Help Please with a new battery

[Ian Lewis]

Hi Guys,

Just come back form South Africa and the battery in the Griff has died. Just about turning over even though It lives on a trickle charger.

As I need to change the battery in the Griff.
What are the do's and the dont's with regard to the alarm and central locking? Is there anything else I should or should not do??
Can anyone reccomend a good battery that I should look for?

Cheers

Ian

[Ballistic Banana]

Steve Heath has a good section on his website about removing the battery www.tvrbooks.co.uk/ which is free and hopefully a good point to buy the book if you dont allready have it.

Cant advise on which battery as mine is still ok after 4 years do a search (if no one advises) in the forum as this has been up before.

BB

[griffter]

I think you want a type 072 - basically the highest cranking capacity you can get. Take the battery box with you to make sure it fits. Make sure the terminals are the right way round! You'll pay about £50 - £80 depending on whether you get a 1 year or as much as a 5 year warranty.

[simon.b]

Mines been a bit off recently so I just bought a new one yesterday, in time for the cold weather, from a local motor factors. I asked for a Type 072 (short term memory not what it should be so that may be wrong) and they offered me a few at different prices.

The One I went for was a Bosch Asia Silver at £49 + VAT with a 3 year guarantee.

I’ve not fitted it yet but it looks the correct shape and size with the vent, carrying handles, built in condition window thingy.

Cheers,

Simon.

[Ian Lewis]

Ballistic Banana said:

Steve Heath has a good section on his website about removing the battery www.tvrbooks.co.uk/ which is free and hopefully a good point to buy the book if you dont allready have it. Cant advise on which battery as mine is still ok after 4 years do a search (if no one advises) in the forum as this has been up before. BB

Thanks BB,I lent my bible to a friend who has mislaid it!!

As long as no one says "you must do this or that" I understand it is a straight forward but fiddly job?

I will take the battery box with me along with the old battery for comparison.

Cheers

ian

[richb]

Ian Lewis said:

I understand it is a straight forward but fiddly job?

Make a mark with a felt tip pen on the box and the floor which makes it easier to replaqce it in it's original position which makes getting the bolts back in place much easier. Rich...

[lig]

Hi Ian,

Got one a few months back and it was a Lucas with 4 year warranty for £61 from SAS in West Yorkshire. The part number is ZZZ 089/4 and their phone number is 01943 467514 if you want more details??!!

As others have said get the one with the highest cranking this one was 580Amps i think, the one the main TVR dealer sells was 430amps and was £70!! I dont think they do the 630amp one anymore??

However the one i bought was the same size as the original and therefore fit straight in the box and has been fine just as it should be!!

Lig.

[geoffvalenti]

Hi Ian

I replaced the battery on my Griff about a month ago.

The most important thing I remember about the experience, was in making sure that the battery was one of the sealed for life types. Some I was offered weren't, and the thought of having to get the battery box out every week to check the levels, didn't thrill me too much.

Mine cost about £60 and was over 600 amps cranking power. I think most points have been covered, it's not too bad a job and certainly easier if you can get the car jacked up to remove the battery box bolts.

Have fun with it

[barreti]

YHM Ian

[dans500]

I am a little consurned about all this talk about the fixing bolts for the battery box. My battery box appears to be held in place by the carpets, and long legged passengers!
under this location am i going to find bolt holes, liable to letting in water, if driving in wet conditions?

[griffter]

dans500 said:

I am a little consurned about all this talk about the fixing bolts for the battery box. My battery box appears to be held in place by the carpets, and long legged passengers! under this location am i going to find bolt holes, liable to letting in water, if driving in wet conditions?

The bolts screw upwards through the floor from underneath the car, into the battery box.

[barreti]

dans500 said:

I am a little consurned about all this talk about the fixing bolts for the battery box. My battery box appears to be held in place by the carpets, and long legged passengers! under this location am i going to find bolt holes, liable to letting in water, if driving in wet conditions?

The bolts screw into a pair of threaded bobbins bonded into the battery box and the bolt heads will be sealed with silicone, they should be re sealed when they are refitted - all according to the bible.

[Ian Lewis]

Yes, I can vouch for this as mine were a swine to remove.

Ian

[griffsmith]

Ian Lewis said:

Hi Guys, Just come back form South Africa and the battery in the Griff has died. Just about turning over even though It lives on a trickle charger. Ian

I got a new battery about 5-6 months ago an 072 with 600 amps seemed to do the job quite nicely... and access was much easier than first appear once you undone the two bolts from under the car and slide the battery box toward the seat... (don't forget to reseal the bolt head with silicon or alike when refitting..

my question is could a trickle charger damage a battery?? I keep mine on trickle charge when not in use even since I changed it... then saturday all of a sudden the car won't start with an apparent dead battery needed recharging but still didn't seem to have enough power to start the car???? I haven't yet ruled out other possible causes earthing etc.... but the battery seems to discharge each time I tried to start it..

could the continual current flow damage the battery? mine not and accumate trickler by the way..unknown brand about 3 years old.. I bought it from a mate 6 months ago he never had any issues with it...

[richb]

dans500 said:

My battery box appears to be held in place by the carpets, and long legged passengers!

More to the point do you think it would stay there in the event of an accident?

[cv1040]

Griff Smith,

Sorry to hear your battery woes.

Regarding your trickle charger and what damage it can do, it all depends on what it's up to. If all it's doing is pumping in volts and not going into a maintenance mode once the battery is fully charged then, yes your charger could have done damage to your battery. Probably over gassing which may be the reason you've got problems now.

As you don't know too much about your charger and if you can't find out what it gets up to then IMHO as the battery is such a bu&&ger to replace (not to mention the cost) consider one of the other popular chargers out there. PH'ers seem to like the Accumate (which has a mainetnance mode when charged), my personal choice is the CTEK 3600, a bit smarter again than the Accumate, but more expensive too.

I hasten to add and you've eluded this yourself, your battery may actually be okay, but you could have another unrelated problem drawing your battery down. You might very well be taking it out anyway, if you charge it out of the car and if you then measure the voltage immediately after charging and then after a period of time, say 1 hour then again in a day see if it can hold that voltage. If your meter is accurate it should also read about 14.4v when fully charged.

HTH

John.

Just measured the voltage on a fully charged battery here with what I thought was an accurate meter, came out a shade over 13v on a brand new battery. Don't treat 14.4v as gospel.

>> Edited by cv1040 on Monday 31st October 12:19

[griffsmith]

cv1040 said:

Griff Smith, Sorry to hear your battery woes. Regarding your trickle charger and what damage it can do, it all depends on what it's up to. If all it's doing is pumping in volts and not going into a maintenance mode once the battery is fully charged then, yes your charger could have done damage to your battery. Probably over gassing which may be the reason you've got problems now. As you don't know too much about your charger and if you can't find out what it gets up to then IMHO as the battery is such a bu&&ger to replace (not to mention the cost) consider one of the other popular chargers out there. PH'ers seem to like the Accumate (which has a mainetnance mode when charged), my personal choice is the CTEK 3600, a bit smarter again than the Accumate, but more expensive too. I hasten to add and you've eluded this yourself, your battery may actually be okay, but you could have another unrelated problem drawing your battery down. You might very well be taking it out anyway, if you charge it out of the car and if you then measure the voltage immediately after charging and then after a period of time, say 1 hour then again in a day see if it can hold that voltage. If your meter is accurate it should also read about 14.4v when fully charged. HTH John. Just measured the voltage on a fully charged battery here with what I thought was an accurate meter, came out a shade over 13v on a brand new battery. Don't treat 14.4v as gospel. >> Edited by cv1040 on Monday 31st October 12:19

Cheers John

I've just had a chat with my local indy, very nice people indeed they sourced the battery for me. I'm gonna take the battery back to them tomorrow for them to return it to their supplier for testing.. so we shall see..

The problem I have with testing a battery is it can't really be done with a standard digi volt meter.. It has a very low internal resistance. I believe the way it should be done is measuring the voltage drop when a large load is applied?

However my money (incorrect term of expression I hope!) is now on a busted starter motor causing a larger than usual drain on the battery..

Still what ever happens I think I need to do some checking about my trickle charger before I trust it further..

thanks
chris

[cv1040]

Chris,

You are right about measuring volts under load. I was using my digital meter as well doh!

Hope you get lucky with your supplier and that it turns out your battery is in fact dud (read on). Then all you've got is the hassle of taking it out and putting a new one back in.

Coz, if the problem is elsewhere in the system and in fact your starter motor has gone / going then IIRC that's quite a lot of money, mine was about 300 (but I wasn't paying ). You probably knew that already though.

You might want to take the opportunity, if you haven't already done so, when you put the battery back in of running some flying leads off the terminals so that you can plug your charger in without crawling about in the footwell or worse upsetting the ECU.

Good luck.

John.

[Toffer]

White TIPPEX is good for marking the corners of the battery box..

[dans500]

Thanks from many, for bring to my attention my battery box should be fixed..
Off to follow advice on a new battery, to aviod maintenance problems, and to fix box properly..