Car battery

[Whisp]

Goody, I am not an expert but I have been around cars and their batteries for more than 50years!. It's true that many batteries will give you suttle warnings before they finally die... but it's equally true that they can fail ...just like that.Why cars don't have a compulsory Voltage gauge I'll never know.
Anyway...270 sounds a little high to me but I recently had one from NRMA and it was 240 odd!.Supercheap used to stock the Yuasa brand...at about 75 bucks!...You will need the battery specific to your car...you can do all that on their website..YUASA.COM.AU ....ALL THIS IS JUST A SUGGESTION Goody...hope you get it sorted.

The reason that cars don't have a voltmeter is that they tell you nothing about whether the battery can actually start your car. It only measure volts which is electrical pressure and not the capacity of what the battery has in reserve.

 

[just starting]

https://www.baxters.com.au/products/switching/solenoids.html
Have two similiar solenoids separating starting battery from auxilliary and auxilliary from accessories battery. Activated when ignition is in "start" position. Have a manual switch to isolate accessory battery from both auxilliary and starting battery. Works faultlessly. When parked up and away detecting the accessory battery is kept topped with fold up solar panels in series through a mppt regulator.

Just like this one on my ute , Nightjar. The thick red wire goes to the second battery and is isolated and turned on / off by 2 of these 3 switches on the dash.

This is a computer free 4WD ,so all the wires are out in the open for easy diagnosis with everything marked.

 

[reefer]

Ok Whisp...point taken....but surely it is an indication of the current capacity of the battery and whether or not it is accepting charge from the Alternator...like I said I am in no way an expert. :8 layful: as Pauline say's.."Please Explain? :/

 

[diggit]

Happened to me recently enough, on a Sunday Grrrrrrrrrrrrr. Had to pony up $400 for a 950 CCA battery. Granted I would have got it a lot cheaper if I could have waited a couple of days but unforutnately I couldnt wait and simply needed to be mobile. 950CCA is a bit overkill but thats the battery that was in it so replaced like with like.

Battery gave ZERO warning, just died on its ass overnight. It wasnt even cold weather!

 

[Ridge Runner]

RR, you make the point yourself, by adding your lithium power pack, the vehicle is not a stock standard vehicle, you have added a current drain.I have not added any current draw because all I have done is place the power source that I took away by removing the battery

The point I am making is - If you have a stock standard vehicle, with no add on and nothing operating other than the ECU "sleeping" the drain is minimal. Most of my research points to figures of ECU drain at 14 to 20 mA = approx 0.5 AH per day max. My Vehicle is Stock Standard with not a single wire or fuse added to the vehicles system

However, the moment you modify or add to a vehicle, you also need to manage what you have, according to what has been done to it.
Again I have not modified or added anything to the Vehicle what so ever

I have an auxiliary battery, fridge, solar, oven and the ability to add another fridge. All of these items run from the second battery, not the start battery. The Redarc charger uses the vehicles power to charge that aux. bat. but when the vehicle is off and locked, the 70 amp solenoid I fitted to provide that vehicle power isolates all of this 100% from the vehicle electrical system. I would suggest that most users that have installed a 2nd battery (or more) use some form of isolator to achieve the same result.

I do not have any of this stuff added to my vehicle

My vehicle has a Battery Management System and the OBD Port Power Wires connect Direct to the same Wires that connect the Battery to the System so I am not add Anything to the Vehicles Electronics, According to the People At Ford that I Spoke to This Morning. And because my van is the fully Loaded version is why it has the current drain that it has.

This parasitic drain can be lowered just by pushing buttons in the Van and turning off many of the Automatic settings, things like Blue Tooth and the LIDAR system and the Wiper Sensors and the Light Sensors, BUT the moment you switch the Van OFF it reactivates those systems to the Factory Settings,

Another thing to bear in mind is you can hear things happening with the Vehicle even when the vehicle is locked and the factory Immobilizer/Alarm system is doing it's thing in the background

 

[Simmo]

'Bear' in mind.... as opposed to 'bare' in mind......

 

[Ridge Runner]

'Bear' in mind.... as opposed to 'bare' in mind......

That kind of "Bear" would be a worry,

I watched a Video of a guy who was camping and got mauled by one and survived, we are so lucky not to have them in Australia or here for that matter,, :8 :skull:

 

[Wishfull]

Isnt this about Goodies car battery ?

 

[Ridge Runner]

Isnt this about Goodies car battery ?

Yes but it went south when I had to justify my post to Goody,

 

[Nightjar]

Don't know whether this is gospel but a battery man once told me that many batteries fail when a vehicle goes from short runs around town to long drives and especially on rough roads. Build up on the plates fall to the bottom and can sometimes bridge from one plate too another.
The $5.00 batteries we buy from the dealer. We give the batteries a shake and tip contents into a plastic container. Let it settle and then suck up the clear electrolyte with a hydrometer and put it back in battery. There is usually a layer of lead sediment left behind.
Wouldn't go this far with vehicle battery but is a very cheap source of power for our bush camp.

 

[diggit]

'Bear' in mind.... as opposed to 'bare' in mind......

Correct, if you're focussed on the bear running towards you but what if you're thinking of nudes?
That's 'Bare in mind', surely?

 

[Wolfpack]

Just my two bob but..
Jumpstart packs are great got one for my Mrs when her car had battery issues cost $170 but came with adaptors to charge from mains and car socket adaptors to charge phones and just about anything else 12v and lower has 2 inbuilt torches/lanterns and the battery pack is about as big as two mobile phones.
Was told it would start a v8 cruiser with a dead flat battery and it does helped a mate out with his 200 series. And I've ran a 4 bar led light kit for 2 nights with it.
3 years old and still holds a great charge best money I've spent for outdoor driving.

 

[Wolfpack]

Oh no should have mentioned missed some posts will jump start a 200 series with a flat battery only if it wants to start can't crank for 2 minutes off a starter pack . They may get very hot!!!!

 

[Mr Magoo]

If I found a drain of more than 75 milliamps after approx thirty minutes, I would recommend investigating it. And without sounding harsh I certainly would not take a dealerships word as gospel.
The vehicle needs be nothing more than a brick until you approach, everything else written to memory.

 

[Whisp]

Ok Whisp...point taken....but surely it is an indication of the current capacity of the battery and whether or not it is accepting charge from the Alternator...like I said I am in no way an expert. :8 layful: as Pauline say's.."Please Explain? :/

Let me try this for clarity. There are available small 12 volt batteries that are used in some remote control devices eg. garage door opener. Now if you put a multimeter across the terminals to measure the voltage it will read 12 volts, because it is a 12 volt battery. The question now is "Can you start your car with it?" No you can't because the battery isn't big enough, that is it doesn't have the capacity. Once a 12 volt car battery gets to or below 10.5 volts it is flat and will not start a car. Typically a starter motor draws between 100 to 150 amps when it's cranking and sucks a lot of power out of the battery which will take several hours of solid driving to recharge the battery.

 

[Mr Magoo]

Starters will initially pull around 500 amps surge current on start up.

 

[Ridge Runner]

When the Rain stops I will go out and Check it properly with a multi meter then I will have a more accurate figure to work with,

For jump starting I have the NOCO GB150 Pro which has 4000Ah or 40,000mah of Boost, just for kicks I ran a small fridge off of it for about 3 or 4 hours, It states the it will start Petrol or Diesel Engines of 10L + or 10L and above,

I also had the Noco GB-70 which I gave to my Brother because he needed something to power his car while he had the battery on charge and he gave me the smaller Noco GB-40 which is meant for vehicles up to around 3.0L

The GB-150 is huge when it comes to Boosters, I was going to buy the GB-500 which is meant for C and E Class Engines like those found in Earth moving equipment and starts both 12v and 24v Vehicles but at a price of around $3000.00 the GB-150 was the best choice at around $500.00 being the next model down,

The GB-70 and the GB-150 and the GB-500 are the only models that you can use to run things from, But the GB-70 is the best all rounder and it will fit in the glove box unlike the two bigger ones, :Y:

 

[Nightjar]

Read all your in detail reports quoting facts down to the last milliamp but at the end of the day it is of very little interest practically. Can understand a persons interest of knowing a product intermittently. Buy a new battery here when the old one no longer holds charge and that's me done.

 

[Ridge Runner]

Read all your in detail reports quoting facts down to the last milliamp but at the end of the day it is of very little interest practically. Can understand a persons interest of knowing a product intermittently. Buy a new battery here when the old one no longer holds charge and that's me done.

I need to know the numbers so I can upgrade next time round.

 

[jethro]

I dont know where you guys get the Idea that a cars ECU / PCM / BCM computers need to be powered to retain memory. We quite regularly pull ECM/ PCM /BCM s and send them for testing or repair. no power. they work just fine when they return. Same when replacing toasted engines, clutches, Transmissions etc. about the only thing you need to do after reconection is set the clock and code the radio.
Ive spent nearly 25 yrs as a diesel mechanic and another 6 or so working on cars. learnt a far bit about single and multi battery systems over the yrs as well as starter motors Alternators etc.
Bottom line is if you are going remote then get your battery and charging /starting system load tested before you leave and replace anything that doesnt come up trumps.

Reminds me I must go and take the batteries out of the boat as wont be seeing any use this yr.