Thread: How long does your battery last when idle

Originally Posted by TB

Followup question for Tim...

My D4 is a "weekender". It lives on the street rather than in a garage and will go days or occasionally weeks without use. So would you think it a good idea to place a 10W panel on the dash to keep things topped up? I only have the cranking battery to worry about – my 120Ah fridge battery is in a box that I keep plugged in to a smart charger in the garage.

If the solar panel is a good idea, where would be the best place to attach it to the car's electrical system?

Thanks
TB

Hi TB, a 10w panel located in the back of your D4bwould be the go, but I would also recommend you follow scarry’s setup And find some way to turn the isolator off when not in use, otherwise it will easily use up all the energy coming from the solar panel.

My isolators are designed around very energy efficient relays, but most VSR type isolators, like Redarc, use more than double the energy my isolators use, so you will need to make some sort of arrangement to limit it’s power draw.

Also note, if you connect the solar panel directly to your cranking battery, your isolator will not turn on until the battery voltage is above 13.2v, and this will still give your battery a reasonable charge before the isolator turns on and eats up all of your solar power.

Originally Posted by RHS58

Depends, I think.

This won’t work if the ignition is off, as standard cig lighters are then isolated from the battery.

Should work if plugged in to one of Tim’s Traxide DBS live sockets in the back of the D4, or the Anderson plug.

True. The more direct the connection to the battery the better, I find.

Ours sat for 18 days at a Parking Mob whilst we went overseas and started no problems upon our return...

Paul
The switch on the sc80 is a good idea.

i have had my traxide set up since early 2014 so my sc80 may be the old one as well.


i have also got Ctek cables permanently connected to both aux and main battery but do normally charge just the main and let the sc80 do its magic. So charging is easy.
I have tried charging via the white plug in the back as well but that was before I had the ctek wires connected.

I think at the moment the main battery is showing its age, based on a recent test so may be why I am limited to a week now but I have had this problem for some time.

i guess I will need to get into a routine of just charging once a week if I am not using my D4 regularly or just doing short trips.


Rich

Originally Posted by LRD414

Rich, to try and answer your original question. I have the same age D4 and same Traxide setup with original cranking battery as yours. Mine has never been the full week without use but by extrapolation I would be fairly confident to say I’d get low battery warning after a week.

This is assuming a starting point of letting the vehicle BMS do its own thing, which means a SoC as low as mid 70% or as high as ~85%. I monitor the SoC via iiD and realise it’s not an accurate measure but it does confirm to me that the starting point for any period of inactivity is not fully charged. It only gets a full charge via my ctek 5A charger.

So a period of 7 days to drop from say 75% to approx 50% is logical when I have seen it drop to around 62% (iiD) after around 3 days inactive.

Scott

Thanks Scott.

i reckon I should just go for a drive more often.

Rich

If it’s starting to play up - replace it..

Mine went from functioning adequately to potentially stranded at the shop (only the Traxide TBS managed to start the vehicle)... in under a week

Originally Posted by wbowner

I have a 2014 d4 tdv6

It still has the original battery and I have a traxide dual battery set up

I have found for a long time that I can’t leave the car for more than a week before getting the low battery warning

I have had it checked a few times and have been told this is typical for a d4. Not sure on that.

May be now it may be the battery but this has been a problem for a long time

I have to leave the car on charge when away or even at home if not being used. I now monitor the battery status regularly via a redarc remote battery monitor.

So my question is how long do other people find they can leave their d4s before experiencing the low battery warning message.

Rich

The obvious simple solution here is to use the D4 more often otherwise install a small solar panel to keep the battery charged up

Can't be specific on the D4 but can offer a couple more general points:

1. Noting your location, from personal experience Cbr seems to be overly hard on batteries (compare to more mild climates such as Syd and Per) and so the original may well be on its way out after 3-4 years. In my Defender the battery was fine after three years in Per - one half winter in Cbr and it was shot!

2. Is the vehicle normally locked, or do you leave it unlocked (eg in a garage)? I now live on a farm and several of the cars are often left unlocked with keys in (easier with multiple people using the vehicles!). On a couple of vehicles I have taken the keys out when leaving the farm unattended but left them unlocked out of habit - I then failed to either lock or re-insert the keys when I returned. Within a week or so the battery was flat. One was a relatively new Euro with keyless entry but one was not (AU Ford). In the Ford case it was a brand new battery and after two weeks so flat I need a manual charger to start the charge (the auto one just read "dead"). I understand that many more modern vehicles (esp keyless) do not actually shut down their electronics until they are locked. In the keyless vehicle case an Interwebs search led me to believe that the vehicle in question "fully woke" every 60 sec or so when not locked (until the battery was dead. The same keyless car that died in a week unlocked went over a month without issue when locked, while both had no troubles when left with the keys in. Hmmm - makes me think that my ute is the smartest of the fleet as it auto locks if the keys are out!