mikejj55

After recently changing the battery I had to reset the ESP according to the instructions in the manual. What I have noticed, and it may not be related at all, is that the car now seems to wander off to the left, even allowing for camber etc. Not much but sufficiently noticeable to have to correct with the steering. What I was wondering was if the reset of the ESP had to be done with the steering absolutely central? Would it work against the steering if slightly off? (The reason it is in my head is that on another car I have, which has an electric power assistance, there is a routine for realigning the steering and power assistance) Otherwise I will just take the car in for a tracking alignment test. Any thoughts Thanks

Hi Nello, I am not sure of the details but I have seen this elsewhere; where rather than a smooth current flow to charge the battery a pulsed frequency is used (computer sensed and controlled). The garage owner made a fuss over his equipment costing upwards of £1k. Maybe someone else knows the details??? All I can say is that my new battery is rotating the engine very well indeed, even after a "normal" charge.

Car came back from servicing yesterday by NJS and without asking they had sprayed waxoil on subframe, etc underneath. Extra charge on bill was £8. Happy with that.

Just had the car serviced yesterday at specialist NJS, they confirmed that if they "disabled" the Start/Stop feature in the body computer the system would recognise this and throw up errors which they couldn't work around. So will have to live with switching it off manually every trip. By the way, they gave me a mild reprimand for not properly "conditioning" the new battery before fitting it - and I thought charging it was good enough - apparently not so for Start/Stop AGM batteries.

Hi David, the jacking points are marked by triangular reference points along outside of the black sills. If you have a manual it is on page 203 - which does not actually show a picture of where the reference points are. Rather than plain plastic the liners are made from something else which is more rough and porous. Could be to reduce spray, or maybe to absorb some road tyre roar. I used the word "foam" rather loosely. All visible when you look in to the wheel arch.

Ha ha! The CCA is much greater (680 compared to 450) but the AH (60) is the same as original, same physical size (026). The next size up (096) will fit in the space. The thing is I found standard larger size batteries, not optimised for S/S, didn't seem to have as good a CCA rating unless one spent considerably more for a similar AGM construction which means £145 or so compared with mid £80s after discount. Swings and roundabouts. Found I had to remove diagonal bracing strut which runs across the top of the battery in order to get it in place - took me a little while to realise that but only a couple of minutes to take off and then replace - doh!.

Like you am getting quite attached to the car so may have to keep it longer than originally expected. I have noticed some surface rust appearing on sub frame and suspension components. I do use Dinitrol rust proofing cavity wax on another "hobby" car and have sprayed around inside box sections through drain holes. There are quite a number of rubber grommet covered holes on the Delta which would allow you to do the same and the drain holes in the bottom of the doors, hatch lid etc are quite large so wouldn't get blocked if you sprayed through there. All of which would be accessible without lifting the car. Products like Noxudol seem to be about 1/2-2/3rds the price of Dinitrol. Looking at the wheel arches they seemed to be lined with some open-cell foam, I guess to reduce road noise, and I would be concerned if a garage just sprayed over the top of them. Overall I agree with Rossocorsa.

Yes, that's what I meant - the one-click operation continued to work after changing the battery even though the manual says the function must be reset. I later followed the reset procedure, when you mentioned it, just out of interest to see if I had in fact missed anything and "to comply" with the manual. They worked just the same - honest. Who knows why????? The original problem was due to a failing battery causing starting problems each morning, not the S/S issue. That was when I put a voltmeter on the battery and found it was reading a little low even after putting it on charge. No starting problems at all since changing the battery - so probably the correct diagnosis.

Well they worked absolutely fine after installing the new battery but to be doubly sure I have sat in the car this morning and followed the instructions in the manual for resetting both front windows. Obviously has mind of its own.

Fitted new battery; had to reset ESP as per driver's manual, everything else OK. But Stop/Start is now back - what a pain.

Have you tried touching the brakes as you turn? Does that change the screech?

Forgot to say that I have put a voltmeter across the battery and because it was showing about 12.35v which is a little low I have ordered a new Exide EK600 from Tayna. Should be here tomorrow.

Yes also put the battery on charge. Started initially at 5-6amps charge rate but dropped very quickly in 15mins or so down to less than 1. So assumed that fully charged. No impact on Start/Stop.

Correct it didn't reactivate. I watched the display when starting and neither the Start/Stop off indicator came on nor the indicator to show a failure of the system. The Start/Stop switch is un-illuminated - so not manually switched off. Previously many moons ago I used to keep switching it off that's why I thought it might have learnt that I didn't want it on. However it is being serviced very soon (3 July) and the specialist has full FIAT/Lancia/Alfa diagnostics and I will check whether it is switched off on the main engine computer as well.

Cleaned the monitoring cable connector and other nearby earth points with electrical contact cleaner, went for a longish drive, left overnight and it started completely normally this morning. So will watch for the next couple of days. Mine has the original Fiat/Alfa/Lancia battery (which is an Exide) with a stated 450A but checking the specs a new Exide EK600 would give 680A, which would seem to be the best bet.