dead battery - hazards now flashing on recharging

[deadline21]

been on holiday, come back to find tuscan totally dead - its always left on a trickle charger through cigarette lighter but optimate no longer shows any reading. Bought a new optimate but same thing, its showing no ability to charge battery through cigarette lighter anymore which is how ive been doing it for last 3 years. with no power, had to gain entry through 'secret route' to get in and open doors manually. borrowed a mates anderson charger and hooked it up, i now have the first signs of power but hazards are flashing and wont go off. checked hazards arent on and they are not! is this the alarm simply responding to having power again? is it ok to leave it charging overnight like this with lights flashing or is this quite normal when recharging after a totally dead battery? also, is it common for cigarette lighter to fail and no longer be able to be used as a trickle charge point? - if i need to replace battery is it a nightmare? i'm guessing front wheel needs to come off and batterys located behind panel in wheel arch? its certainly not where it used to be in my old chimeara!
thanks for any help - cheers - s

[nawarne]

Not 100% sure, but yes, I think the hazards are the first signs of battery resurrecting itself.

However, it does sound like there is a problem with the battery - rather than the accumate. I would put a meter on the terminals/plug of the accumate to check what voltage you're getting? If that looks sensible, then I'd be fairly certain that the battery is dead....they are in a harsh environment, being close to the cats, so I guess the electrolyte can dry up?

The battery is accessed behind the front n/s wheel. Might be worth swapping with a known 'good' one to check?

Nick

[Allandwf]

If your worried about the flashers while charging, you could pull the fuse until battery charged.


Located above/rear stearing column.

[NCE 61]

If the battery has totally discharged it may not be re-coverable, depends on how old it is and what type. The only downside to using an Accumate is that when the battery gets close to the end of it's life it will fail quickly rather than gradually, so there may not be anything wrong with the cigarette lighter charging although may be worth checking the fuse. Batteries have a hard life in a TVR although I have found using an Accumate does prolong the life, but on mine I now change the battery at between four & five years before it fails.

[Whitey]

I recently noticed mine had stopped charging via the cigarette lighter, there was a 3 prong plug connector in the wiring behind the cigarette lighter with a loose pin, fixed and now works fine.

[deadline21]

brilliant - thanks guys - lights stopped flashing a wee while ago so gonna give it another hour or so then will go try fire it up - at least i'm getting somewhere now. Think i'll keep next saturday free to get it up on jacks and remove battery and fit a new one just to be sure!

thanks again

s

[TomOSmith]

I've had this more time than I care to remember. I think the flashing lights are the alarm trying to boot up and draining the battery and failing again. I don't like to leave this happening as it destabilises the current through the charger, so what I do is get the car on charge, unlock the car and open the boot, open up the roof, press the central lock button and replace the roof and shut the boot. Car is then (nearly) as good as locked, charging and without alarm flashes (and sometimes siren).

[deadline21]

yep, that worked perfectly - alarm was the problem but all seems good now, think i'll charge it up through anderson point under the car now instead of through cigarette lighter which doesnt seem to work now. Car started no problem, fired up first time once it had had a good chance to recharge

thanks for all the help guys

s

[nawarne]

deadline21 said:

yep, that worked perfectly - alarm was the problem but all seems good now, think i'll charge it up through anderson point under the car now instead of through cigarette lighter which doesnt seem to work now. Car started no problem, fired up first time once it had had a good chance to recharge

thanks for all the help guys

s

OK - So, I'd check the cigg. lighter fuse....they shouldn't just go 'open-circuit' without a reason?

And... if your battery has been totally flat for a while, I'd definitely replace it. Car batteries don't like being totally discharged, particularly for a long period.
Nick

[330p4]

Your cigarette lighter fuse has blow which is why the charger does not work had same problem on mine but PO had removed anderson connector due to fire risk so i pulled the radio & used a low charge current via the permanenent live there. Strangely griffith fuse had gone at same time can only think it was a mains power surge
Ian

[deadline21]

thanks guys - will check fuse at the weekend.... i'm now waiting on the AA - took tuscan out today for its MOT, started first time, got to work no problem, then went to garage, no problem. Passed its MOT without a single issue, drove back to work. finished work and now car won't start. Its turning over fine, plenty of juice in battery it simply won't fire up (and it defo has petrol in it!) - oh the joys of tuscan ownership - AA guy should be here soon!

s

[Rod Warner]

I have just been through this flashing routine on my Chimaera after a flat battery , but also found that the fuel pump relay had failed while sitting on the drive - the coil was open - they seem to fail quite regularly looking at the comments .
While I was suspecting the immobiliser on one site I saw that if the immobiliser is left unpowered for a period it will fail - can this be true ? I cant believe that the codes are held in volatile memory - or are they ?. How long can they be left unpowered as I was planning to use a battery isolator to prevent it being dragged down when not in regular use ?

[Penelope Stopit]

Rod Warner said:

I have just been through this flashing routine on my Chimaera after a flat battery , but also found that the fuel pump relay had failed while sitting on the drive - the coil was open - they seem to fail quite regularly looking at the comments .
While I was suspecting the immobiliser on one site I saw that if the immobiliser is left unpowered for a period it will fail - can this be true ? I cant believe that the codes are held in volatile memory - or are they ?. How long can they be left unpowered as I was planning to use a battery isolator to prevent it being dragged down when not in regular use ?

Consider this. How long could a immobiliser kit be left on a store shelf until sold?

[Rod Warner]

HI I suspect that this failure comment relates to after the dongle code has been set and the unit installed . If its true I guess they use a rechargeable cell to maintain the code in memory .. a pretty poor design .

[pblake]

My Tuscan went flat over the winter and when recharged would not start I traced the fault to the immobiser and by-passed it to get the car running.
Then ordered a new kit from Abacus alarms and replaced the whole lot, its just plug an play.

Note
When fitting the kit make sure you change the socket in the dash as on mine I could not use the ignition override until I had done this.

[skyrover]

Plenty of car's do this.

Lots of weirdness can happen when the battery is putting out low voltage