Help - Aston Martin DB9 battery

Help - Aston Martin DB9 battery

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Discussion

HoldFast

Original Poster:

2 posts

75 months

Sunday 21st January 2018
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Hi, I'm new to the forum so bear with me. I went to start the car yesterday and got a load of warning messages and got nothing when I pressed the start button. Suspect the battery as the car's been left for a week without running. Can I charge the battery whilst it's still in the car and how do I get to it? Thanks!

Beechburn

75 posts

77 months

Sunday 21st January 2018
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Hi - I'm relatively new too. I use a CTEK smart charger to keep the battery conditioned on my 2006 DB9. I purchased the 'cigarette adapter' as an option which allows you to charge the battery in situ via the connector in the boot. If you have lost all battery power in a week you may have a dodgy battery and the CTEK is pretty good at diagnosing this as well. Another option is to make sure your battery has not been disconnected. Press the reset switch which you will find under the back seat behind the driver seat(UK) This post might help https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?t=10... - hope that helps but there are many more on PH who will be able to help you better than I if needed.

HoldFast

Original Poster:

2 posts

75 months

Sunday 21st January 2018
quotequote all
Beechburn said:
Hi - I'm relatively new too. I use a CTEK smart charger to keep the battery conditioned on my 2006 DB9. I purchased the 'cigarette adapter' as an option which allows you to charge the battery in situ via the connector in the boot. If you have lost all battery power in a week you may have a dodgy battery and the CTEK is pretty good at diagnosing this as well. Another option is to make sure your battery has not been disconnected. Press the reset switch which you will find under the back seat behind the driver seat(UK) This post might help https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?t=10... - hope that helps but there are many more on PH who will be able to help you better than I if needed.
Many thanks for this. I'll give both a go

Andrew Bristow

58 posts

146 months

Sunday 21st January 2018
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If the battery is dead flat the Cytek won't charge it, you will need to connect a battery charger on the positive point in the engine bay.

8Tech

2,136 posts

198 months

Sunday 21st January 2018
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And if the battery has gone that flat in a week it probably needs replacing.

I recommend the Duracell DE92 AGM as the ultimate replacement or the Duracell DA100 Advanced. Both are bulletproof batteries and will take the change in charge rate and irregular charge without suffering.

westhumbler

161 posts

76 months

Thursday 25th January 2018
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I replaced my battery a couple of weeks ago. Aston / Aston Specialists were quoting the best part of £500 to do it for me (and the battery I bought is a higher specification that that offered by Aston). I found a really informative set of videos on Your Tube that talk you through the whole process (including resetting seats, windows, misfire correction factors etc) and managed to do the whole thing myself in a couple of hours.

Here's a link to the youtube channel (with other DB9 information / tips)

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCA6ybjxT4EPuScdFw...

Nothing difficult in changing the battery, infact it was really easy, with one exception. The vent pipe that goes through the floor pan and undertray was impossible to re-fix, so I bought a new piece of tubing from e-bay 1M long to give you some play. Slid the straight section of an old coat hangar into it and pushed it up into the battery compartment from beneath the car. Once it was through, I heated the end in some recently boiled water and it slipped over the battery attachment easily. I left it to cool for a bit and then gently tugged it downwards from underneath until the battery connector to the tube was pointing downards and then cut the excess pipe off underneath the car with scissors.

You'll need a 5mm internal diameter tube. This is where I bought mine from.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/PVC-Tube-Clear-Plastic-...

Seat reset (you have to do it in this order):-

Move the steering column back as far as it will go into the dashboard (ie giving the seat as much room as you can to move forward)
Move the seat forward (ie the seat base - the whole seat using the long rectangular button) and once it can move no further forward continue to hold the button for a further 2 seconds.
Raise the front of the seat base upwards until it will go no further and continue to hold the button for a further 2 seconds
Raise the rear of the seat base upwards until it will go no further and continue to hold the button gor a further 2 seconds
Finally, tilt the seat back all the way forward as far as it will go towards the steering wheel and hold for 2 seconds
Once done in the order the seat will operate normally. You need to repeat the process for the passenger seat for that to work after a battery removal.

Good luck and don't forget to press the resent button on the wiring loom above the battery after you've fitted it as nothing will work until you do!

Or you could take it to somewhere that has an uninterrupted power supply that they can hook your car up to while they change the battery (ATS, Quick Fit etc), but check they know what they're doing before you hand it over to them.

Hope this helps.

pancholi

220 posts

157 months

Friday 26th January 2018
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thanks for the detailed write up..



mrpseudonym

286 posts

116 months

Saturday 27th January 2018
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Does anyone know if it is possible to keep the car powered with the CTEK battery conditioner while removing and replacing the battery?

divetheworld

2,565 posts

135 months

Saturday 27th January 2018
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Andrew Bristow said:
If the battery is dead flat the Cytek won't charge it, you will need to connect a battery charger on the positive point in the engine bay.
Depends which Ctek. The one Aston supplied as an option was a 0.8amo unit which was useless.
Ctek make units up to 100amp which would start a Terex excavator!

So, any Ctek 5.0 or above WILL charge your battery fine. They also have some clever battery conditioning and recovery modes.

craig elam

130 posts

126 months

Saturday 27th January 2018
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its not a bad job to change but is bloody heavy!!!,

move the seat all the way forward, remove the lower part of the rear seat, its velcroed and just pulls up, theres another small panel at the base of the backrest just pulls off.

this reveals the top plate which is secured by 8mm head bolts, 3 across the back , 3 on the front edge 2 down either side.

once the bolts are removed you can lift this plate out carefully ( the edges are quite sharp and its a tight fit).

now you can see the battery and the cut off switch/clamp assy behind it.take a couple of pics so you get things back exactly as.

disconnect the battery breather (its a small plastic elbow with a pipe attached, it just pulls out of the battery).

disconnect battery terminals -ve ( earth) first, then + , these use a 13mm headed clamp bolt just slacken it off dont take the nut off, a twist and pull should get them off ( if your car has the back up battery alarm the manual says to switch the ignition on then off and disconnect within 10 seconds , this should prevent the alarm sounding)

the manual says "remove the battery clamp" this is part of the battery disconnect assy two legs run in slots down to the base of the battery the end of these legs forms the clamp.the idea is to remove the two 10mm headed nuts and lift the disconnect assy up to free the battery, well you`ve got no chance unless all the wiring is removed from the disconnect unit, not something i fancied at all!, just remove the two bolts that hold the disconnect unit down and ease it up a little bit maybe 10mm.
The front and sides of the battery are surrounded by an alloy box , lift the carpet at the front edge and remove 3x 10mm headed nuts , the box goes around the sides of the battery and theres 2 more 10mm nuts round by the disconnect unit , remove those , now the battery box can be lifted up and out or up to clear the studs at the front edge unit and forward a bit your choice, this releases the battery from the clamps.

Its time to lug the old one out, take your time ,plan the lift , put some protection on the back side of the drivers seat.

refit is reverse but when connecting its + first then -. the terminals may need "seating" a few gentle taps with a hammer shaft should do the trick.

One thing i noticed was the + cable was hard against the inside of the alloy box, twistng the terminal slightly clockwise on refit moved it away slightly.

because the battery has been disconnected its quite possible that the various ecu`s for engine and transmission will have lost some stored data, this is returned by driving the car , the values will be "relearned" but it may drive a bit differently until then.

craig



LLaPGoCh

69 posts

107 months

Saturday 27th January 2018
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mrpseudonym said:
Does anyone know if it is possible to keep the car powered with the CTEK battery conditioner while removing and replacing the battery?
Think I remember reading once(probably on here) that if you keep the conditioner attached and press the battery disconnect switch you should be able to replace the battery without losing the settings. Not tried it but remember at the time thinking that's good to know if I ever need to do it....

anonymous-user

54 months

Saturday 27th January 2018
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divetheworld said:
Depends which Ctek. The one Aston supplied as an option was a 0.8amo unit which was useless.
Ctek make units up to 100amp which would start a Terex excavator!

So, any Ctek 5.0 or above WILL charge your battery fine. They also have some clever battery conditioning and recovery modes.
Just a question on the ctek.

I have 2 0.8 cteks for my bikes and presumed they would not be sufficient to use on the aston. So if the 0.8 ctek is supplied by am then it will work? Otherwise i was going to need to buy the 5.0 or higher. Please can somebody explain as I missed the day at school we were taught about electrical current lol.

alscar

4,114 posts

213 months

Saturday 27th January 2018
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Personally would always go for the ctek mxs5 - am sure the 0.8 model is fine but I only use that model for lawn tractor and quad. Amazon is your friend and u can get whatever connectors / extension leads from them too.

craig elam

130 posts

126 months

Monday 29th January 2018
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£13.99 from lidl, been on madams P***che for a while now , spot on.

gibbon

2,182 posts

207 months

Monday 29th January 2018
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8Tech said:
And if the battery has gone that flat in a week it probably needs replacing.

I recommend the Duracell DE92 AGM as the ultimate replacement or the Duracell DA100 Advanced. Both are bulletproof batteries and will take the change in charge rate and irregular charge without suffering.
Are these the same fitment as a Vantage do you know?

craig elam

130 posts

126 months

Monday 29th January 2018
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it comes with 2 crocodile clips for direct attachment to the battery,I had an AM branded CTek one which came with my DB9 , it lasted about 18 month then packed up,i used the old connector from that one , you do have to connect the wires but the lidl charger has reverse polarity protection , so if you mess up it will let you know. i did try and identify the AM connector a while ago and it turned out to be a fairly common i.e not bespoke plug, if i remember i`ll post it
for £13.99 its worth a punt , ive got one on my lawn mower as well, i used to have to buy a new battery every season because i forgot to charge it,

Colin Parkinson

1 posts

33 months

Sunday 25th July 2021
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I have an '08 DB9 and just had the flat battery!

Figured out how to get into the car and the battery is now on charge.

I note that here, and elsewhere, people are talking about a reset button. I have had both rear seat squabs out but cannot find it any where!

This a facelift so maybe no reset button.

Not tried to start it yet as still charging but everything seems to be working.

Colin

Zuman

188 posts

113 months

Monday 26th July 2021
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It can be a difficult situation if you ever get a flat battery whilst the car, boot, and bonnet are locked. There are many reports of the key failing to unlock the doors for some reason. I use the CTEK and it's never let me down, but to be extra safe, I ran wires and connector from the under-bonnet jump point and earth to a grille slat, where I secured it out of sight with a cable tie. That way I'll always have access to boost the battery even if I can't get into the car. The entire job took less than ten minutes.

Penelope Stopit

11,209 posts

109 months

Monday 26th July 2021
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Colin Parkinson said:
I have an '08 DB9 and just had the flat battery!

Figured out how to get into the car and the battery is now on charge.

I note that here, and elsewhere, people are talking about a reset button. I have had both rear seat squabs out but cannot find it any where!

This a facelift so maybe no reset button.

Not tried to start it yet as still charging but everything seems to be working.

Colin
I don't think this circuit has a reset button

Taken from https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...