no sign of life-help please!

[Tuscanite]

Tried starting the beast after a few weeks sitting idle. Normally, half an hour on the Accumate is more than enough to get things moving, but his time, there is absolutely no sign of life. The charger is on and delivering, but there is no light indicating the battery state. There is nothing from the car - no "clicking", no doors, no alarm/immobiliser light, no sign of life at all. Is this just a completely dead battery (why no status light on the charger?) or could it be corrosion on the battery terminals/leads? The Anderson connector looks OK, btw. Any ideas?

[2 sMoKiN bArReLs]

If it's really flat it might take a few hours to recover. I'd check again after lunch. (I'd probably reconnect the accumate too, just to make sure it's doing its job)

[lee02]

I had a few battery problems last week. I thought my anderson leads were connecting but the battery would not charge. Anyway there was corosion on the leads and the terminal on the car after i cleaned them it charged okay. I would clean them and try to start from another vehicle. This has been cover before but batterys dont like deep cycles. may be worth getting it checked it out.
Good luck lee

[2 sMoKiN bArReLs]

Did she wake up then?

[Tuscanite]

Sorry guys. Thanks for the advice. No - still dead. Seems as if the battery is completely disconnected - must be corrosion/break in the circuit somewhere. I will put some time aside this weekend to remove the battery and explore the housing, seals, leads and so on.

I guess with all the salt on the roads in recent months, and the battery being where it is, it wouldn't take much for it to be covered in the worst possible mix of electically damaging solutions.

I'll let you know the damage ASAP.

Thanks again.

B

[2 sMoKiN bArReLs]

good luck

[Tuscanite]

As promised - what happened next!

So I removed the battery and inspected the compartment and leads. Surprisingly, everything looked fine - no obvious corrosion and the anderson connector looked OK. Did a bit of cleaning up anyway: WD40, fine wet and dry on the terminal connectors, checked the earthing point and so on.

The battery was only giving 1.5V on an Avo meter, so expected it to be unsalvageable. Recharged it for 24 hours and it seemed to be holding the charge OK. Sourced a local replacement just in case (not easy - the exact match is tricky. See other threads or mail me if you need help on that one!).

Put the battery back and the beast returned to life. Everything working fine. Started first time. Battery reading on the instrument panel was fluctuating 13.6 - 14.2 V. It used to be a stable 14.0V when idling. Went for 2 runs of 30 mins with a five hour gap. Left it overnight and did the same today. So far, everything back to normal, but I suspect that draining the battery again would be the end of it!

I'll put this down to the freezing weather and leave it on trickle charge next time! Better still - I'll keep driving the beast. It seems to thrive on being used.

Thanks again.

[WhyTwo]

I had the same experience a couple of weeks ago and all seems fine now. Note to self, use the bloody trickle charger in future!