Lights on dash, power loss, help!

[meathead316]

Hi

I have a 2001 3.0 petrol/LPF X5

While driving the other week I got engine management light (ive read on numerous LPG threads on various forums that this is quite common as the engine thinks the fuel is too lean...)

Now onto the lights, these are the lights in question:



With these lights comes a loss in power. Turn car off and on again and it clears it.

Last MOT said "battery in poor condition" and ive just fitted a new head unit with a big bright screen (if that matters?)

Any ideas? Please dont tell me i bought a lemon! O_o

[X5Sport]

If the battery is dying then you need to buy a new one.  A lot of warning lights can be caused by bad electrics.  The battery is under your LPG tank in the boot.

Yours all look like the ABS & DSC systems.

Richard

[meathead316]

So it could be as simple as, need a new battery. Wont i have to remove Lpg tank? Is that difficult?

ABS and DSC, would they screw up if it was battery problem?

Why else would they screw up?

I will drive the next few days with my new stereo off, see if it still happens.

Whats likely worst case problem? (ie could we be talking about the X5 going to car heaven?)

[davesavage257]

Abs and dsc light could be a wheel speed sensor cable.  I had an intermittent fault on one of my front cables.  You could do with a scanner to tell you if there's a fault code, and which wheel.  When I first had my problem it said front right. I swapped the front right for the front left and reset the fault code, next time it happened (a week later) it said front left. Replaced that sensor and all was cured.

[meathead316]

can you recommend a good cheap scanner?

How much were the sensors? easy to fit?

[X5Sport]

Look for scanner 1.4.0 on here.  You'll need a Windows XP laptop unless yiu're good with computers and virtual machines.

Richard

[davesavage257]

ABS wheel speed sensor is about £20, takes about 15mins to change, can be done without removing wheel

[meathead316]

Hi
Havent got round to doing anything to the car yet. But it cut out again today and it would restart easily but immediatly cut out (like 5 times) i then switched it to petrol started it and drove off ok. Now this could have been a fluke, or the problem may be LPG related?

[Raj]

I'd deffo get a new battery on it first. Then see how it goes. As Richard has said a failing batty causes all sorts of weird and wonderful dash lights etc.

I know when I had alternator issues I'd get all those lights come up and then trans failure and all sorts.

I'd say it's more coincidence that when you restarted the motor it was ok as opposed to being an issue with the lpg.

Once battery replaced I'd also check the alternator to ensure it's ok as well.

[meathead316]

Now getting "engine failsafe prog" coming up on dash O_o

Before I shell out for a new battery, is there a way i or a garage can test my one by plugging some magical device to it or something?

[sleepyfolk]

It is possible to test a battery with the right equipment but most places won't have it! It's a fact that if the battery is getting on for four years old or more then it's capacity will be reduced, it's ability to provide a high current for a short period of time and then to recover to a full charge will never recover to am "as new" condition no matter what you do to it.
Replace it, check your alternator output - check it a number of times for consistency, there is still a chance that he alternator can throw out spurious faults and voltages when under load or running at a higher temperature but given the cost of one I would start with the battery.