Viper not starting

[mrfunex]

Hello all,

I recently bought a battery conditioner for my gen 3 Viper. It’s a CTEK one, and it claimed the battery is fine after ‘conditioning’ for several days.

I managed to unlock the car today, key in, and the dashboard lit up as normal. Pressed the start button and a click of a relay and then nothing. The car is utterly without electrics - no flashing lights, electric windows, or power to anything. At all.

Wondering if the battery could have been a bit iffy and the conditioner sort of finished it off?

Any ideas would be welcome. I’ll be fitting a new battery anyway - it’s the cheapest bit to begin with, and I’ve got no idea how old it is!

[mrfunex]

Well, a few fun and games familiar to Viper owners - trying to find the correct type battery! The one fitted was a type 34 with 825CCA and was astonishingly heavy, but I couldn’t find anything like that for sale in the UK.

It also wasn’t easy finding out what spec an OEM battery was! (Turned out to be a type 34/78 supplying 600CCA). I believe that type 34 is essentially the same thing as a type 78, excusing a few mm in size which didn’t make a difference to fitting - at least not in the gen 3 convertible.

So, I bought a type 78 Exide battery with 540CCA from Euro Car Parts for £80. Fitted, it seems to work just fine. I’m hoping the slight reduction in cranking amps won’t be an issue unless I take it to Siberia on a winter road trip.

All weird behaviour of the electrics has ceased - time to reset the soft-close windows (again!) and go for a drive! Thanks for the comments.

Oh, and the old battery was only dated mid-2017, so must have either been mistreated or wasn’t a great one to begin with. Who knows!

Edited by mrfunex on Tuesday 31st December 16:25

[mrfunex]

I’ve used Brookspeed (just outside Southampton) and only a few miles away from me. They're mainly Porsche, but see the occasional Viper, and used to race them in the BritGT championship...