Bad battery causes T+/Extender malfunction

[Lee_Burough]

I have a translator plus and extender chip with the anti-theft option.

Suddenly one day, my engine would start and then die, just like the anti-theft feature does if you don't perform the procedure to disarm it. Chased my tail for about 24 hours for a cause.

OKturbo suggested that a bad battery could cause the symptoms I was having. He was right Thanks for the reminder OKturbo. I remember a similar thread a few months ago, now that he reminded me

Deleted my previous thread on this subject, made while I was chasing my tail and some red herrings, then posted this thread to help someone in the future who might do a search on "anti-theft malfunction."

Lesson learned:
If you have the Translator and extender chip with anti-theft option and you can't keep the car running after startup, check your battery performance early in your troubleshooting process

I'm VERY happy with this T+ and Extender performance! Not flaming here. MY hardware was at fault, not the Translator or extender.

 

[bigz]

Lee,

Glad to see you got the car running My buddy was impressed with how nice your car was. Let us know how it runs when you crank up the boost a little bit.


Mike

 

[Lee_Burough]

That new turbo spools like lightening compared to the stock turbo With only 10 pounds of boost, I'm almost sure of traction problems when I crank it up.

Thanks for the good words. Your car is a head turner too

 

[TurboBob]

low battery

Can you datalog this situation with Direct Scan, There might be a way to fix this.

email me a datalog if you can.

Bob

 

[OKTurbo]

Lee,

Glad to help....not like I really did anything. You've got TurboBob on the case now. You're in good hands.

John

 

[Steve Y]

Ok turbo has a good point..

A weak battery or battery in the trunk wired improperly wreak havoc on the operation of the Max E occasionally because the starter pulls the ecm voltage down and the cells reset.

A bad starter can do this as well.
When it comes time for a starter I always take the one off the car and get new stuff put into it. It will bolt right back on without problems. Also, some auto parts chains use starters that occasionally may have had a few windings jumpered out and be a little down on torque and pull a little more current. That's what an auto parts guy once told me and I tend to believe him.

I advise MaxE and possibly Extender users to purchase the largest CCamp battery they can when it comes time for replacement.
Make sure cables are large and clean and secured.

Hopes this helps guys.

Maybe Bob can add to this here, I know he has thought about what can be done about it.

Steve

 

[Lee_Burough]

Not flaming the Translator or Extender! I'm very happy with the performance....

TurboBob,

I got rid of the bad battery within an hour of OKturbo's pointer to check it out, so, I cannot go back and reconstruct the electronic readings (If I had any inkling it would have benefited you, I'd gladly have made a recording of the start event for you)

I did not "record" the window in time where I measured battery voltage during start (with Tlink). The battery voltage at rest was 12.1v. Battery voltage dropped to 11.7v during one of my attempted starts, 11.8v during another. These are the only impirical facts I can provide.

The battery test machine at the store showed the AC Delco battery rated at 520 CCA, actually produced 445CCA, and would not hold that value under load. I couldn't guess at starting amp draw of my 22k mile TTA, except to say it seems very normal to this grey haired old man. HTH

Steve Y, I have the biggest and best battery I can get in that stock location now But, it does weigh 10 pounds more than the original.

Lee