Thread: Defender flattening battery when left sitting

Originally Posted by Pomgonewalkabout

or it just requires replacing?

cheers Eric

Oh YES.

Around 7 years old? Gee, it has lasted very well.

Most batteries these days only last 3 or 4 years at best, so getting 7 years out of your original one in exceptional. New battery I'm afraid.

A lot of people have a bad habit of just checking the voltage on their battery when it is still, and then when it is running.

A good way to check your battery is to have it set to volts, and get someone else to start the vehicle for you. Watch the voltage drop that occurs. It'll tell you real quick if there's a problem.

Cheers
Chris

Okay as I live out in the sticks I'm going to have to order a battery and get it freighted out.
Before doing this what are people fitting now?
My original is the Delphi 110AH so size wise it has to be the same as I currently have it turned parallel to the dashboard along with my Aux battery.

cheers Eric

Originally Posted by Pomgonewalkabout

Okay as I live out in the sticks I'm going to have to order a battery and get it freighted out.
Before doing this what are people fitting now?
My original is the Delphi 110AH so size wise it has to be the same as I currently have it turned parallel to the dashboard along with my Aux battery.

cheers Eric

Check out

Supercharge Batteries - Car Batteries, Maintenance, Expanded Grid Technology

AULRO members can get a discount on Supercharge batteries, I think. Certainly used to be the case.

Their site recommends an MF88, but my Defender has an MF31-931 (factory fitted), which is more like the Delphi in yours. (My Defender is 2004, South African assembled).

Cheers,

Lionel

This also may help to test if you have "leak" in the wiring system.

My County can stay idle for weeks at a time between runs and battery was dying, so off to change for a new battery -The following was demonstrated to me by auto elect when changing battery.

1) Ingition OFF

2) Disconnect battery

3) Re-connect battery - if it "sparks" at the terminals when re-connecting indicates a leak in the wiring system

Solution
1) Expensive: have auto elect check the for the leak, maytake 5 mintus of 40 hours ++

2) Less expensive alternative: auto elect fitted a battery isolator switch, when finished with vehicle turn it off (isolator switch) (no leakage and remains charged for weeks on end)

I haven't posted back on here for some time. I'm still not sure what the slow drain is.

One thing I am sure of though I think it has been a cumulative thing for me. Tim said that I need to drive for (4 hours I think) and he was right. The car has been away a couple of times lately and it seems to be ok for a while after a long trip. So I think part of the problem was it was only getting short drives around town.

Clearly I'm not going to go for a multi hour drive just to charge the battery, but I am trying to drive the car more. I love driving it - but I just don't really do very much driving when we are at home. I'll have to put it on the charger and let it run for a bit occasionally.

Captain,

Alltrans is right about the 'leak', as my Defender suffers from that very problem. Same symptoms as yours - left for a couple of weeks and in my case dead flat battery is the result.

Got a mate to help me get to the bottom of it and through lots of fiddling found that a driving light circuit is the cause of the 'leak', or trickle discharge, but still not found out where in that wire system it is.

Looks like a re-wire in order.

Suggest that you get someone with a good multimeter and knows what they're doing and go through the circuits one by one. I started at the fuse box, pulling out fuses one by one and progressed from there. It can take a while, believe me, so mates rates is the best route there!!

Good luck with it!

Best regards,
Greg