Weird speedo fault

[Ryvita]

Well this was interesting. I had not moved the car for a couple of weeks, battery was running low and it stuttered to life only just turning over. I think that process interrupted the "dial sweep" during clock start-up, and resulted in an offset with tickover at 3.5k revs and an indicated 50mph on speedo when stationary.



I drove the car for a bit to recharge the battery, not wanting to subject it to another start, so had the fun experience of wafting gently through villages at an indicated 100mph and 6K revs.

Since then, the clocks returned to zero once it did a normal start with the dial sweep, but I have had the 'Disappearing Spanner of Low-Level Doom' on each start up since. I'm guessing because the battery got so low. Is there a way to reset that or is it a dealer job?

[Ryvita]

Little update: It fixed itself, more driving and more charge in the battery seemingly all it needed to clear the spanner.

[Mellow Yellow]

I attach one of these to the battery and expose the connector in the boot. Then just connect it up to an Accumate when not in use, just make sure to flick the boot catch with a screwdrivers so the car "thinks" the boot is shut; otherwise it draws more than the charger supplies (cost me a battery to find that out!). Also remember to flick the boot catch open when you disconnect the charger!



They drain a battery in a fortnight and will kill it if left much longer.

[Ryvita]

Nice little set-up. I wonder how hard it would be to improve on this by finding an under-body mounting point...

EDIT: The good people of Optimate have thought of this: https://www.optimate.co.uk/products/o20l-m25-panel...

Edited by Ryvita on Thursday 23 November 13:14

Edited by Ryvita on Thursday 23 November 13:17

[Ryvita]

Have now acquired the above kit and connectors, and facing the rather intimidating thought of drilling the 25mm hole to install the external port...

Anyone ever tried routing from the battery compartment to the outside world? Any advice on where to put the plug? I was wondering if I could find a way down to the plastic diffuser as this would be a nicely discrete spot that would still be reasonably accessible without grubbing under the car, and should be a robustly shaped spot to drill a hole and stand the forces of plugging and unplugging without panel deformation.