Thread: Dual Battery Volt Issue

So I had an update. I emailed Exide and explained the situation. They were going to replace them under warranty even thought it was just out of warranty (1 and a bit months). They only have a 1 yr warranty.... Due to COVID19, there was a delay in getting them checked sooner, however the battery issue wasn't detected until my recent trip to Moreton Island (1 week before COVID restrictions).

So Exide stated they would replace them no worries. After I sent a reply email back, Exide then said they didn't look at me email correctly and noticed the batteries were out of warranty and didn't want to know me. I asked them several times if they were aware of a possible bad batch of batteries made and they wouldn't reply to that direct question and continued to say it was out of warranty.

I do understand that out of warranty is out of warranty, even though it was only by just over 1 month. But their attitude in their email completely changed when they said the warranty was over.

I find it stupid how products tend to fail when they fall just outside of their warranty time..... I would have hoped that they might offer good will on the batteries due to movement restrictions and closure of businesses for the last 6 or so weeks.

It is safe to say when I do replace these batteries, I won't be buying Exide ones ever again!

Looks like Yellow Top will be the next 2 bought. Shame about the price of them though

In the mean time, I will just do my best to try to increase the life of the Exide ones.

Originally Posted by Scotty85

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I had the battery's tested today by Battery World and they told me that the cranking and the aux battery are only holding 12.40 volts each ....

"you were lucky!" (said in the traditional Monty Pythonesque manner )

I reckon I was lucky to see my Century holding that after less than 6 months, and now barely see it holding 12.2v overnight sometimes.
For the first month, maybe two, it easily hold over 12.7(or close) as the Redarc solenoid would click off the moment I opened the door .. but steadily got lower and lower as time has gone on.
Alternator charges it fine, it holds for a good few hours but then down to 12.2 mostly.
My aux is a cheapo Repco whatever, 50 Ah type thing, nothing special, just there because it can be .. it hold 12.5-12.6 easily. Some cold mornings down to 12.4.

While so far I see no issues with my brothers Yellow and Red tops(in a D2), many members here have complained in recent times that they're not what they used to be.
Bro has had them in for a good 3 years now, and they're not used much, and been sitting idle for the past few months(he got a new car).
I have his D2 here now, as he's gone all posh and upmarket in his new ute .. so I can keep an eye on them and stuff.

There could be a possibility that maybe just the one battery is dead/dying and as the Traxide system is set to keep them connected to a low charge level, maybe the bad one is killing the good one .. dunno, maybe Tim could enlighten on such a possibility.

Hi Arthur, and excuse my question as I seem to have missed something.

What exactly is your DBS comprised of?

Without reading all of this, I’ve had two recent Exide batteries die within two years despite always being on high quality chargers.I think they have a quality control issue.

Originally Posted by drivesafe

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What exactly is your DBS comprised of?

Just the Redarc VSR(80 amp) and the usual stuff. No solar and stuff like that, very basic aux battery, wires to the rear, plugs back there. Rarely used.

The only addition I made to the VSR is to install the manual connect switch with a momentary on switch so that I can connect the aux for cold morning starts.
That Century N70S I have is very sluggish on cold mornings in my Tdi. Starts, but sounds nothing like a 700CCA battery.
So, push the manual switch, wait a sec or two then start. A lot better.
In normal driving(once warm) no problem with battery and or starter motor, it's lightning quick cranking, and sounds more like a 700CCA start battery.
When it was new, ie those first few months, no problem.

Brothers TD5 tho, no matter how cold, cranks like a 800CCA battery would seem too.

My D1 is my daily, and gets good drives out of it, so plenty of charge time for the start battery. Charge voltage seems to be in the 14.3v range for the first <whatever time> .. say, half - one hour, never really bothered to measure it.
Say if I'm driving for two hours .. at some point I notice on the meters that the initial 14.3 or 14.4 v do slowly drop down to 13.9-14.0 volts .. maybe even slightly lower over the drive time.

Other thing about the Century, I got it originally Jan 17, it died in Oct where it dropped a cell. Had the usual trouble from the sale point, in that they almost always try to get out of warranty claims.
But the second time I went back the Century sales rep was there and tested it and immediately said dropped cell, so Supercheap had no option but to replace it. So the current Century has been in since Oct 17, straight from the Century delivery van.

Originally Posted by Red90

Without reading all of this, I’ve had two recent Exide batteries die within two years despite always being on high quality chargers.I think they have a quality control issue.

I agree with you mate!

Hi Arthur and with that idea driving and perfect charging voltages, it's strange that the batteries are having such a short life.

Originally Posted by drivesafe

Hi Arthur and with that idea driving and perfect charging voltages, it's strange that the batteries are having such a short life.

Dunno? lax manufacturing maybe or changing a process to save a few cents per unit.

Technically my current battery is OK under ideal conditions, just seems to have lost raw cranking ability from what it was like when new.
The way I park my D1 just happens that the bonnet faces north, so gets sun as the sun moves across the sky.
So cold early morning before the sun gets a chance to heat up the bonnet, and hence engine bay, and the cranking is slow.
Wait till maybe 11AM or so, the time varies depending on the conditions, sometimes need to wait till say 1PM, but once warmed up a little, cranking is faster and sounds more like a 700CCA effort.
By about 11AM - 1PM, the suns radiation has warmed up the bonnet, but the air could still be quite crisp and cool, so temps could still feel like low teens or something.

But as said, when they were newer, I don't remember them being so gutless in their first autumn out in the wild. This has gotten steadily worse, so it appears as tho the batteries cold performance is getting worse.

So it's more like the battery just isn't as well suited to cold environments or something.
Whereas my bros D2 with it's Optimas has no probs on these cold frosty conditions, it currently sitting in the rear yard, so completely opposing ambient conditions to the D1 and hasn't been driven regularly.

Don't have a charger at the moment, mine has met it's maker(and now unmaker .. me!) but I want to charge both batteries up properly and then try them both out as tests.

One last thing too.
I'm reading/hearing that these AFM batteries don't really like the lower voltages that most alternators pump out, yet so many folks pop them into their D1/D2 Rangies and many old vehicles and don't seem to have all that many issues.
I had one in one of my P6Bs all those years ago(came with it), and I don't ever recall it having issues.
So for the D1 Tdi, which seems to enjoy higher CCA batteries what would you suggest