Battery Low Start Vehicle Message

[MW3Designs]

Past couple days I have been dealing with the Battery Low Start Vehicle message displayed when I enter the vehicle. I charged the battery over night, and most of the morning today with a smart charger until it said it was full. Got in and the message was still displayed. Checking the voltage on the battery with a volt meter it was 12.8, and with the engine running it was 14.6 volts. Also ran the alternator test on my charger, and it said alternator ok as well. Have not had any hard starting issues the engine turns over fine, even before I charged the battery. Looking at the date code on the battery it is "8 / Apr" so I am going to go with April 2018, and that doesn't seem too old, connections are tight, clean and free of any corrosion.

Anyone have any ideas what could be causing this? Might try to get over to a local battery shop tomorrow to have them test the battery.

 

[DaytonaRS7]

Could be bad battery.

When a load(starting) is put on the battery, the voltage drop may be too much. The only way to know is by testing voltage as the car is starting.

 

[MW3Designs]

I pulled the battery and ran it over to my local battery shop, and they ran a test on it. Battery was good, so I have other demons. When I was putting the battery back in I noticed some black tape over wires on a small black plug connected to the negative terminal. I pulled the tape thinking that maybe someone did a repair, and in looked as if they did. It was a pretty good job considering they heat shrinked it. However I did unplug it and notice that the plug is not so great. I am not sure what this plug is for, possibly the BMS, maybe whatever it is is cause the car to see the low voltage? Here are a few pics to reference the connector I am talking about, anyone know what it is and if I can get a new plug end?

 

[DaytonaRS7]

the plug does look rough, but is it salvageable? clean it, use a pick to realign the pins, etc.
if it cant be reused, start with any of the numbers that are on the plug. google may turn up a result.

It doesn't look like just a wiring repair, rather someone has already replaced that harness plug (white wires VS blue wires on the harness). This leads me to believe that plug is available, if you search hard enough.

 

[MW3Designs]

Ya, it looks like they got their hands on a pigtail. I was able to track down the connector and the pins, so I will be fixing it soon.

Is this connector the Battery Monitoring System? I’m not all that familiar with my LR4 yet, but my BMW has it on the positive side.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[MW3Designs]

Well I haven't seen the Low Batt message since I fiddled with that connector on the battery. I am thinking that might have been the issue. My harness plugs and pins will be here Monday, and then I will know for sure.