Battery discharge & car possessed!

[sooty61]

I don't use the car very often - last run about 40 mins on Thursday evening along motorway and A roads - and popped down the road tonight. When I got back it said on the dashboard "battery discharging - Start engine" so I thought I would take it for a 10 minute drive to get it fully warmed up. I had it in manual to increase the revs a bit when suddenly it was as if I had stamped on the accelerator and it shot forward. I slammed the brakes on and it then alternated between limping along and going flat out without me touching the accelerator for about 30 seconds. I switched it back to auto and got it home again and it still said "battery discharging". I took it out again but just in auto and it seems fine. If I take it back to the dealer I am sure they will find nothing wrong with it (it had a major service 10 days ago). Anyone have any ideas? Could it be the battery or just the extremely cold weather (seems to be Google's answer to the battery discharge). I must admit I feel a bit uncomfortable about the car now. It is a 2014 (64) 330d Touring and I have had it since mid 2015 with no problems.

[anonymous-user]

I'd suggest you fully charge the battery, you won't have done that with a 10 minute drive in this weather. If it's still an issue have the battery checked.

[SebringMan]

As said I'd get the battery onto a half decent battery charger. Alot of your driving would have put on a surface charge onto it, thus giving the illusion of a true charge.

I take it the message dissapears when you are driving the car? If the battery light (red light) is on while driving that would insinuate a charging fault, like the alternator.

If you don't want to charge it and suspect the battery obtain a capacitance battery tester like one of the Sealeys or the Foxwell BT100 . Otherwise someone who has on ; Halfords have them.

Edited by SebringMan on Wednesday 28th February 08:01

[sooty61]

Cheers. I will stick it on the Optimate conditioner. I don’t get the message when driving but it was the engine behaviour that concerned me most