I have been noticing that my car is getting increasingly harder to start especially if it has sat for more than a day or two. This is a daily driven car and the volts when on read in the 13.5-14 range consistently. This morning however I tried to turn the car on and I haven't driven it since Friday and it would not start. So I pulled the key out put it back and gave it another try. Started right up.

Side note, for about 2 weeks now I keep getting service column lock as well. This was taken care of at the dealer long ago and it is just annoying to see that pop up 90% of the time I start the car.

Are these two problems related to a battery craping out? Is my starter going?

The car is a 00' with 57k miles and the battery connections are tight.

 

Do you mean the starter will not turn over at all or the starter turns yet the engine does not start?

 

the starter turned both times. It just would not start. It always eventually turns over, Im just curious why it is so hard to start lately before it strands me somewhere.

 

When the engine is running the DIC displays the voltage of the charging system, not the battery.

Keep getting the Service Colum Lock . . .the fix installed by the dealers very often does not fix the problem. Not an expert on it, but it comes up a lot here, pretty sure the after market Colum Lock Bypass is easey to install and by all reports Ive seen fixes the problem for good.

Are these two problems related to battery crapping out . . .

I wouldnt think so. The battery may indeed be bad but shouldnt cause the service colum messgae as far as I know. These cars are norotiously hard on batteries, in first post you mentinoed that its has been "increasingly hard to start" and in a later post said "it turns over just doesnt start".

If you mean it turns over like its supposed to (not slowly) but just doesnt start, I dont know what to say about that. When the problem addressed by the CLB happens Im pretty sure it doesnt crank at all.

If you mean its been cranking slower and slower....then ya Id have the battery checked.

I know Im not much help here but its pretty safe to say this car (particularly) needs a good battery or it misbehaves. And aslo that if you havent had a CLB installed (the aftermarket one) you are at risk for being stranded on the side of the road.

Im pretty sure with more information someone will be along to diagnose specificaly whats going on with your car.

You may also want to use the search function, do a little reading on the CLB thing and battery issues while you wait :-)

Good luck

 

thanks for the reply. I might of been a little confusing.

The car has been trouble free for some 20K miles since I have bought it. However now there is just some annoying things that are popping up.

The page on the heads up display changes once the car has been turned off. So if it was set on gas when I restart it usually has changed to read oil pressure.

The CLB has never acted up before and now the error message comes up 70% of the time when I start the car. It has been now for 2-3 weeks.

Finally the starter always engages it seems like the battery is just low or dying.

I was hoping all this was caused by a crap battery. Since none of this has ever happened before and I haven't changed anything on the car recently as far as mods go.

 

An almost dead battery can definitly cause the stuff you're mentioning to reset (HUD page, stuff like that).

I know you havent had the CLB issue, and it is possible that its all related to this, but I ave to tell you, if mine didnt already have the lock removed (2001 Coupe=not effected) and I was getting the message, I'd order and install a CLB. Its just one of those annoying things that can strand you on the road. Anything else can wait till you get to fix it but stranded is . . . .stranded

When you say you are getting the message 70% of the time....what exactly is the message?

 

It does seem that your battery is dying.... don't scrimp on the battery, get a gel filled (Optima or similar) and if your C5 is going sit for a while between drives I would suggest a battery tender (I have C-Tek).

There are so many options with batteries, and equally there is also many threads on the forum discussing batteries.