Another Battery question!!

[rebelmatic]

4 weeks has passed and the Tiv hasn't been out for while. Found out the battery is now flat, too flat even to unlock the doors, but not flat enough to stop the alarm!!!!! Anyway.. cut a long story short... its been on trickle charge now for about 14 hours ( at the time of posting ) and i tried it again...plenty of power for the door mechanisms nows but when i try to start it there is a half effort to turn over then a rapid clicking noise.
Hmmmmmm still pretty flat methinks!!

Any ideas how long to charge the battery on trickle???

Help much appreciated

Reb.

[PeterC]

What are you trickle charging the battery with? If you are using a battery conditioner connected through the cigar lighter, you will never get the battery sufficiently charged to turn the engine over. The battery conditioner is simply not designed to do it.

You need to undo the battery connections and ideally remove the battery from the car. Then connect the battery to a proper battery charger for a few hours.

[the dodger]

If you are careful enough, and confident there is an easier way. I assume the car is in a garage with power access an you have a 'proper' (min 2 amp) charger. You can charge onto the battery connection at the alternator and an engine earth. Be very careful to ensure the con. to alt. is secure and cannot earth out. Then set it at a low charge for about 10hrs overnight - may be better during the day so you can monitor the connections.

don't tell anybody I suggested this

[CharlieAlpha66]

Martyn,

I had exactly the same troubles until quite recently. Same scenario exactly in fact!

I bought an AccuMate conditioner which at first would not even give me a yellow (charging) lamp. This had me thinking that the battery was toast, so I jump-started my Chim and took it on a 50 mile fact-finding run. On my return, plugging in the AccuMate gave a yellow (charging) lamp. 36 hours later, this had gone green (optimised) and I have never had a problem since. I do leave the AccuMate on all of the time though.

The short answer is to jump-start your car and go for a long run out - 50 miles/1 hour. After that, use the conditioner all the time and you should be fine. If not, then your battery is knackered.

[K4TRV]

CharlieAlpha66 said:

[snippity]...I bought an AccuMate conditioner which at first would not even give me a yellow (charging) lamp. [snip]

Patience is a virtue, but not always practical - If you had waited long enough (I don't know how long the piece of string is), the Accumate would have brought it back to life.

I've no link with any Battery Conditioners, but they are a God send for TVR owners (and bikers !!).

Trev McM

[CharlieAlpha66]

Amen to that!

[woody_450]

Hi

Sorry to hijack the thread but I just have a quick question about the accumate charger...

Can you connect it without having to disconnect the battery from the car?

I bought one the other week and it comes with leads to connect permenantly to the battery and you just plug in the charger/conditioner when you need it, I was wondering if this can have any ill effects, e.g. the alarm is draining the battery whilst the charger/conditioner is trying to charge/condition it?!?

Thanks
Rich

[CharlieAlpha66]

Hi Rich,

No worries...

Yes you can connect it without having to disconnect the battery from the car - but I would invest in the cigarette lighter adaptor which will make your life much easier.

The whole concept of the AccuMate is that you leave it on all the time, so that it 'conditions' the battery. When it detects a drain (from the alarm for example) it turns itself on and charges the battery, until it reaches an optimum level when it goes back into standby.

[zumbruk]

Experience (2 years with the Chim and 13 years before that with a Sierra Cosworth) teaches me that once car batteries have been allowed to go completely flat, they're never much good again. If they're new, they'll accept some charge, but if they're getting on and allowed to go flat, they simply won't accept any charge. The only solution is to replace them and either get a conditioner (I have an Airflow one) or use a trickle charger on a timer (you shouldn't leave them on a dumb charger full-time - all the electrolyte will electrolyse away, the battery will go dry and die...)

[woody_450]

CharlieAlpha66 said:

Hi Rich, No worries... Yes you can connect it without having to disconnect the battery from the car - but I would invest in the cigarette lighter adaptor which will make your life much easier. The whole concept of the AccuMate is that you leave it on all the time, so that it 'conditions' the battery. When it detects a drain (from the alarm for example) it turns itself on and charges the battery, until it reaches an optimum level when it goes back into standby.

Cheers CharlieAlpha,

I thought so, now I have to get a long lead so I can plug it in!

Rich