Can a Dead Battery Cause P0011 Code?

[peter540]

Hi, everyone.

As some of you know, my motor's been completely gone through, perhaps 10K miles ago -- including the TCGs, etc. This morning, after being away for several days, and having forgotten to leave the car on a battery tender before leaving the car, I started the car once, it sounded fine, and the SES light popped on. I turned the car off to plug in my generic code reader, and then the battery was too dead to start the car again. I should note I also started the car last night, moved it to get to something in the garage, letting it idle for about ten minutes. It ran fine then, too, with no SES.

I pulled the error code, and it's the evil P0011. My hopeful question is: can a dead battery cause this code? My assumption is no, but my hope is yes.

I should also note that the battery is getting old. At this point, I don't suspect the alternator.

Thoughts, everyone?

Thanks, as always.

--Peter

[dannyzabolotny]

Could try clearing the code and seeing if it comes back. Usually if there’s an actual problem with the timing it’ll throw the code after 1-2 startups pretty consistently.

[TiesTorN]

no

[peter540]

Could try clearing the code and seeing if it comes back. Usually if there’s an actual problem with the timing it’ll throw the code after 1-2 startups pretty consistently.

Hey there, Danny! Great to hear from you, and it's been nice to see you back in the e39 forum. Always fun to watch you work your cars back to good health!

Thanks -- I've been charging the car, and so far, with three startups, the code hasn't returned. I know the TCG job was well-done, and I've been driving the car almost two years, so I don't think it's one of those scenarios where the code is bound to pop up after a long while. It's been too long a while for that, I think.

So I'm curious whether you think that a bad battery could potentially cause this code. For example, if the vanos solenoids were to be affected by the dead battery, could that throw off the vanos enough to throw the code? I'm just spitballing, of course, since in all my years of owning and working on this car (17 years in April, to be exact), I've not heard of a bad battery causing this issue.

--P

[JimLev]

If the battery voltage dropped low enough just as you started it it’s possible the DME, cam sensor(s), and/or the crank sensor weren’t working properly, they are what tell the DME where the cams are in relation to the crank. Then the DME tells the vanos solenoids how much/little oil to send to the vanos.
If you’ve started and driven it for a few days and it doesn’t come back your probably fine.

[peter540]

If the battery voltage dropped low enough just as you started it it’s possible the DME, cam sensor(s), and/or the crank sensor weren’t working properly, they are what tell the DME where the cams are in relation to the crank. Then the DME tells the vanos solenoids how much/little oil to send to the vanos.
If you’ve started and driven it for a few days and it doesn’t come back your probably fine.


Thanks as always, Sir Jim! Here's hoping the code doesn't return. I'm getting a new battery today. The current one's probably six years old.

And what's the latest with you? How's the Factory 5 coupe treating you? Are you driving it often?

--P

[peter540]

Update: after clearing the codes, charging and ultimately replacing the battery today, the codes have not come back. Plenty more than the 2 - 3 starts that Danny suggested would've been enough to trigger the code to return. I'm chalking this up to the dead battery.

Thanks, everyone, for your help!

--P

[JimLev]

Thanks as always, Sir Jim! Here's hoping the code doesn't return. I'm getting a new battery today. The current one's probably six years old.

And what's the latest with you? How's the Factory 5 coupe treating you? Are you driving it often?

--P

Peter, good to hear your code didn’t return. Hope your doing well too.
All is good here, spent a week on Cape Cod and then 2 weeks on the big island and Maui. Got to meet up with MauiM3Mania, another Moderator on this forum.
My Factory 5 hotrod is fine, I’ve got 1300 miles on it so far. The rear tires still have tread on them.
I finally started cutting and buffing the paint, my driveway paint job looks pretty good. Most can’t believe this is the first car I painted and did it in the driveway. Still a few rock chips to fix.
I recently took off the Koni coilover and replaced them with QA1 coilovers that have setting for compression and rebound, also bought some QA springs that aren’t as stiff as the FF ones.
The FF supplied mufflers were way to LOUD, I replaced them with 2 nice stainless Borla ones and added 2 stainless Vibrant resonators.
I also just bought a new Kenwood DNX577S GPS/stereo to replace the one I bought 3 years ago, Also got another set of Focal speakers, gotta have tunes!

720771

[peter540]

Peter, good to hear your code didn’t return. Hope your doing well too.
All is good here, spent a week on Cape Cod and then 2 weeks on the big island and Maui. Got to meet up with MauiM3Mania, another Moderator on this forum.
My Factory 5 hotrod is fine, I’ve got 1300 miles on it so far. The rear tires still have tread on them.
I finally started cutting and buffing the paint, my driveway paint job looks pretty good. Most can’t believe this is the first car I painted and did it in the driveway. Still a few rock chips to fix.
I recently took off the Koni coilover and replaced them with QA1 coilovers that have setting for compression and rebound, also bought some QA springs that aren’t as stiff as the FF ones.
The FF supplied mufflers were way to LOUD, I replaced them with 2 nice stainless Borla ones and added 2 stainless Vibrant resonators.
I also just bought a new Kenwood DNX577S GPS/stereo to replace the one I bought 3 years ago, Also got another set of Focal speakers, gotta have tunes!

720771

Wow! I'm envious of EVERYTHING in your report, Jim! Glad all's well in your world! And by the way, pretty cool that your Factory Five and your kayak are in matching colors...

--P