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Glynhouse
23rd March 2013, 10:25 PM
Arrived in Brisbane 2 days ago from Cairns with van in to D3td.

Car has been parked in the van park for 2 days took it out today shopping, started fine nothing to alert drove 8klms, parked at shopping center for a couple of hours, came out drove probably 1klm. Fuel up started and drove about half a Kim to traffic lights, went to take off no power big "F" on the dash, travelled 50 meters suspension fault flashed up and everything went dead !
In the middle of main intersection, automatic reaction went to put on warning flashers nothing ! Stuck it in park - bad mistake once in park could not take it out without power, could not push the vehicle, locked in park, no power no nothing !
When I could with safety, cars going everywhere I put a multimeter across the battery 1.5 volts ! YES you read that correctly 1.5 volts at the posts !
Flat top from RACQ got there in 6 minutes, pretty good I thought, put a power pack on got it out of park loaded and moved me 50 meters, called a service van. It is Saturday, service vehicle was pretty prompt as well must be a quite day for them.
Voltage at this stage was 7 volts, alternator stuffed, battery flat he announced ! Can't be says me it started fine 3 or 4 minutes ago at the servo it is not dark no lights on. Ohhhh.
Anyway we jump started it, voltage sitting at 12 with motor running lights on or off made no difference to the voltage so alternator must be doing something.
Cut a long story short we drove home 7.5klms, by now it was dark lights on, no probs, he followed us to make sure, voltage sitting on 12.4 when we arrived, eventually turned off, 30 minutes later voltage was 12 volts at the terminals.
Battery is 5 months old, at present on a jury rigged charger from the van, but it will do it.
What would take a battery capable of starting the vehicle normally to having only 1.5 volts reading in 500 meters ?
Has to be battery surely ? Anything else in these vehicles capable of doing that ? Battery that came out 5 months ago was 7 years old, changed because I was going very bush, and thought it was too old to trust on that trip.

DD

Tombie
24th March 2013, 12:30 AM
Not the first time a battery has died young.

Had one do the same on wifes vehicle... 3 weeks old

wrinklearthur
24th March 2013, 08:37 AM
I normally keep a tidy house when it comes to the maintenance on my vehicles,
but the last few weeks have been horrific in regards to battery and alternator issues for me.

Batteries dying, fire in 'Fred's' alternator and a supposably new alternator had it's regulator go faulty, along with several calls from customers wanting repairs to their electric fence units ! What is going on, has there been a magnetic storm?

Aurora Australis: chasing the southern lights - Australian Geographic (http://www.australiangeographic.com.au/journal/aurora-australis-chasing-the-southern-lights.htm)

http://www.aulro.com/afvb/attachment.php?attachmentid=58106&stc=1&d=1364078144
.

Glynhouse
24th March 2013, 09:13 AM
Update.
Using a smart charger from the van 30amp. Through 5 meters of dual core 6mm cable (4.35mmsq.). Wire ran quite warm to start with, not hot but warm, charging at 12.8volts within the hour the charger had gone to float at 13.8 having been up to 14.4. Switched charger off overnight.
This morning bettery still reading 12.9 volts turned on lights etc and instantly down to 12.0 volts. Started fine all normall, but with engine on reading 11.8 volts - dam it is the alternator - started to increase voltage and within a minute or around that it was at 14.3 volts, every time I started did the same thing, is that normal ? Seems to take a long time for the alternator to boost the voltage or as I suspect the battery is shot ?
Take a bus ride today worry in the morning Sunday not the day to get sense out of anyone.

DD
T

drivesafe
24th March 2013, 10:02 AM
This morning bettery still reading 12.9 volts turned on lights etc and instantly down to 12.0 volts. Started fine all normall, but with engine on reading 11.8 volts - dam it is the alternator - started to increase voltage and within a minute or around that it was at 14.3 volts, every time I started did the same thing, is that normal ? Seems to take a long time for the alternator to boost the voltage or as I suspect the battery is shot ?

Hi DD and that is very "normal" for a D3 or D4.

When you first start the motor, the ECU keeps the alternator off ( free wheeling ) while the ECU ( BMS ) monitors the battery.

After about 30 second in a D3 and anything up to a few minutes in a D4, the alternator then starts up and your voltage rises.

While the battery may be the problem, to flatten your battery in such a short time “while driving” would make me suspicious of the alternator.

TerryO
24th March 2013, 10:23 AM
Out of interest what brand of battery did you replace the original with?

CaverD3
24th March 2013, 11:15 AM
Had some strange symptoms on mine, stereo shut down (aftermarket) then all ok.
Same thing happened again but this time faults continued until it wouldn't change gears then would not start.
Alternator shot.
Yours could be on the way out?

Glynhouse
24th March 2013, 11:25 AM
Thanks DS. Was hoping you might pop in, how would an alternator take a battery that low after a perfectly normal start only 500 metres before after fuelling up ?
On the service guy's fluke meter he was showing 19 amps into the battery at idle with the lights on, but it has developed a whine in the motor somewhere in the last few days.
Still suspicious that the battery will sit at around 12.8 volts overnight but drop to 12.0 with just the lights on in a matter of seconds.

Terry it is a Delcore 60038, as used by the L/R dealers up here. Cost me $235.00

DD

101RRS
24th March 2013, 12:29 PM
Terry it is a Delcore 60038, as used by the L/R dealers up here. Cost me $235.00

DD

That battery seems to have a very low CCA compared to the vehicle requirements - it only has 650CCA where I thought 850-950CCA was needed.

Garry

Graeme
24th March 2013, 01:13 PM
Don't discount the possibility of a broken internal connection in the battery - good one mnute, dead the next.

drivesafe
24th March 2013, 01:53 PM
Don't discount the possibility of a broken internal connection in the battery - good one mnute, dead the next.

Yep, that be the problem, could be one or the other and until it happens again, Russian Roulette time.

sheerluck
24th March 2013, 02:12 PM
That battery seems to have a very low CCA compared to the vehicle requirements - it only has 650CCA where I thought 850-950CCA was needed.

Garry

That was my thought too Garry. I've just replaced a dead 780CCA Century battery with a 880CCA Supercharge, because I couldn't find any bigger for the price.

Glynhouse
24th March 2013, 04:02 PM
This one has 760cca stamped on it, if you get a replacement battery up here from the dealer this will be it (so I understand)

DD



That battery seems to have a very low CCA compared to the vehicle requirements - it only has 650CCA where I thought 850-950CCA was needed.

Garry

Glynhouse
9th April 2013, 07:31 PM
Update, Now in Sydney, it was an alternator, replaced with a new a/market job, $700 including fitting. Due to time constraints did not have much choice. Battery charged up and the supplier said tested fine ? It had a hammering so we will see.

Next question, what voltage should this run at, I bought one of the Jaycar cig lighter voltmeters, it runs up to 14.5 - 14.6 volts for a short while but settles down to a steady 13.5 volts after a while ( can be 10 mins can be up to half an hour to settle) holds 13.5 then consistently lights on or off.
Seems low to me. It seems to bleed off overnight as well, at present after a six hour drive it is sitting at 12.5 on past performances over the last few days in the morning it will be 12.2 to 12.3 volts. There is nothing on, at least nothing I can find !
12.2 to me is a fairly low battery,


DD

Graeme
9th April 2013, 09:30 PM
With the battery voltage having previously dropped to basically nothing, its posisble that the battery now has very little depth of charge so you may need to replace the battery too. I have a battery that I removed from my D2 in 2008 because of such a problem but it still happily starts a small pump regularly.

101RRS
9th April 2013, 09:39 PM
There have been a few reported alternator failures an all seem to not have a dash indication of the failure - the low power advice on the radio seems to be the main indicator of an issue with the battery level/charging system.

So why doesn't the charging light come on when the alternator plays up - or alternatively some other sort of indication. In the good ole days the charging light would come on.

Thanks

Garry

PeterOZ
10th April 2013, 07:18 AM
battery has high internal resistence hence why it is discharging overnight. Think of it like a reistor accross the terminals that allows a small current to flow and cause it to self discharge. Quite common.

If the battery is still under warranty then I would be seeking a refund / replacement however you need to get one with the correct rating for the vehicle.

disco2_dan
10th April 2013, 05:24 PM
Yeah in the book it says use a minimum 850cca so battery is a tad on the small side

baldivistribe
11th April 2013, 02:54 PM
I wouldn't get too hung up on the low charging voltage. Our Toymota was the same. Seems to be the norm with modern vehicles. One way to reduce the vehicles emissions and increase economy. I regularly use a cetek charger and a sometimes leave me solar panel on for a few days. Often reads low prior to charge.
Cheers
Steve

discotwinturbo
11th April 2013, 03:06 PM
I wouldn't get too hung up on the low charging voltage. Our Toymota was the same. Seems to be the norm with modern vehicles. One way to reduce the vehicles emissions and increase economy. I regularly use a cetek charger and a sometimes leave me solar panel on for a few days. Often reads low prior to charge.
Cheers
Steve

I am with you Steve. My Ctek is in constant use. Always gives each of my cars a tickle each month, along with the ride on mower, the boys quad, my buggy, breakaway controllers and the horse float batteries. But the disco takes the longest time to get it back to fully charged on the 5amp Ctek. Probably more efficient to use this as opposed to extra fuel and emissions.

Brett.....

Glynhouse
13th April 2013, 07:56 AM
Not quite sure what happened here ? Posted yesterday morning thought I checked it was here but it is not now.

Seems to be settling down a bit, I have 160 watts solar on the Disco roof not connected to the vehicle system at all. Hooked it in to the Anderson plug at the rear as it was on float on the aux batt, went straight to a charge of 8 amps, don't know how long for but that night after settling it was at 12.7 following morning still had 12.5 volts showing, a lot better than the 12.2-3 it had been showing.
Will wait and have a test done next week.

DD