2006 Renault Scenic please help car will not hold charge to start

Car: Renault Scenic
Year: 2006
Variant: Megane Scenic 1.6 petrol
Categories: Electrics, ECU, Warnings & Lights
Hi, can any of u guys help me out please? My megane scenic 2006 reg will not start. This started happening when we had shut the engine off one day but still sat in the car for an hour, and when I went to start it the battery was dead. I got someone to help me jump start it and then it worked fine. This happened on a number of occasions and after a jump start it always worked fine from then on, until the other day when I were driving it and all of a sudden a red light saying STOP shown up on the dash, and it were also showing up as battery low. After another mile or so there were all kinds of warnings showing up like handbrake failing and no power steering etc, and I could feel the steering very hard to turn and as I pulled down a road the car packed in on me and wouldn't start again. Anyway I got the AA out and they just hooked a battery booster up to my battery and it fired up straight away, he tested the altinator and the battery and said both worked fine and both read the correct voltage etc, and he couldn't find anything else wrong with the car. He did say that the red cap is missing that goes onto the positive side of the battery and the connections could do with a clean with a wire brush or sandpaper though. I drove the car home with no problems, and the same night I nipped to the shop and exactly the same thing happened again, it conked out on me and wouldn't start. I looked under the bonnet and saw the connections that went to the red plastic tray bit, and I touched one of the wires that were connected to it and it snapped off. Also I looked at another wire that went to the same plastic tray but to the opposite side of the wire I had just snapped, and I could see it bulging with a dirty powdery substance so I twiddled the wire either side of where the powder were and it all fell out, leaving a big gap where the copper wire should be connected. It were like the copper wire had turned into this powder because it had still been working whilst it were there, but now I had got it all out it left a gap so the one wire weren't joined together. I tried to get a little piece of wire just to attach it where the gap were and it sparked a couple of times then were dead. That's it I were locked out and had to get a recovery truck to tow it back home, the guy who cam tried a few things and tried it with a booster pack but there were no life whatsoever. The next day I took all the wires off the battery and cleaned them all, rewired the ones that had snapped off and been damaged, and put them all back together. The battery were still totally dead so I hooked up my battery booster I had bought and straight away my car started, I revved it a couple of times and it idled perfectly so I took the negative clip off the battery from my battery booster and the car then cut out, so I tried it again. It fired up again but this time a warning came up saying battery low, I left the booster on a little longer but still when I took it off the car shut down. I didn't want to leave the booster on the car whilst running too long incase it broke it so now I'm at a loss and don't know what to do. The guy from the AA tested the battery and the altinator and said both were perfect so I am seriously at a loss and can't afford to get ripped off at a garage as most do not understand anything about renults, can someone please help me? Thanks in advance
Posted: Feb 22, 2016 (8 years ago)
Assuming you have repaired all faulty , corroded wiring , check earth wire from body to power unit .Also you need to get battery properly load tested , not an AA man checking voltage .
Posted Feb 22, 2016 (8 years ago)
Agreed!
Volt meter testing is a waste of time .
I could join 8 little batteries from you TV remote and that would give me 12V but you wouldn't expect that to start a car,
Would you?
And your right,
Renaults can be nuts,
especially when it comes to wiring.
Last one I had in with similar problems I put in a new battery.
Told the owner to just drive it and ignore the light.
Well he told me later he got a couple of miles before the light came back on and then he turned around to come back and give me an earful.
and got half way back to me before the light went back off for good.
Phoned me next day to say it's fine.
Only then did he remember what I had actually told him about the light.
Renaults like all French cars seem to have found a way of making self destructing wire that "look" fine but collapse into dust as you have found out.
Oh and you could try too be less insulting about garages.
Most respondents either work in or run garages.
So this free advice comes from one of those places/people.
Get your battery either properly load tested or fit a new one.
Posted Feb 22, 2016 (8 years ago)
Worked with Renaults for years (unfortunately ) in days gone by and hated them .Bit better today though wouldn't have one .Take it into a Renault garage or non franchised Renault specialist if you are concerned about " getting ripped off " rather than tar all with the same brush .When I later had my own garage I refused to take them in for repair .As for the AA and their roadside diagnosing ,I've lost count of the number of times I had cars brought in by customers where what they said was a load of bollocks .So don't be quick to take what they say as gospel .
Posted Feb 22, 2016 (8 years ago)
Thanks for ur feedback guys. Let me first say sorry about my comment about garages ripping me off, I didn't mean it to sound as though all garages are the same. What I meant to have said is because some garages do not understand renults properly they tend to charge u for things that don't even fix the problem, just because they thought it were the problem. Like I say I am not saying all garages are the same because I know there not but twice it has happened to me where iv been charged for something I didn't really need, and still had the same problem after. I'm sorry it came out wrong but that's what I meant.
Before I saw anyone's answers I checked the battery with my own multimeter and it read just 2.5 volts so I just bought a new one. I fitted the battery and made sure it were all tight (although I didn't check to see if the earth were tight to the engine), I took the car out and straight away the stop light on the dash came on and it also said low battery. If I revved it up while in neutral to about 5-6000 revs the light would go off along with the low battery message, and at one point I did around 6 miles including a little motorway run where the light stayed off, and just when I thought it were going to be ok it cam on again with the low battery warning. I have parked it back on my drive and I don't know if the new battery will be dead yet or if it will start but I will let u all know when I have done a bit more research.
Also I forgot to mention on my first write up on this matter, because I didn't really know until I looked into it a bit. One of the wires that had snapped that went to the battery apparently were a fusible wire and had a little fuse on the wire that broke off (apparently) I don't know, but if that's the case I didn't replace it with a fusible wire so would that cause these problems I am having with the stop light and low battery message? Could I have blown the fuses on the battery, 1 big and 2 small ones in that red tray on the positive side? I could do with taking it to someone who knows about renults to fix this and I did know a mobile mechanic a few years ago that worked for Renult for 30 years before going into his own business, but I have lost his number and forgot his name or I could give him a ring to come and fix it. I am really struggling because I don't know anything about cars and I am weary of just taking it into any garage because of my past experiences. Has anyone got any ideas to help me out or even a reliable mobile mechanic in Doncaster South Yorkshire ? Any help will be muchly appreciated. Thanks in advance
Posted Feb 23, 2016 (8 years ago)
Sounds like alternator is not charging , need to get it checked . I now see where you were coming from re. opinion of garages . When I refused to take them in it was also due to specialist Renault tools been needed for many repairs .I got fed up borrowing them from friends in the dealership .Sorry cant help with recommending a garage , I'm up in Scotland
Posted Feb 23, 2016 (8 years ago)
Thanks for understanding my comment about garages, and thanks for reading my problem, it's a pity ur in Scotland mate 😔, u should be my next door neighbour 😉
Posted Feb 23, 2016 (8 years ago)

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