308 mysterious electrical component

Hugh Venables

Hugh Venables

Member
Fellow Frogger
Joined
Mar 7, 2012
Messages
128
Location
Ferntree Gully Vic
What is the component mounted to the front of the battery cover that interrupts the starter cable on a 308? The battery is connected to one side and the starter to the other. Is it a fuse or a relay? How does it function?
 
Have a look at the first part of this video. There is a maxi-fuse box on top of the battery, that hangs over the front. Is that what is meant?
 
seasink said:
Have a look at the first part of this video. There is a maxi-fuse box on top of the battery, that hangs over the front. Is that what is meant?
Click to expand...
Thanks, I think that is an earlier 308 and that bracket etc on the front of the battery cover is different particularly in respect of the fact that the battery cable and the starter cable are both bolted to a solid metal link. On this one they are separated by a potted electronic thing with a printed circuit board hanging off it and a 6 pin plug on the bottom of it. The unit is marked as a Delphi 28236851. There are lots of images of it but no explanation of what it does or how it works. If it is a fuse then both the ones I have are open circuit but if it is a relay then I need to look for what close it.
 
Could you check that number again? I can't find it in the Delphi catalogue.
 
Saw these on the 3008's, tend to be left disconnected accidentally after a battery replacement 🙈. ... forgot what they're called but have heard they go faulty
 
Sorry on the part number
It is 28236841
Thanks for the replies All, much appreciated. I think I will bridge it for a test. A mechanic at Reagans told me it doesn’t matter which way around the battery cable and starter cables are fitted and a friendly bloke at East Keilor measured and found power on the starter cable on a car that started OK. So I think it is a fuse for starter current and also some sort of battery/ charging system measuring. Since it should be bridged by the fuse an external bridge should be OK.
 
Plenty of them mentioned in eBay sites and the French internet , where they are called boîte BPGA, for battery protection. There is a printed circuit board under the plastic.
 
The BPGA is otherwise known as the Supplies and Protection Module. It's essentially a couple of pressed plates as bus bars, a bespoke high-current relay (you can't buy it from Repco), an encapsulated circuit and many fusible links on some versions e.g. Picasso, 5008 etc.. It is usually the relay that fails. The purpose of this unit in addition to providing fusible links is to isolate many circuits when the vehicle 'goes to sleep' and therefore prevents any current draw. A common symptom of a failed BPGA relay is a discharged battery after parking the vehicle unused for a few days or more. If it's drven everyday, the fault can be masked for some time. There are some specific BPGA internal relay faults that you want to see before buying a new BPGA for something like a Picasso, DS5, 5008 etc...
 
Thanks David. Is the starter circuit completed by a relay or a fuse (or both) in the BPGA? If it’s a relay, when and how does it close? It would seem a bit unnecessary to put the starter circuit to sleep to prevent battery drain.
 
Hugh Venables said:
Thanks David. Is the starter circuit completed by a relay or a fuse (or both) in the BPGA? If it’s a relay, when and how does it close? It would seem a bit unnecessary to put the starter circuit to sleep to prevent battery drain.
Click to expand...
I believe the BSI communicates via CAN to a CPU in the potted pcb that controls the relay.
There is one fuse (F3?) on BPGA that is always live providing power to a battery monitor which is then input to BSI.
All the other fuses, and starter, get powered when BSI commands the relay to close.

Your friendly guy at Kielor measured +12v because the BSI turned on the BPGA relay.
As @David S mentions, you really need access to a diagtool to see if the BSI is sending a command to the BPGA or not.
 
More info about the 308 BPGA here:
 

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  • P308-T7-bpga-1.pdf
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Excellent diagnosis Alex. You can almost guarantee it will be, lock in. If required a CAN sniffer chipset across the wires going to it will confirm and identify, a twisted pair will / should be evident.
 
Thanks Guys, that’s very helpful. Can someone recommend where I can have that checked, preferably in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne. For now, the car is running very nicely with a copper plate bridge completing the starter circuit.
 
Well, it was going perfectly until two days ago the starter motor wouldn’t run. We just tried several times and eventually it worked and sounded fine. Yesterday it did the same thing. Today it is fine. Took it to the local auto elec whose scan reveals P0215, 040A, 05FF, P0928, U1308, P1727 and P1605. All are intermittent except the second and third which are local.

Please can someone decipher that , particularly with respect to the starter problem. I still have the copper strap across the BPGA heavy terminals. Do any of the codes tell why I need it?
Thanks, Hugh
 
From memory ... P0215 is a supply relay fault in the engine slave, but it doesn't necessarily mean that unit is faulty. The others I don't know offhand. Get your battery load tested as a start. If that's OK, you may need to look at trying another engine slave, which isn't VIN-coded so easily swapped.
 
Last edited:
Yep. The relay is open or stuck. P0215.

The others look irrelevant. They might disappear after resetting.
P040A EGR temperature sensor
05FF Not known
P0928 Gear Shift Lock Solenoid Control Circuit/Open
U1308 Inconsistent brake or RPM information. Brake pedal position?
 
Thanks Guys. Much appreciated. The starter was fine with many starts today but tomorrow I’m off on a 10 day 1000 mile vintage car jaunt and Di is too scared of being marooned to drive it.

Please excuse my ignorance but I assume the stuck or open relay is in the engine slave. Is this photo the engine slave? If so, can a relay be removed from it as a donor for the stuck or open? Which one?

It’ll have to wait ten days until I get back. (Aaarrgghh, the photo is too big to upload. Not sure how to fix that. Photo shows unit with 20 or so fuses and 4 multi pin sockets)
Thanks again guys,
Hugh
 
Open the pic in whatever viewer you use and select the menu to save a copy. Use a different name, and save as JPG. You will be prompted or have a graphic for quality selection. Start at 65% and then save. If that doesn't get under 1MB, repeat and reduce lower.
 
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