Author Topic: battery (Read 1273 times)

coffeecup · « **on:** February 16, 2018, 02:07:52 PM »

Had a bit of trouble with my battery yesterday, was sat in car with son filling in a few forms for about half an hour with side lights on and interior lights on (at night) came to start and 'flat battery' I-shift, so off down for jump leads and started with sons car. Drove home about 30 miles and tried starting a few times when i got home of course without any problem, however red glow in sight hole on battery, so topped up a bit (although it is a sealed for life battery)and charged up. Now it starts fine, but there is still a red glow down inspection hole. says 1. green OK 2.red top up 3 white,charge.
Batter is original 8 years old time for a new one ?even though it still starts ok ? checked charging, thats fine.

davegreen55 · « **Reply #1 on:** February 16, 2018, 02:39:57 PM »

If the battery is 8 years old, I would have thought that it was well overdue for replacement. It might suddenly fail and leave you stranded.

guest1372 · « **Reply #2 on:** February 16, 2018, 02:58:43 PM »

You might expect a 50Ah battery to be able to provide 600 watts for an hour, but that is 100%>0% deep cycle which won't happen with a regular car battery. So 20W of external lighting and maybe 15W internally does not sound like much and only used ~3% of theoretical max, but an old battery has a pretty steep discharge curve, usable capacity is much reduced. 10 years is really the limit so yours is certainly near end of life. You can probably still get a couple of high amperage shots from the battery in daily use but it's ability to maintain a charge is falling rapidly, leave it parked for a week and you might find it fails again.
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TG

culzean · « **Reply #3 on:** February 16, 2018, 03:05:11 PM »

Quote from: coffeecup on February 16, 2018, 02:07:52 PM

Had a bit of trouble with my battery yesterday, was sat in car with son filling in a few forms for about half an hour with side lights on and interior lights on (at night) came to start and 'flat battery' I-shift, so off down for jump leads and started with sons car. Drove home about 30 miles and tried starting a few times when i got home of course without any problem, however red glow in sight hole on battery, so topped up a bit (although it is a sealed for life battery)and charged up. Now it starts fine, but there is still a red glow down inspection hole. says 1. green OK 2.red top up 3 white,charge.
Batter is original 8 years old time for a new one ?even though it still starts ok ? checked charging, thats fine.

If you are intending to keep the car for a while replace the Battery with a Yuasa Silver (or a cheaper Yuasa Calcium battery), cost a bit more than standard battery but well worth it for higher capacity (in same package size) and longer life. A normal battery is on borrowed time after 4 to 5 years (if you live in a hot country life may be a short as 18 to 24 months), some do last longer but that is a bonus an not to be relied on. Batteries gradually lose capacity as they age - instead of holding 35A/h (when new) yours may only have about 20A/h and if fully charged may well start the car but cannot be relied on to accept and release what charge it has reliably. The Green / red / white display is also just the condition of 1 of the 6 cells (they are sealed from each other) and is a general guide to battery condition, any one of the other 5 cells could be in worse condition.