Battery woes

Call the midlife! · October 7, 2017, 13:27

Quote from: "Carolyn"if it's too tight against the strut tower, slacken the top battery clamp off and slide the battery towards the bulkhead?

It's more to do with the camera angle, looks closer than it is, cheers though [emoji1303]

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Carolyn · October 7, 2017, 13:47

That bit of advice was aimed at Tif... your looks just fine to me.

Call the midlife! · October 7, 2017, 13:50

Quote from: "Carolyn"That bit of advice was aimed at Tif... your looks just fine to me.

Aaah, I misunderstood the two bills bit, [emoji23]

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Sian · October 7, 2017, 16:12

Yeah don't worry Midlife, looks like I'm paying both s:lol: :lol: s:lol:

Thanks both for the photos. Yes maybe I need to push the battery back a bit. I hadn't thought of that. I will fight it again once it stops raining...

m1tch · October 9, 2017, 12:52

Mine has just gone flat and isn't holding a charge so might get one of those isolators, I also bought a £20 portable jump pack which has jumped the car 4 times so far without needing to take the battery out (getting good voltage when the car is running so my alternator is fine).

Where are the usual electrical drains on the car?

Carolyn · October 9, 2017, 12:55

Alarm system.

Sian · October 9, 2017, 14:36

Quote from: "m1tch"Where are the usual electrical drains on the car?

I'd also love to have an answer to this! So far I've confirmed mine isn't caused by - the battery, alternator, alarm or stereo. Looks like I'm going to have to dig deeper...

M1tch how old is your battery? Mine (new car) seemed many years old so originally thought it was that and bought a new one but no luck. I also know once a battery has died completely it starts to struggle and become unreliable. Are you sure yours is definitely a drain issue? Does it hold a charge if left unplugged from the car?

m1tch · October 9, 2017, 16:04

Quote from: "tiff272"
Quote from: "m1tch"Where are the usual electrical drains on the car?

I'd also love to have an answer to this! So far I've confirmed mine isn't caused by - the battery, alternator, alarm or stereo. Looks like I'm going to have to dig deeper...

M1tch how old is your battery? Mine (new car) seemed many years old so originally thought it was that and bought a new one but no luck. I also know once a battery has died completely it starts to struggle and become unreliable. Are you sure yours is definitely a drain issue? Does it hold a charge if left unplugged from the car?

I think its a fairly new battery, I am used to Bosch S5 batteries which hold a charge for months, think this one is just a standard Halfords battery, it has been perfect until recently.

I am going to perhaps pull the battery out after I give it a good run and see if the charge drops.

Its worth noting that I have no audio system in the car, no gauges are wired up and its just the alarm that is being used - there is also a cover over the positive terminal so I know that isn't shorting out anywhere.

Will perhaps try and turn off the interior light in case that's causing an issue (example being that the door sensor might be faulty and its leaving the light on or something).

spit · October 10, 2017, 19:29

Feel your pain.

I've had several years of ownership where the battery has quit on me for no obvious reason. Current draw while parked up has been too small to cause a significant drain overnight.

I had three battery replacements under warranty because of this oddness. The techies couldn't put the failures down to anything other than battery defect. The fourth one is performing well. Its a little more chunky than the others were.

I'm now getting the same issue with a non-2. The alternator failed spectacularly (shorts and smoke!) and shut everything down. Since replacing the Alt the 11yr old battery failed to hold its charge. We guessed that the alternator woes and the drive home on battery power only had seen it off, but a new battery seems worse than the old one so something is amiss s:? :? s:? . Again, current draw when parked up is tiny (immobiliser levels). The new battery has a 5yr warranty on it, so I'm swapping it out later in the week. Fingers crossed.

Carolyn · October 11, 2017, 08:29

I've had more than one battery issue. I do have an MR S with a rather current-hungry alarm/immobliser unit, so I have a battery isolator, which I use if I'm not using the car on a daily basis.
However, previously, I did also have an issue that turned out to be a small ground fault in the alternator. An alternator swap cured it.

These batteries are tiny and it doesn't take much to drop them below starting threshold.

Sian · October 11, 2017, 12:08

Quote from: "spit"The fourth one is performing well. Its a little more chunky than the others were.

So you've got a bigger battery in it now? I think that's going to be my fallback if I really can't find the problem.

Quote from: "Carolyn"I did also have an issue that turned out to be a small ground fault in the alternator. An alternator swap cured it.

I'm thinking something like that might be going on with mine. I'm going to try pulling fuses to see if I can isolate where it's draining from but I don't know if that'd tell me about ground faults. How'd you find out it was the alternator ground?

I want to figure as much out myself before throwing it at a specialist - who's already warned me it'll probably cost an arm & a leg! It needs sorting though. It should be able to last more than a few days!

Carolyn · October 11, 2017, 12:17

I reckon my battery is good for four days max, if the car isn't driven. You could spend a load of dosh on it or put an isolator on!

Checking the alternator means disconnecting it electrically, which is pretty fiddly using a meter to see if there is any continuity between the positive terminal and the body of the alternator. It should show as a totally closed circuit.

Sian · October 11, 2017, 12:52

Quote from: "Carolyn"You could spend a load of dosh on it or put an isolator on!

It's my only car and is kept on a main road. I don't really want to be disconnecting it all the time if I can help it. If it was kept in a garage I'd gladly use the isolator permanently. It's early days yet so still wanting to look for any issues first just in case it's something that can be sorted relatively easily.

Carolyn · October 11, 2017, 13:00

Ah - that's a bugger. You really don't have to isolate it all the time. I only use mine when I know I won't be driving it for a few days. (Which is rarely).

Ground faults can drive you nuts, which is why any mechanic will suck his teeth and tell you it's going to cost.

spit · October 11, 2017, 13:49

Good luck with it Sian.

In my case with the '2, a chunkier battery solved the issue where replacement with 'stock' batteries failed a couple of times.
Whether this was down to a sequence of naff batteries or a case of bigger-is-better, I've no idea.

Clearly the use of a battery with more oomph and capacity will slow down the effect of current leaking away, but the difference has been more marked than that. I can leave this one for ages in an immobilised 2 without having to worry about whether it'll do its thing when called on to crank the engine.

Sian · October 12, 2017, 13:05

Quote from: "spit"I can leave this one for ages in an immobilised 2 without having to worry about whether it'll do its thing when called on to crank the engine.

I long for it to be like that! Hopefully I'll figure something out one way or another. And if I completely balls things up I'm sure you'll hear about it s:lol: :lol: s:lol: