SOS E-Call battery

I've recently joined the Jimny gen 4 club, purchasing a repaired/damaged category car..

The Vehicle is in near perfect condition, however the SOS E-Call button has been triggered, this causes the whole dash to be frozen, just displaying the warning message. I have also found the horn is non functioning too (unsure if this is related)

which lead me to think that a trip to suzuki could solve the problem after some basic troubleshooting myself. Suzuki have found that the SOS e-call battery has been depleted and would likely need replacing (they have quote around £300 for this part!!). 

They have then suggested if the battery does not solve the issue, the whole call module needs replacing, (they have quoted over £2000 for a new control module!!!).

My main questions to the forums is:

Has anyone had any experience replacing an E-Call battery / or Recharging one? What issues could I come across during down this rabbit hole? 

Is the E-Call battery be related to the horn not working?

How difficult will it be accessing the E-Call module and can I purchase a third party alternative?

TL;DR - SOS Ecall warning is flagging and stopping the me from using the hord (maybe) and I cant use the dash controls, Help

Thanks in advance.

 

I can see no indication in the workshop manual that the e-call system in any way disables or locks up the dashboard or horn (although that is possible)

Equally I can see indication that the air bag module on this car locks out any systems after an accident although this is actually what happens on a lot of cars.I would look around for bad earths if it has been in an accident

In the pictures the battery looks like an 18650 or similar although it has cold welded tags on it (do not hot weld a lithium battery!!)

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The E-call battery is rechargeable, so being "depleted" is not really a thing.

Your technician has never worked on an E-call unit, and has no idea how to troubleshoot it, so whatever he told you is basically worthless. (Almost no dealer techs have worked on these units, because they don't fail by themselves and dealers don't do crash repairs. And no dealer tech will ever say "I have no idea.") Did he at least give you a list of fault codes?

I agree with Martin, you have other stuff going on here. Before you start buying parts, you will have to spend some time tracing through the electrics looking for hidden damage and loose connections. This will take time and require dismantling work. If you have to pay someone else to do this, expect a substantial bill.

It is not often that a "repaired/damaged category car" ends up being in "near-perfect condition" again, but when it does happen it is the result of a rather surprising amount of work. You may find that you need to put in some of this work yourself.

Good luck!