Hello!
I came to acquire a 2009 DB9 Volante automatic (LHD) that has had an interesting time. The car was owned by a gentleman with some medical issues that led to questionable decision making. Apparently, he drove the car over a parking stop, then parked it for 4(ish) months. That's where I stepped in.

I am almost finished repairing/replacing the obvious problems, including but not limited to the radiator/cooling system, transmission cooler and front sheet metal/fiberglass.
When I got the car, the battery had 0.75 volts. I have never seen it run, but the damage was consistent with a car being driven over a low obstruction.

Electrically, I can't explain its behavior. It will crank, but not start. When I hit the lock button, the locks cycle through locked then open. The roof doesn't respond to the switch. The radio doesn't work. The cluster only has a check engine light and the PATS red circle lit. No other lights illuminate. When I use the single ECU I got, the interior courtesy lights come on. Pushing the map light button does nothing. The trunk won't latch. The passenger window will only respond to the passenger side switch. The car had ~50 codes stored, most relating to the dead battery, I suspect. Clearing them and trying to restart yielded:
P008A Low Fuel Pressure
P0500 Vehicle Speed Sensor A Circuit Fault
P1000 System Check Not Completed Since Last Memory Clear
P115B Check Fuel System
U0001 High-Speed CAN Communication Bus Fault
U0101 Lost Communication with Transmission Control Module (TCM)
U0102 Lost Communication with ABS Control Module
U0146 Lost Communication with Gateway A

The parking sensor seems to work. It beeps at the car parked behind it. The ECU (key) receptacle has both red and white lights. Nothing else in the center stack seems to respond.

The car has a couple of gallons of gas.

Is there a unified explanation for the odd electrical behavior? Before I start chasing 20 different pathways/causes, is there one direction I should examine first? I'm hoping there is a pyrotechnic fuse I haven't been able to identify that will explain all of this.

Thank you.

 

Welcome to the adventure!

Free advice is worth what you okay for it... But, I highly recommend leaving the car on a battery tender. This, even though you replaced the battery (right?)

Also, because of the Aluminum chassis, the car has numerous ground points and straps. All of mine were corroded. Corrosion makes the ground not ground...

Wouldnt shock me if the primary strap from the torque tube to chassis was damaged. Or the 6 signal line grounds on the lower body just behind the firewall. There are 12 primary signal line grounds, 6 high up and protected, 6 low and exposed.

Good luck and report back.

Best
Larry

 

Sorry, yes. The new battery has been hooked to a trickle charger since I installed it.

Corroded grounds makes a lot of sense. That's a very solid place to look. Thank you for the suggestion.

 

The second time I pulled the motor I forgot to install the primary ground strap (the torque tube). The engine would start and run but it was weird compared to what I knew it should be. And I had the smorgasbord board of errors. I assumed a ground error and was "pleased" to find the hanging ground strap.

Good luck!
Larry

 

The number one issue with a Volante that does almost exactly everything you say is the Roof Control Module, drops the CAN Low Side and cluster goes black and other faults appear. Do a search on here for disconnecting it as everything will return except the roof function of course.
-JW

 

Roof control module. That is stupendously helpful! Thank you. I'll look into it.

 

Larry, can you elaborate on these grounds? In the cabin or outside? Left or right?

I'm still struggling through this issue. I have proven the high speed CAN lines are intact and not shorted to ground. Everything else from the accident is repaired, and the bumper is back on. Only thing left is this electrical problem. I got a "known good" roof computer from a same year DB9, and while I didn't get it reprogrammed (dealer is 4 hours away, and the car doesn't run) nothing changed.

Thank you in advance.

 

Sure - they are in the engine bay on both the left and right side of the firewall, and on the frame rail on the RHS near the fuel lines. You'll need to raise the car to see them. There are 6 on each side, spaced top to bottom. The ones on the bottom are exposed to the elements and thus were more corroded.

Good luck!

 

These?
Sadly, they look fine. I cleaned them up anyway. The power cable is a little crusty, so I cleaned that too.

 

yes, those are the ones. There are more further up on the fire wall as well, to include all the way at the top. The primary ground goes from the frame to the torque tube on the RHS near the bell housing.

You could put all of this to rest by running a large jumper cable from the battery negative terminal to the jumper terminal in the front. I have had to do that on other cars just to confirm a grounding issue...

 

I connected the battery to the engine block. No change.

I have 2.1 and 2.3 volts on the high speed CAN bus when referenced to ground KOEO. (Of course engines off. I can't start it. &#128549

The CAN Bus 2 (High Speed Volcano) circuit is completely intact. No shorts, each terminus has continuity.

I'm about out of ideas. The car is mad about a lot of stuff, per a FOXWELL NT624

Currently, on the engine OBD port:
P1000 System check not completed since last memory clear
P115B Check Fuel System
U0001 High-speed CAN communication bus fault

Body OBD port:
transmission
P0614 Please refer to vehicle service manual!
P1798 Please refer to vehicle service manual!
P1799 Please refer to vehicle service manual!

Braking
P0115 Steering Angle Sensor (SAS) CAN timeout
U2003 Wrong CAN configuration profile
P0097 Vehicle configuration parameter- vehicle sub-type invalid

Restraints control module
P0002 SRS warning lamp CAN message: SRS bulb status timeout
P009A Rear seat belt buckle CAN bus timeout
P012D CAN signal - power timeout
P0129 CAN signal - vehicle speed timeout
P012A CAN signal - door status timeout

Steering angle sensor
U0300 Please refer to vehicle service manual!

Parking aid module
B2477 Please refer to vehicle service manual!

Headlamp Leveling Module
B2618 Please refer to vehicle service manual!
B2621 Please refer to vehicle service manual!
B1342 Please refer to vehicle service manual!

I'm open to any suggestions.
As always, thank you in advance.
It looks like my errors have migrated to new issues.

 

Since I know how lonely and frustrated you feel on this... Multiple errors across multiple systems could be any of these (all of which you have thought about...)
1) bad battery
2) bad power at point of use
3) bad ground at point of use
4) bad control line/canbus
5) bad ecm/control module

If I was going down the path you are, at this point I would disconnect the connectors at the ECMS both to "reconnect them to clean them up" and to carefully inspect for loose wires. I would also want to measure the voltages on the power lines at the ECMs. Should be near 13-14volts (little to no voltage drop from battery). I'd also want to measure the current draw of the system "at rest" to see if there is a low current short somewhere. EG - are you using power somewhere that you shouldn't be. From memory my DB9 used about 50 mA once all the fuel pumps/ecms powered down.

I would carefully inspect the wiring harnesses where they are visible - I'm wondering if you haven't chaffed through the loom and cut some wires so they are shorting/disconnecting.

I'm not a canbus expert but I think I would spend some time (drinking beer) cruising the Ford/Jag forums for similar errors. I have been amazed at how many issues I've found on other forums (eg, the low oil pressure/flow in the heads of the V-12 plagues the Duratec line across all of Fords products..).

If you haven't jammed your head down into the passenger footwell and looked at the wiring harness it might be worthwhile to inspect the wiring/connectors. They aren't particularly well protected and it might be worth using a flashlight and mirror to inspect them where they come through the firewall (upper RHS of the car) and behind the metal access plate.

I always suspect the ECMs last (even as the dealer goes there first). 95% of the electronic errors are caused by bad connectors/wiring and not the CPUs.

Best wishes & I will drink a pint of Boddington tonight on your behalf. Maybe it will help!

 

Thank you for your help.
I did unplug both PCMs and looked at the wiring. Wires/looms are visually intact, and the pins looks super clean.

The odds are only one or 2 failure points account for all.of these errors. But with so many, across so many systems, I'm stumped as to what to look at next.
power to the PCMs/ECU/computers is a logical next step.
That and the inter ECU CAN bus lines . . . I didn't look at those. CAN bus 1, or 3. I don't recall which at the moment.

I'm open to other ideas after that.

 

Did you get the car running? Any progress?

I was having an issue on my 07 Volante of the battery not charging while car was running. The voltage from alternator to frame was 14.5V but at the battery itself while running was only 11V and dropping. The alternator mounts to the motor and shares ground with the motor, except in the case of corroded motor ground strap connection. I implemented a temporary fix of wrapping 4AWG bare copper wire around the long alternator bolt and sending the other end through a hole in the frame and wrapping it tightly.

I eventually got around to jacking up the car and finding the connections shown in the 05-07-2021 06:14 PM photos of this thread. I had 4 small grounds on each side so I cleaned those and the 1 large connection under the 13MM nut. There was also another ground under the passenger floorboard that corrosion had completely detached. It was a pain to remove the nut but I ultimately got it off and, once cleaned, reattached to the frame with a tek screw. I thoroughly rubbed all the lugs, studs, washers, and nuts with a red scotch-brite pad to get them clean with copper exposed. I didn't have any dielectric grease on me at the time, but I would have used it if I did. I removed the bare copper wire at the alternator and the battery is back to charging normally.

I didn't have all those errors that you do... just an SRS Airbag Service Urgent error that I was able to resolve with the Volvo software on a $94 Autel MD802 scanner.

Are you using a jump start battery boost pack under the hood when attempting to start it? Even with 12.2V at the battery terminals I sometimes couldn't start the car without a battery pack attached under the hood.

 

I haven't solved the problem. I finally gave up and towed it to my nearest dealer (Charlotte). I'm hopeful they'll get it sorted soon.
I'll update with the resolution when it appears.