory saver every time. Saves potential problems. As David says suppose you have the wrong radio code due to clerical error, suppose an alarm/immob/ECU throws a wobbly....even if in theory it shouldn't.
My most annoying experience "pre memory saver" was a customer who didn't tell me he'd changed the alarm from the decent makers integral one on the normal plip key to a very well plumbed in and hidden expensive system with its own plip.
He asked me to fit a new battery, which I did at the start of the service, and off howled this blasted alarm taking out my eardrums in the metal roofed workshop. I plipped and plipped for an hour or so to try and kill it with the ordinary plip.
Had to abandon the job 'till I got hold of him. He happily explained about this expensive super secure system. And the plip for it.......he'd kept it in his pocket for security!
David
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"Re. Memory Saver - What is it? Where do you get them?"
Halfords sell one made by Gunson - www.gunson.co.uk - which is mains powered and costs about £13. Draper also make one which is powered by a PP3 9V battery or a car battery. I have the Draper model and it works fine. Available from www.drapertools.com - £10.55 post free. Should also be available at most auto accessory shops.
Keith
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How do these things work if the ciggy lighter is wired via the ignition switch?
Regards
john
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"How do these things work if the ciggy lighter is wired via the ignition switch?"
Instructions for Draper tell you to turn ignition key to auxilliary position. That makes sense. Never had to do this but I would make sure everything else is switched off e.g. radio, heater blower, interior light or the PP3 battery could be drained very quickly. In fact, there is a blanket instruction to turn everything off.
Keith
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Keith
Yes, if the aux position connects the cigarette lighter that's fine, but as you say a battery unit wouldn't last long if there was any load on it, so you'd have to check what else was switched on - a number of modern cars seem to activate various items like warning lights even in the aux position of the ignition switch. You also have to use the correct battery disconnection procedure to ensure that some alarms with powered sounders don't activate.
I wondered if there were any vehicles around that powered the cigarette lighter via a relay - in which case connection to the battery leads would be best. Certainly one to check.
regards
john
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Keith
Yes, if the aux position connects the cigarette lighter that's fine, but as you say a battery unit wouldn't last long if there was any load on it, so you'd have to check what else was switched on - a number of modern cars seem to activate various items like warning lights even in the aux position of the ignition switch. You also have to use the correct battery disconnection procedure to ensure that some alarms with powered sounders don't activate.
I wondered if there were any vehicles around that powered the cigarette lighter via a relay - in which case connection to the battery leads would be best. Certainly one to check.
regards
john
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My memory saver works from a second 12V car battery.
Not so much use for the DIY chap changing one. You can just reach sometimes to the new battery and use that but the chances are you'll knock off one of the croc clips.
David
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David
What's in your memory saver?I was thinking of using an old leisure battery (holds 12.5V for a couple of hours), some wire, croc clips, a fuse and a cigar lighter plug. The cigar lighter uses the auxiliary key position, not through a relay.
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Thanks for your helpful comments and advice. I did think twice about posting for advice on changing a battery, but I thought Hey, it's the Back Room, anything goes;-)
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