Thread: Cranking battery life?

Originally Posted by justinc

I regularly see D2 and Td5 Defenders with the original Delphi 900A batteries after 7 or 8 years finally pack it up. We replace them with Delkor 31-900A ones that are a direct replacement and seem to be lasting just as long.JC

I believe my 02/2004 build D2a has it's original battery.

... did I just jinx me ?

Originally Posted by imatt

I have seen is 10 years in my ex wifes 2000mdl holden astra, daily driver almost 200k when battery replaced, only thing I thought might of helped battery life was that it was contained in a thermal type cover in engine bay.

Yep, take that insulator out and astra batteries die disturbingly quick.....had one car at work where the customer had 2 batteries die in a year, replaced cover and havent heard from him since

Does anyone know why modern batteries just seem to die? In the days of cortinas and minis, the battery got weaker and weaker giving plenty of warning but now they seem to be fine one minute and dead the next. So dead that it won't even take a jump start with anything other than monster jump leads. Wife's D2a td5 drove round to the grandparents fine- 3km away. Went back an hour later and not even a click. This has happened to me on 2 falcons and my Ford Ka. Can't complain too much though. TD5 was 2003 and that was the original battery. Annoyingly the indicator on the battery was still green so it wasn't that cell that died.

Originally Posted by Fencepost

Does anyone know why modern batteries just seem to die? In the days of cortinas and minis, the battery got weaker and weaker giving plenty of warning but now they seem to be fine one minute and dead the next. So dead that it won't even take a jump start with anything other than monster jump leads. Wife's D2a td5 drove round to the grandparents fine- 3km away. Went back an hour later and not even a click. This has happened to me on 2 falcons and my Ford Ka. Can't complain too much though. TD5 was 2003 and that was the original battery. Annoyingly the indicator on the battery was still green so it wasn't that cell that died.

Yes, I've experienced this several times. Over the years about 60% of the batteries I have had have gone suddenly, and most of these have been in the last 10 years.

I still have the original battery in the 2004 Defender - it's a Supercharge Gold MF31-931, and still seems OK (this posting will probably be the kiss of death! ). I think, in the Defender, the fact that the battery is away from engine heat is an aid to longevity.

Cheers,

Lionel

Does anyone know why modern batteries just seem to die? In the days of cortinas and minis, the battery got weaker and weaker giving plenty of warning but now they seem to be fine one minute and dead the next. So dead that it won't even take a jump start with anything other than monster jump leads. Wife's D2a td5 drove round to the grandparents fine- 3km away. Went back an hour later and not even a click. This has happened to me on 2 falcons and my Ford Ka. Can't complain too much though. TD5 was 2003 and that was the original battery. Annoyingly the indicator on the battery was still green so it wasn't that cell that died.

Could it be that todays cars demand more from the car battery? I know my Li-ion cordless tools just stop when battery is flat as opposed to nimh batteries that just slow down until flat.
Cheers Matt

Originally Posted by Blknight.aus

as a semi non related word of warning.

if you have one of the hybrid gel batteries or a pure gel battery (appearing in some small tractors and motorbikes)

do not put a solar panel on them without a regulator..


these batteries do not like being charged over their nominal max charge voltage and will die in short order if the panel keeps upping the voltage on the terminals once the battery is fully charged. It doesnt take many days of good sunshine on a good panel to cook a gel battery.

Hi Dave and thats a very valid point, not just for those types of batteries but also for Standby type AGM batteries, and while cranking batteries would not be effected by the higher voltage, and it is also highly unlikely that you could actually get the theoretical maximum current from a 10w solar panel, but you could, for a short time each day, get enough to push the voltage up over the maximum recommended voltage of Standby type AGM batteries.

So if you have a set up with your cranking battery being connected to a standby type auxiliary battery while your trickle charging your cranking battery from a solar panel, then a 5 watt solar panel for every 100Ah of battery capacity would guaranty you would not need a solar regulator and still could not exceed the lower maximum tolerable voltage of these types of batteries.

The 5w solar panel would still work with a standard cranking battery, it would just take longer to charge the battery if it was lower when you stopped using the vehicle.

Now to through a spanner in the works.

Again for a standard cranking battery, the short period of high voltage will actually be beneficial.

If you have a set up that has a standby type auxiliary battery, you should have it set up with some form of isolator.

If you have one of my isolators, an SC40 ( no long available ), you will add a 125 milliamps load to the set up when the isolator cuts in, and an SC80 ( or SC80-LR ) will add about 240 milliamps of load to the set up.

If you have a solenoid type isolator, something like a Redarc, you will add around 600 to 800 milliamps of load to the set up and this would dramatically reduce the current available for charging both the cranking battery and the auxiliary battery.

As Dave has pointed out, it’s not as simple as just adding a solar panel and you need to take a few things into account.

So, if you have a dual battery set up and if your using one of my isolators, a 10w panel would still work fine and be safe for use with a standby type AGM. There is a lot more to it but 10w per 100Ah of battery capacity, including the auxiliary battery will work.

If you have some other type of isolator, there is a good chance you will still be able to trickle charge both batteries as long as you get some good sunny days.