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FraserG New Zealand

Tue Apr 26 2016, 09:28pm

Joined: Jan 05 2015

Member No: #2011

Location: Auckland

Hi all,

My C6 let my wife down last week when she used the car planning to be home before I even noticed. I bus and ferry to work so don't use my car for the commute to work. Anyway the starter motor gave up the ghost and so she was stranded at the supermarket car park, a place I avoid as I don't like parking anywhere where people can open their doors into my cars shapely flanks.

So after the AA man had been and confirmed my diagnosis I sat back to wait for the tow truck to arrive. I wound down the drivers window part way for ventilation and turned on the radio. After a few minutes, a notification flashed up on the cars computer screen which read something like - Economy mode activated - or something similar. I didn't know what that meant but then the radio turned itself off and my window wouldn't wind up. As you would expect, at the same time it started to drizzle lightly!

So I googled on my phone to find out through this wonderful website that the 'economy mode' can only be exited by starting the engine. This wasn't going to happen without a starter motor. So my window has been partly down since.

Hopefully the starter motor fix isn't too much of a problem. My C6 has done 143,000 kms. What would be a typical life for a starter motor? I remember with my old DS21 I just needed to give it a tap with my tyre wrench to get the starter working again. Things have no doubt moved on from that quick fix!

Cheers Fraser

c6kev

Tue Apr 26 2016, 10:14pm

Joined: Dec 02 2013

Member No: #1508

Location: Wales

Fraser

There is a way of closing the windows in economy mode. Press and hold the lock button on the remote. This should close all windows and roof as well as dead locking the car. (Assuming that the drizzle hasn't flooded the interior and killed the Electrics in the meantime! )

Regards,

kfairgray New Zealand

Wed Apr 27 2016, 01:07am

Joined: Mar 14 2016

Member No: #2555

Location: South Pacific

Woah: Was your wife in trouble Fraser?

NZC6

Wed Apr 27 2016, 07:16am

Joined: Mar 16 2014

Member No: #1629

Location: Christchurch

Starter motors do fail on C6s reasonably early unfortunately. Quite a few stories on this forum. Mine failed just before 100k and had to be replaced.

Tjensen Norway

Wed Apr 27 2016, 10:00am

Joined: Jul 17 2012

Member No: #954

Location: Bergen

Weak battery may shorten the starter life, problem is the bearings that really don't like running for more than some seconds at a time. Hopefully the 3,0 Hdi is better (differenet and bigger starter)

FraserG New Zealand

Wed Apr 27 2016, 09:37pm

Joined: Jan 05 2015

Member No: #2011

Location: Auckland

Thanks Kevin,

I should have told my story earlier. I could have closed my window properly rather than glad wrapping and taping it up a couple of times!

And no, my wife isn't in trouble. I get into trouble when my cars let her down. They don't seem to break when I'm driving. I had to sell my XM because she refused to trust it anymore after a another minor failure years ago. I went back to a CX as my earlier one had never cost much to maintain. I last saw my old XM five years after selling it and talked to the new owner. I sold it at 280,000 miles and the new owner was under the impression it had only done 120,000 miles because the mileage counter went back to zero at 100,000 miles! He was surprised when I told him it had likely covered 320,000 miles at that stage without any engine work!


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