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16th March 2024, 09:01 | #1 |
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Battery woes
Hi, , everyone, somethings gone wrong on my car, went out Wednesday to find my battery flat, so i have a fully charged spare, fitted it Friday morning, did one run, to the supermarket, and, i find this morning , its flat again, no lights ,or anything left on, so there should have been minimal drain, the first battery is only a month old, the spare is the one i took off about 3 years old, i have checked all earths and their all clean and tight, any ideas what could drain the battery so fast, Also when i fitted the other battery, normally the engine fires straight up, but this time, it spun over a couple of times before it fired,
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16th March 2024, 14:40 | #2 |
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Is the alternator charging martin ?
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16th March 2024, 17:43 | #3 |
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For how long had your spare battery been standing since it was fully charged? As you probably know, a car battery will slowly discharge itself even when not connected to anything. Your report that the engine didn't fire immediately suggests that your spare was, in fact, partially discharged.
Regarding the first battery being only a month old, did you charge it immediately after delivery? And what use has it had since then? If it's been starting the engine frequently without being taken on a long run, that could be the explanation. Simon
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16th March 2024, 17:47 | #4 |
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Thats the first thing i thought, so when i swopped batteries today, i put the new battery on, fully charged up, used my tester on it, and the alternator is pumping out at a healthy rate, i made sure the terminals were tight, because i noticed they were not fully tightening down on the old battery, i had to seat the clamps down fully, and now they are fully down, and tight. i will test again tomorrow to see what voltage drain there has been,
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16th March 2024, 18:44 | #5 | |
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Quote:
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16th March 2024, 22:17 | #6 |
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The battery on my car was 11 years old when it packed up overnight.
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17th March 2024, 06:42 | #7 | |||
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Thanks for the helpful information Martin.
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What was the actual charging voltage? You should expect somewhere between 13.2 and 14.5 volts but no more. Simon
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17th March 2024, 11:37 | #8 |
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Used the car this morning, and tested it when i got back, with everything on, the voltage read 14.5 checked the battery with everything turned off, and it was still reading fully charged, so no noticeable drop over 24 hours, i cleaned all the contact switches, bonnet, boot rechecked in the boot, nothing has power when the key is out, i will see again tomorrow,
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18th March 2024, 07:19 | #9 |
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tried it this morning, and yes, it's flat again, ok, so what systems are live when the car is locked, I'm assuming central locking, alarm, lights, internal and external, anything else?
clearly i have a drain, seems to not be noticeable up to 24 hours, then from 24-48 it drains the battery, i can rule out earth leads, i have checked them, external lights, including boot, go out when the plunger is pushed, i do have a boot mounted sat nav, but its shut down, and not used, does anyone have any clues, what ever it is clearly is a problem, for the time being, i'm going to have to leave the battery clamps off overnight, and reconect when i need the car, when i got this new battery, i charged it up fully, because it wasn't fully charged, left it for 2 weeks before fitting it, checking the voltage, because there had been a number of bad reviews posted on line about this company, and the battery appeared to not drop voltage , other than what might be expected, |
18th March 2024, 09:44 | #10 |
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Morning Martin,
My feeling is that we need to do some more tests before being sure of that conclusion. Your new battery might be defective, i.e. not holding charge, since you say it was supplied partially discharged. 1. To prove that you have a fault causing continuous drain, disconnect the negative battery cable. 2. Now select the 10 amp DC current range on your multimeter and place it in series with the battery's negative connection to the car body (red probe to the disconnected cable and black probe to the negative battery post). 3. Note the readings every ten minutes over a period of forty minutes. Initially the current will be quite high (up to about 2 amps) but should fall quickly to about 0.1 amps (100 mA). When it does, change the meter range to 200 mA for easier reading. 4. After 20 to 30 minutes you should be seeing about 35 mA (official figure between 30 and 45 mA). Simon
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