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Power issues.

Nate2409

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Hi guys,

Wondering if anyone has had the same issue with their VF at all. My car will start and run fine any day of the week. But the last few months everytime I stop and turn the ignition off the entire car dies.

Nothing works not even the central locking then suddenly a few mins later the car seems to reboot itself and all the power comes back other times I need to jump start it.

I've had a new battery installed and the system load tested but no one can tell me what's happening. Even the diagnostic tool that plugs in doesn't tell me as no error warnings show up.

Volts meter stay at 13 to 15 all the time. This is driving me insane.

Anyone have any suggestions what it could be?

Thanks.
 

Brown Dog

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possible loose connection - get a good auto-elec to look at it
 

Skylarking

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Wow, me, I'd be 100% unnerved by such an odd problem and I wouldn't feel confident in the reliably of the car at all. And that's an odd problem your having and likely difficult to diagnose if the system doesn't report any DTC's.

Has the dealer seen the problem occur and documented the condition in their service report?

Was the battery tested by the dealer before being replaced or did you just take a punt that would fix it and replace it yourself?

Is the car still under manufacturers warranty and if not how long out of warranty?
 

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This may be a long shot, but you haven't seen any large silver discs or cigar-shaped objects hovering in the sky above your house, have you?
 

Skylarking

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possible loose connection - get a good auto-elec to look at it
It would be an odd connection to only be loose for a few minutes on the odd occassion :rolleyes:

I'd guess its some odd s/w issue and maybe a reflash of all modules could fix i. But how to know what's wrong if there is no system detected fault being defined via DTC o_O
 

Nate2409

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Yeah I've concided EMP from above lol.

I just changed the battery didn't think nothing of it. Haven't been to the dealer yet but that's my next stop. Nah car is out of warranty by far.
 

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How far is "by far" (wrt warranty)?

Australian Consumer Law provides a statutory warranty but it's length is not specified so it can be longer than what the dealer or manufacturer provide. ACL also specifies how faults are to be handled for "minor faults" and "not minor faults" (convieniently called major faults by the regulators). ACL also specifies that minor faults can become major faults if they can't be fixed. And the kicker is that ACL major faults allow the purchser to choose their remedy under law, which includes either repair, replacement or full purchase price refund (you pick).

So in the context of your problem, how old the vehicle is and whether an avergae person would expect the car would have such faults at that age is what defines whether you can make a statutory warranty claim (Holden loves to call it 'good will repair').

Now back to the problem,.. you mentioned 13 - 15V when running and it's driving you insane. Well, BMC controlls tha alternator which charges the battery. BMC uses a current sensor on the battery lead at the battery end which it uses to work out level of charge in the battery and the charging rate and strategy/phase it should use when commanding the alternator to charge. Note that this can also includes a desulphation phase. So lots of logic used in the charging process and it's implied that a certain size calcium battery must be used in the vehicle. Thus only use Holden recomended battery size, type and capacity ;) Having said that, 13 - 15V is normal but at some statge it should drop to a smidgen under 13V when battery fully charged :rolleyes: If it's mostly sitting at 15V, you'd have a charging problem :oops: But i doubt that's your problem in that going completely dead for a few minutes seems like something else entirely :confused:
 

Nate2409

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How far is "by far" (wrt warranty)?

Australian Consumer Law provides a statutory warranty but it's length is not specified so it can be longer than what the dealer or manufacturer provide. ACL also specifies how faults are to be handled for "minor faults" and "not minor faults" (convieniently called major faults by the regulators). ACL also specifies that minor faults can become major faults if they can't be fixed. And the kicker is that ACL major faults allow the purchser to choose their remedy under law, which includes either repair, replacement or full purchase price refund (you pick).

So in the context of your problem, how old the vehicle is and whether an avergae person would expect the car would have such faults at that age is what defines whether you can make a statutory warranty claim (Holden loves to call it 'good will repair').

Now back to the problem,.. you mentioned 13 - 15V when running and it's driving you insane. Well, BMC controlls tha alternator which charges the battery. BMC uses a current sensor on the battery lead at the battery end which it uses to work out level of charge in the battery and the charging rate and strategy/phase it should use when commanding the alternator to charge. Note that this can also includes a desulphation phase. So lots of logic used in the charging process and it's implied that a certain size calcium battery must be used in the vehicle. Thus only use Holden recomended battery size, type and capacity ;) Having said that, 13 - 15V is normal but at some statge it should drop to a smidgen under 13V when battery fully charged :rolleyes: If it's mostly sitting at 15V, you'd have a charging problem :oops: But i doubt that's your problem in that going completely dead for a few minutes seems like something else entirely :confused:
How far is "by far" (wrt warranty)?

Australian Consumer Law provides a statutory warranty but it's length is not specified so it can be longer than what the dealer or manufacturer provide. ACL also specifies how faults are to be handled for "minor faults" and "not minor faults" (convieniently called major faults by the regulators). ACL also specifies that minor faults can become major faults if they can't be fixed. And the kicker is that ACL major faults allow the purchser to choose their remedy under law, which includes either repair, replacement or full purchase price refund (you pick).

So in the context of your problem, how old the vehicle is and whether an avergae person would expect the car would have such faults at that age is what defines whether you can make a statutory warranty claim (Holden loves to call it 'good will repair').

Now back to the problem,.. you mentioned 13 - 15V when running and it's driving you insane. Well, BMC controlls tha alternator which charges the battery. BMC uses a current sensor on the battery lead at the battery end which it uses to work out level of charge in the battery and the charging rate and strategy/phase it should use when commanding the alternator to charge. Note that this can also includes a desulphation phase. So lots of logic used in the charging process and it's implied that a certain size calcium battery must be used in the vehicle. Thus only use Holden recomended battery size, type and capacity ;) Having said that, 13 - 15V is normal but at some statge it should drop to a smidgen under 13V when battery fully charged :rolleyes: If it's mostly sitting at 15V, you'd have a charging problem :oops: But i doubt that's your problem in that going completely dead for a few minutes seems like something else entirely :confused:

Yeah it does drop down to just below around 13.7 volts. Cars 2013 model done 185,000. The only other thing I can think it could be is the after market sound system but was the one specially made my alpine for the VF and was professionally installed however who knows these days.
 

stooge

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after market sound system.

Do you know if that system connects to the canbus?

If that system causes the can to crash it will cause all sorts of problems and can make the system(can) reboot its self which could explain the vehicle appearing to die and then come back to life.
 

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... it could be is the after market sound system but was the one specially made my alpine for the VF and was professionally installed however who knows these days.
Such pearls of wisdon should be included as basic information in the original post along with year and model of vehicle, kms traveled, whether maintained according to book, and most importantly any mods and whether the issues started to occur soon after mods/repairs/service were performed o_O

I'd go back to the professionals that installed it and get them to check their installation and in particular whether the can bus is impacted during shutdown process. If they don’t have the equipment or skills to do the later part, go to Holden. If it is the head unit, then give the installers the Holden repair bill.
 
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