Hi all. Hope you are all good.

Was about -4c this morning and when started the car (2007 td4 se), got the usual traction reduced message which then went straight out. Then had a short drive (10mins) to drop the kids and my mums. When I went back out to start the car, it flashed up Reduced Engine Performance and had the wee info bit. No other warning lights. By the time I flicked the screen round to the info screen, it had gone. Engione was fine driving to work.

Anyone got any ideas? Could this just be another of the cold-start problems due to low battery voltage? Any help for the technical wizzards on here would be most appreciated.

Many thanks

Iain

most likely battery voltage issue. Mine did the same every morning on start up if it was -1 or below and couldn't even turn over if it was -6 or 7. Fitting an extra heavy duty earth cable from the battery earth post to the engine cured that altogether so battery voltage is critical.
before i fitted the extra earth the battery voltage whilst cranking was dropping to around 7 volts ! After fitting the extra cable it doesn't drop below 10.5.

Thanks for the reply oldgeezer! This is probably a laughable question, but I'm not too technically minded. Is that an easy job to do?

Thanks for the help  As a man thinketh, in his heart so is he

Hi, yeah very easy job. I just bought 1.5mtrs of starter cable from a motor factors ( or old jump lead cable would do ) & bought two large eyelets and soldered one on each end.
I then remover a bell housing bolt near the starter and put one end of the cable under the bolt and refitted. I then routed the cable uptp the battery and put the other eyelet under the 6mm threaded post sticking upon the earth side of the battery ( - ) and secured the eyelet with a nut and washer.
I actually usec a scope to capture the voltage drop between the battery and the engine block and when it was -1 I had a 3volt drop causing the battery voltage to dip to 7.2 volts at cranking ! not doing any of the electrics any good. After fitting an extra cable the battery voltage would remain at 10.7 at cranking.
from picture below you will see extra eyelet fitted, ignore the croc clip, that was fro my scope.

Click image to enlarge

Click image to enlarge

Fantastic! Thanks so much for the detail. I'll need to get round to that ASAP.
Sorry for the delayed response.
Have a great Christmas As a man thinketh, in his heart so is he