Thread: D4 2nd battery charging

Hi drivesafe and others...........Just checked Voltage in cranking and Aux under bonnet..motor off for almost 24 hours.........12.42 V ....in both batteries...has an Sc80 fitted.

cheers Sam

Originally Posted by Plane Fixer

Redback, we have the same combo of cars. My wife has the white VW Golf V 2.0 TDI and I get to drive it sometimes. I am 6' 2" and once I am in there it is a very comfortable sporty drive and is fantastic around town.
We sometimes go to Grafton or Maclean in it to blow out the weeds, but for a longer trip I am over-ruled and we go in the Disco due the comfort, sound system and my wife can look around and see more as she is 5' 1"

Yes they are a great little car, ours is a Golf V 1.9l TDi and yes the Disco is more comfortable for long drives, oh and my missus is 5.0' dead on, seems we are smaller, cars and people, just

Baz.

Every time I get into my disco after driving one of my other cars I am always struck by how great the driving position is in the disco (I'm 6'2") my wife says the same (5'). Mine doesn't feel truck like in comparison to the other two (it did pre suspension work), but it does feel a bit ponderous for the first few corners !

Hi All,

Very interesting discussions. Recently I have bought a CTEK and decided to better maintain the batteries after reading all these discussions.

There are a couple of points I am not clear on and would greatly appreciate some comments and help.

I have a D4 2.7 Diesel with a SC-80 Traxide / yellow Optima second battery fitted 3 1/2 years ago. The original cranking battery was replaced by the dealer at the end of warranty, so the current cranking battery is about 1 year old. The car sits around a bit. I drive it for a whole week once every 2 weeks or so.

Last weekend, I used the CTEK MS 5.0 and used the Recond plus Car mode together and left it charging for nearly 12 hours until the CTEK showed the fully charged sign. The voltage on both batteries immediately after charging was about 12.7 for each battery. I drove the car every day for the last 5 days (Mon to Fri), like 2 trips of 30 minutes each to and from work.

The meter reading today, Saturday, first thing in the morning, was 12.19 for each battery.

Questions are:

1. Why did the SoC drop from fully charged to 12.19 despite daily driving?
2. Is half hour driving each trip not enough to maintain the full charge?
3. Why did the Optima battery also discharge to the same 12.19? Should the isolater prevent the Optima from being used and discharged. I have not connected any devices to the optima.
4. Does this SoC level shorten the battery life?

Many thanks for your help

G-d4

Originally Posted by go-disco4

The voltage on both batteries immediately after charging was about 12.7 for each battery.

Hi G-d4 and that voltage level is actually way to low.

Immediately after charging, your battery voltages should have been in the mid 13+v, not 12.7v

You need to put your charger on your batteries every night for at least the next week.

And leave the charger on, for at least 8 hours after the charger goes into FLOAT mode.

You are ( like most people ) your batteries worst enemy.

If vehicles ( not just Land Rovers ) are not driven for some time, it takes at least a few 5+ hour drives to recover the battery’s fully charged state.

Or you can do this with any multi stage battery charger, as suggested above.

Hi Tim,

Many thanks.

Would you please be able to explain why the Optima battery discharged as well?

Gd-4

Hi again G-d4, because my isolators keep the batteries connected after the motor is turned off ( all other isolators turn off when the motor is turned off ) the two batteries discharge at the same rate, no matter what is causing the batteries to discharge.

In your case, if you did not have one of my isolators, the Optima would be in a much higher state, but the problem would be that your cranking battery would be in a much lower state and probably in need of replacing by now.

While your Optima may be lower than what it would be with any other type of isolator, because of the way my isolators work, shearing the load, the Optima has helped to keep your cranking battery from going flat.

As I have suggested, try the cycle charging with a battery charger and see what happens to the voltage levels in a week or so.

Hi Tim,

Thanks for explanation and advice. Will follow advice and report back to the forum

GD-4