BATTERY CHANGE ON 406 HDI

[jata23]

Can any one help me, my battery is a bit sluggish in the mornings and i think its time to change it i have a 406 hdi s (03) the last time some one disconnected the battery it was a trip to the dealers for key coding, due to the central locking packing up, i spoke to one of the technicians there and he advised me that if the negative terminal was disconnected first this would not happen, is this true.

[mjb]

First I've heard of that happening! I always remove the positive first and put it back last too.

If you're worried, get one of those memory saver things that take a 9V battery and plug into the cigarette lighter socket.

[jata23]

Thanks mjb i will give that a go.

[406BE]

it shouldn't affect any of the security countermeasures! i have disconeected it many times while working on electrical stuff in the car! ( shocked myself once too many , that maybe the reason for my twisted personaliyl and sense of humor lol )

[flashfloyd]

I had to do this too,as soon as we had a cold snap,but don't remember which terminal I undid first!However,the only problem I suffered was having to reset clock,date etc.Radio still kept presets.My remote central locking never worked anyway,but maybe that just fogs the issue,sorry.Oh,and the alarm went off as soon as I opened the doors.

[totaleclipse]

not had any issues on my non HDI diesel from removing the battery, and my dads HDI dispatch van has not had any related issues with battey disconnection either, so really can't see this being THE problem, must only be a symptom of whatever other problem your having.

[Panda]

I had the exact same problem on my 2003 406HDi after disconnecting the battery. The remote central locking refused to work and couldn't be re-initialised by any of the usual BSI reset / key re-teach procedures. A couple of local garages tried to do it and were also unsuccessful so I threw the towel in and took it to the main dealer. They couldn't sort it out either and had to replace the key in the end (£70).

For safety you should always disconnect the battery negative terminal first. If you put a spanner on the positive terminal and accidentally swing it into the bodywork or engine block you will end up with a huge short circuit, lots of sparks and heat and battery meltdown and/or fire. There is no electrical reason why it would make any difference which terminal is disconnected first.

[Doggy]

For safety you should always disconnect the battery negative terminal first. If you put a spanner on the positive terminal and accidentally swing it into the bodywork or engine block you will end up with a huge short circuit, lots of sparks and heat and battery meltdown and/or fire. There is no electrical reason why it would make any difference which terminal is disconnected first.

I agree with all of the above - only exception being my last two cars have had a spring-loaded quick-release positive terminal, which seems sensible to undo first.