Battery charging?

[gadgit]

Thought I'd be a clever boy and trickle charge through the lighter socket. Bought a lighter plug and wired it up and made conections to fit through my charger on the trickle setting.
Seemed to be working ok!
This afternoon the car would not start, immob going slightly waywood and alarm going off and on?

Turn the charger on to the higher setting and still showed only 2 amp charge. Me thinks its the starter at first, but its a new on, so unlikely. Gave it a tap for good measure, and no joy.

Seeing the other thread on failing to start, cleaned all the conections, and still no joy.
Noting that a min of 11 volts will be required by someone made me get out the volt tester and hay presto about 8-9 volts only. she's now hooked up to the charger direct on the battery.
I'm hoping thats when charged to the full, all will be ok?

i'll let you know.
Anyone else had a problem charging through the lighter socket?
I only tried it cos it says you can do is in the Bible.
Its not as bad as I thought it would be getting to the battery connections direct.

Oh! its made me bleed for the first time, of many no doubt.

[monstergrowler]

Hi Gadget,
When you say trickle charge, I do assume you are using a proper smart tricke charger like the optimate and not a normal battery charger? Im suspicious because you say switch to higher setting and a smart charger will sort itself out and adjust its output to suit and when charged will maintain. A normal battery charger even on trickle charge will allow you to fry the battery if you leave it connected for a period of time. The plates internal to the battery will bend, short out and the battery will not hold the charge and be fit for the bin.

[gadgit]

Yes its a good quality charger which can be left on trickle and not damage the battery.
Lokking at the charge now is suggesting to me the battery may be going in the bin anyway, as its struggling on the high setting to come back from 8 amps.
Even on the 15 amp setting this charger will turn off when charged on auto.

we will see later this evening if its gone west??

[Cider Andy]

For a good battery that's discharged a bit, a 2A charge is normal. It also shows the connection through the cigarette lighter is working. But any battery showing only 8V - 9V with no load is not good. It's possible a good battery could get so low after the car's been parked for weeks on end, but I'd think it unlikely it would recover from such discharge. Time for a new battery, I'd say.

[gadgit]

Just checked it again and the charger has not moved an mil! not taking the charge.
So i'm going to go the new battery route tommorow. At least I thinking at this stage that the none start is down to the battery and not a fault with the immobiliser/ alarm.

Thanks for the advice chaps, I may well get a optimate, Just in case mine has cooked it??

and my new battery should be?

[BrianMillar]

Your new battery should be a 072 battery. However I have seen threads on here somewhere that says some of these do not always fit the battery box. Something to do with fixing lugs on some of these battery's.
Probably the best bet is to take the battery box with you and make sure the battery fits before buying it.
Also mentioned on PH is that if you go to Halfords and get the correct spec battery for the car they guarantee it for three years. That way if it fails (Which seems to be a regular occurence with these cars) you get a free new battery.

Edited by BrianMillar on Wednesday 17th October 22:23

[2Munkys]

I converted my Halfords charger to connect through the lighter socket. When the charge is optimal it switches over to maintenance; good bit of kit.

As an aside, there's a thread running on the Griff' forum ref' batteries.

[im]

gadgit said:

Anyone else had a problem charging through the lighter socket?

Strangely I have for the first time. I have have an accumate (bought last year) with cig lighter adapter.

When plugged in it always has needed some "twisting" about in the socket to get the connection as the metal 'tube' of the socket seems to rotate in-situ and its only when it is in its correct position that the connection is made and the accumates charging light comes on.

However, despite twisting it for ages this weekend I couldn't get a 'connection'.

The lighter socket does work though cos my Tom-Tom recharger plugged in and worked instantly.

It seems the accumate plug may not be as good a fit in the lighter socket as the Tom-Tom plug.

Hope this makes sense.

[bigdods]

I had to replace the battery recently. My 97 450 took an 072 type battery (but it had something much smaller in there which explains the problems I was having). If your battery box is on the floor (like mine) then the standard 072 should fit. If its in the wing and not on the floor then I dont know, I hear it can be a problem.

Here is the thread discussing CCA and such that you should have a read of before buying:

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?t=418...

Edited by bigdods on Thursday 18th October 10:19

[gadgit]

Can you hear it! its now ticking over in the garage!!!
Battery has done the job, and am I pleased or what.

Just two bolts in the bottom, rusted but camoe out.
Two new bolts back in with copper slip, why couldn't they have done that??
sealed up with silicone.
Wires the other way round, no problem as half a mile of cable to reach.

It just sounds awsome again, I'm off to sit in in just for a min!!

Before carbon monoxide does me in !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[timshap]

I tend to leave the car for extended periods of time and even using a trickle charger/ maintainer which gives out 750mamps the battery still drains with the alarm off..
Having checked with a ameter it is showing 1.6 amps discharge with ignition off .
Is this normal...it has always been like this and I cant seem to trace the leakage etc..

thanks

[spend]

Disconnect the alternator (carefully) and see if that is the source of your leakage

Dave