Battery charging

[philr]

OK after 6 years of ownership I finally did it and put the TVR to bed in the garage and left the side lights on ! Doh !
As you can guess, I had to you the "hi-tec" method to get in as the doors wouldn't even open.
Anyway, I plugged in the trickle charger and its been on for 24+ hrs now and shows more than 11v of charge.....but there didn't seem to be enough power to turn the engine/starter.

Do I need to give the trickle charger more time to get more of a charge into the battery ?

OR

Do I need to bite the bullet and remove then battery and charge it propperly ?

OR

Is the battery (fairly new) going to be permamently buggered by being drained on this one occasion ?

Cheers

Phil

[tvrbob]

With mine ('99 model) I can attach charger leads and even jump leads directly to the battery in position. All I have to do is carefully move the electrical bits and bobs aside and be very careful that the crock clips are secure. Are you sure you need to remove your battery?

[philr]

Well I probably could just about get the leads on while its in place as I have in the past cut some slots in the fibreglass box it sits in, in order to make access easier. I'd need to check if there was a risk of catching the leads on any of the electics though.

I was hoping that the trickle charger would do the job.
If it still hasn't got enough charge by tonight then I'll have to try to charge the battery direct.

[biggiles]

This might be completely wrong, but could the trickle charger only be charging enough to power the car security &c. bits?

Try disconnecting the rest of the car from the charger.

You should also be able to work out the time it takes for the charger to fully charge the battery- presumably it's less than 24h?

Check the battery for any visible marks and also see what voltage the battery drops to while starting.

[andy jb]

FWIW
Having done a similar thing it took me 48 hours to charge properly, as teh accumate is a slow charger but does take time to recahrge from fully drained

[s6boy]

Did the same to my Tuscan. It took about 2 1/2 days to trickle charge thriough an Accumate but it is worth it in the long run to condition the battery as mine has been fine ever since even when not used for 10 days or so. Question though, as TVR are so keen on electrics for the doors and boot why couldn't they have installed a lights on buzzer

[philr]

Oh if only there had been a lights on buzzer !

Sounds like a job for Leven or Mr Heath.....

[biggiles]

It wouldn't be hard to do.

Any enterprising car electrician could do it for you.

[philr]

In case you were all having sleepless nights worrying about this....... she just about started OK last night after 2 days on trickle charge.

Needless to say I had to take her out for a nice long blast...just to make sure there was a full charge.

[mongoose]

philr said:

Oh if only there had been a lights on buzzer !

Sounds like a job for Leven or Mr Heath.....

I made up some sets of these for Griffs at the Griff Growl.As long as you had the same on/off switch for the dash clocks illumination(the one under the dash,by your left knee),i can't see there would be any difference in the kit.If enough people were interested,i would make another 10 kits up.The kits would come with full instructions and would cost £10 including P&P.

[Mad Mitch]

A note of caution gentlemen.... Whilst it is ok to have a trickle charger connected that monitors the amount of charge a battery is taking etc whilst in the car, i would very strongly advise against conecting to a full blown charger.... the gases that may be given off are highly explosive and all that would be needed is a spark whilst removing the leads and its goodbye car...... Easier and far safer to remove the battery and charge in an open space.
Steve.

[leventech]

When a battery has been discharged to a very low level it may never recover.
Best option is to remove from the car, charge for a reasonable time and then use a 'drop' tester. The answer will be very obvious from this test.
At the cost of a battery and the problems of a damamaged one letting you down the best bet long term is to replace.

[FlipFlopGriff]

mongoose said:

philr said:

Oh if only there had been a lights on buzzer !

Sounds like a job for Leven or Mr Heath.....

I made up some sets of these for Griffs at the Griff Growl.As long as you had the same on/off switch for the dash clocks illumination(the one under the dash,by your left knee),i can't see there would be any difference in the kit.If enough people were interested,i would make another 10 kits up.The kits would come with full instructions and would cost £10 including P&P.

Top bit of kit from Mike. I left the lights on (headlights) for about 4 hours and the siren started going haywire. Anyway eventually got some jump leads and got it going which is lucky as it was a Friday afternoon and I was 60 miles from home.
Mike - shoudln't it be £20 for Chim owners
FFG

[GreenV8S]

It's trivial to wire a buzzer between the sidelight circuit and the interior light switch.

If that's too much work, you can just fit an intelligent battery isolator that will disconnect the battery before it goes flat for any reason, lights on or otherwise.

[mongoose]

GreenV8S said:

It's trivial to wire a buzzer between the sidelight circuit and the interior light switch.

If that's too much work, you can just fit an intelligent battery isolator that will disconnect the battery before it goes flat for any reason, lights on or otherwise.

Unfortunately Peter,not everybody finds this kind of thing trivial,like yourself.A lot of people are easily put off working with electrics.The kit i made up to raise some money for charity,was designed to be easy to fit by anyone,even people who are terified of car electrics.I feel the kit achieves this.

[Seasider]

mongoose said:

A lot of people are easily put off working with electrics.

Or/And bone idle

mongoose said:

The kit i made up to raise some money for charity,was designed to be easy to fit by anyone,even people who are terified of car electrics.I feel the kit achieves this.

Marvellous piece of kit & east to fit

FlipFlopGriff said:

Mike - shoudln't it be £20 for Chim owners
FFG

At least £25