406 2.0 HDi 110 sluggish starting.

[pugnut]

I have no problem starting the car its just slower to catch than wifey's Squash Court (Qashqai) which fires up almost instantaneously to mine which goes urr urr urr urr ... sickening but momentary pause Brummmmmmmmmm!!!

Th starter motor on the Qashqui (being considerably newer) can be heard whizzing round at amazing speed compared to my pug's which sounds like a tractor before it fires up.

With winter coming on, is it new battery time or is this just one of those foibles that you get on a 7 year old vehicle.

Also, any advice on DIY battery replacement? When my alternator was replaced the keyfobs no longer worked remotely and had to be reprogrammed.
Best to get a dealer to do batteries these days or is there a DIY workaround to save key code data? Total pain having to actually use the keyhole.

[Doggy]

If you're still on your original battery it's probably a bit tired by now, but I always recommend a thorough check of all the heavy power connections and verifying your alternator's giving you at least 14.0V across the battery, with headlights etc. turned on, before shelling out for a replacement

You can get a little battery gadget that plugs into the cigar lighter socket & keeps enough power in the system to save codes etc while you swap batteries. Can't remember what they're called but a google should sort it.....

Someone fairly recently posted a good source of reasonable cost / good quality batteries, (about 6 months ago I think), try a search.

[FarmerPug]

Scrap yards are a great place for bargain batteries, think of it they have almost new cars wrote off and not all are front impacts so theres cheap batteries to be had