We have been in London since Monday. We came back last night, Friday.
In the above-freezing temperatures the car's suspect battery has held up, always starting the car promptly even after a lot of slow pootling round town with headlights on.
When we came to leave last night the car wouldn't start. I realised immediately that it was my fault: when putting visitors' parking bumf, sort of scratch cards, in the car the night before I had done the cards in the car, turned an interior light on to see properly and failed to turn it off again. The lights are annoyingly dim and always come on when you open a door, so it's quite easy to forget that one is going to stay on.
Aaargh! The AA man turned up in about 40 minutes and was cool. I suppose a jump start is an easy-peasy clean-hands job from his point of view. Not best pleased with myself though. Once en route and soothed by a quick one in our old manor on the way out of town it all went very suavely and briskly.
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How old is the car? For many years most have turned their interior lights off after 15mins or so.
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Chrysler Issue. Friend had a grand voyager and it caught her out a few times with the kids playing with the lights
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Hard luck AC. I gave up being a cheapskate and replaced SWMBO's Yaris battery last month.
It was 10 years old and been failing for the past two winters. The threat of aggro if she was stranded was too much to contemplate...
Last edited by: madf on Sat 16 Feb 13 at 13:33
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Goodness knows why, but I've just checked what a battery for your car would cost AC. £59.99 apparently. Surely that's but loose change to a southerner?
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If only he had Lud's money Humph. Nearly got caught out with the Fiesta with this problem - leaving the hatch open to air the car of country smells - leaves the courtesy light on - never been a worry on more recent worry where they have timers.....
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Take the bulb out and put a wee torch on the keyring. Then when it breaks down you've got a torch to find your way home too.
Or...buy an X1 or something. Good all-rounders those...
:-)
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Aye - see far more of them about these days - if they imported the petrol engined version I'd be down the dealer I think.
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>> £59.99 apparently.
Three grades in the nearest big Halfords, starting at that price and going up by increments to £100 plus. They will fit it for £6.50 but I'd really rather do it myself since it involves disturbing the air filter in a big way. Teeth will have to be gritted, but it isn't desperate yet.
What I did notice is that when the car won't turn over properly there's a relay that chatters like a machine gun. Several attempts, and then when the car will turn over it starts with unusual hesitancy and with great reluctance. 'Flooded,' the AA bloke said. It did seem as if something like that had happened. Normally the thing starts on the second turn of the crankshaft or even before, more or less instantly.
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Sounds like an alf-decent battery Sire, keep it, and get rid of the car.
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Went out today in warm sunshine - the first for what seems like weeks, apparently it's been the darkest, wettest winter in France for 60 years - and saw a Ferrari 360, a Chevy Corvette and a Jaguar XK. So, full of great intentions, I dashed home, went to the woodshed, took the covers off the XJS and - found that after leaving it two and half weeks with an (ancient) 'auto' charger on it the battery had died! 11.75 volts doesn't go far with 6 litres, after a lot of sub-zero temperatures and snow. Just a lot of chattering relays. I always said that Turkish 66 amp battery wasn't really up to it...
Anyway, I jumped it with the 74 amp battery of the poor old Honda and it started on the first turn. I could swap them over - they are exactly the same size and layout - and rely on the Honda being in use all the time to keep the Turkish one alive for a bit longer. But, hey ho...
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Mike H
Another cheapskate I see :-)
If you can afford an XJS with its multitude of expensive faults, then you can surely afford a new battery.. it will then be the best part of the car.
:-)
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If its a 5 watt bulb it will be drawing less than half an amp. If you left it on for 24 hours that's only 12 amp.hours which might be quarter of the battery capacity.
Peanuts - get a decent battery that will hold its charge. Faffing around with battery chargers went out in about 1960. Do you put a hurricane lamp in the road to save on parking lights too?
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Inclined to agree. First sign of trouble from a battery get rid. It won't get better. It will let you down.
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Modern ones seem to fail without much warning. The Civic needed a new one two years ago - worked one day, dead the next. Same with the Panda. Couldn't even jump start it.
Freezing weather provided the coup de grace.
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Diesels are the worst. Definitely a case of here today and gone tomorrow as far as batteries are concerned.
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>> I'd really rather do it myself since it involves disturbing the air filter in a big way
Tayna will deliver one at a good price AC - e.g. a Varta Silver for a bit under £57 delivered. I bought one from them when the Boy's failed before Christmas - I think I paid another £3 for next day delivery.
For the PT:
www.tayna.co.uk/D21-075-Varta-Silver-Dynamic-Car-Battery-561400060-P7743.html
5 year guarantee.
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you would expect car batteries to keep up with car technology....how old is acid battery technology...200, 250 years old?
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Lead–acid batteries, invented in 1859 by French physicist Gaston Planté, are the oldest type of rechargeable battery. Despite having a very low energy-to-weight ratio and a low energy-to-volume ratio, their ability to supply high surge currents means that the cells maintain a relatively large power-to-weight ratio. These features, along with their low cost, make them attractive for use in motor vehicles to provide the high current required by automobile starter motors.
From wikipedia
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battery technology has not really kept pace with the advance in everything else.
If it had we would be getting 600 miles range from a 60 minute charge of a battery pack weighing less than 60 kilos and less than 60 litres in volume.
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>> If it had we would be getting 600 miles range from a 60 minute charge
>> of a battery pack weighing less than 60 kilos and less than 60 litres in
>> volume.
That's an arbitrary statement, albeit a reasonable one. There aren't as many levers to pull on a battery as an otto engine.
Charge efficiency is pretty high at 85-90% iirc. Alternative chemistry bears on weight and charge time, but at a cost.
Lower powered cars and speeds will play towards battery power. You need a lot of current to charge a powerful electric car in a reasonable time. Regardless of charge efficiency and battery weight
I suppose that's the attraction of fuel cells. Different problems to solve but I can see why they might have more of a future than trying to get all the energy stored in a battery before you set off, without swapping batteries or carting so much weight and volume.
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>> you would expect car batteries to keep up with car technology....how old is acid battery
>> technology...200, 250 years old?
>>
Possibly.... over 2000 years old!
ancienthistory.about.com/od/sciencemedicine/qt/1stBattery.htm
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>> Possibly.... over 2000 years old!
Isn't the electric eel, with its deadly capacitor, older than that?
Nature have a ting or two to tell we man...
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Reckon the lads 05 plate CRV Diesel battery is on its last legs.
We sorted the worn CV joints on Saturday, during which time the doors were open for a while though hardly for hours.
Came to restart and it barely turned over, had to use the jump pack.
Its a Varta a big 'un and looks original (and expensive), removable tops and enough electrolyte inside, Vartas usually last for donkeys.
He was going to charge it overnight last night and see how it goes.
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Battery technology sufficient to power a low-wattage light bulb has been around for decades. But modern batteries seem to have gone downhill, and they can't even make them hold charge any more.
I often quote this, but it again seems relevant here. In the 1960s we had a boat with a big Perkins diesel engine. We just left the batteries on board over the winter, without any supplementary charging, and in the spring they would turn the engine over and start it without any difficulty. They were just old fashioned top quality batteries, and lasted 20 years.
After that they were relegated to subsidiary lighting duties, replacing the previous ones that were probably original from 1946.
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"But modern batteries seem to have gone downhill, and they can't even make them hold charge any more."
Not really sure that is my impression. Batteries seem to last for at least 6 years these days. My current battery in a diesel car is that age and no signs of any problems yet. They do however seem to fail rapidly these days being OK one day and no good the next. Thirty or forty years ago a cold morning would be greeted by the whining of numerous cars failing to start with flat batteries. I seem to recall that batteries were replaced at far earlier intervals than now but I may be wrong.
Last edited by: CGNorwich on Mon 18 Feb 13 at 08:41
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>> Thirty or forty years ago a cold morning would be greeted by the whining of numerous cars failing to start with flat batteries.
Back in the day they'd have been charged by dynamos which, when running around in winter with the lights, heater etc. all running at full chat, wouldn't provide sufficient spare amps to replace the grunt used by the starter over the subsequent run to work at moderate revs.
Also a failure to keep the old vented types topped up with distilled water led to a fairly rapid death.
Another big plus is the universal adoption of electric fuel pumps, courtesy of the move to electronic fuel injection, removing the need to crank the thing interminably while the mechanical pump got its act together.
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Car starter batteries are a very different application to say boat leisure batteries, or traction batteries. Most car batteries won't get below 10% discharged for weeks on end, if not months or years.
Repeated discharging of lead acid batteries below 50% charge degrades them quite quickly more so if they are't recharged very soon afterwards.
Car batteries seem to last longer these days but that might be more to do with cars starting better, higher rated alternators, and better charging control.
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"But modern batteries seem to have gone downhill, and they can't even make them hold charge any more."
Son's Yuasa battery in his Yaris is now 12 years old and starts it perfectly on cold days.
(I expect diesel batteries to be shorter lived due to the higher current draw on starting)
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Battery in my Lancer is a Yuasa, at 5 years old I went about replacing it just before Christ's mass but got mucked about by a local supplier so I decided to keep the blimmin thing.
Having read up about these ere so-called Calcium batteries, I would seek to avoid such if and when I do come to replace said Yuasa jobbie.
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>> What I did notice is that when the car won't turn over properly there's a
>> relay that chatters like a machine gun. Several attempts, and then when the car will
>> turn over it starts with unusual hesitancy and with great reluctance.
Relay closes to starter motor and shed excess electrical loads. Abrupt voltage drop as starter turns. Voltage now too low to keep relay closed. Relay pings open, starter disconnected, voltage recovers, relay closes.
Rinse and repeat.
Change the battery. You won't get any warning when it goes for good.
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If battery technology had developed as far and fast as everything else, Dreamliners would be flying...
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I saw a TUI travel agent window with promotions for their Dreamliner flight holidays a couple of days ago, slow on the uptake or wishful thinking?
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One of the interior lights caused this problem on my i30. The flap over the vanity mirror was shut without turning the light off manually and the car was not used for several days. An RAC call-out man spotted this immediately, before he recharged the battery. Surely, I said, all the interior lights go off when the ignition key is removed. Not so with all cars, he said, and cited certain VWs as having the same fault.
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Jazz courtesy lights come on and off without the ignition on..
But then it's Japanese designed and UK made: not this Korean junk :-)
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Carelessness - Bill Payer
