Thread: Battery problems or something else??

Could be the alternator!

Something related to the cold snap? I checked mine Tue night and it was at 12.35v. So I put it on the charger overnight.

I've just had a battery in the mighty Vectra do something similar now it's got cold. Won't hold a charge longer than a day - the battery is only 6 months old. Trying to get it replaced under warranty at the moment. Alternator kicks out 13.5 volts with lights and other electrics on. Turn the car off and watch the volts drop slowly. Not as bad as yours - it gets down to around 12.1 overnight and has just enough oomph to start the car in the morning, but it's on borrowed time.

Hi Harlie, and my guess is the problem is neither the battery or the alternator.

I would lay money it's the owner.

L322s can not be left for such long times without charging the battery externally.

And just driving it last Sunday, unless you drove it for 4 or 5 hours, was probably the last straw.

I would also guess that your battery is now stuffed and even if it isn't, because of the way the L322 draws power form the battery, unless the battery is in top condition and kept fully charged, you will end up getting loads of failure messages, such as Suspension Failure and the likes.

There is nothing wrong just the results of having a stuffed battery.

Originally Posted by drivesafe

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I would lay money it's the owner.

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Hey Tim, Sunday usage was only 20min each way and I was actually thinking the same thing after it has taken charge overnight, started slow but after about an hour the charger was outputting its max - starts this morning. Other thing I just noticed was that IID was still in the port, I remember noticing once before that it keeps running (if using live values) after key is removed - not sure for how long.

Wonder if its worth a warranty claim if it continues to struggle?

Originally Posted by harlie

Wonder if its worth a warranty claim if it continues to struggle?

Hi again Harlie, I would give it a try.

The L322 is really finicky when it comes to the cranking battery.

I have found that if you fit one of my dual battery systems while the cranking battery is in good condition, the second battery helps to keep the cranking battery in good condition.

But fitting my system to an L322, where the cranking battery is not up to scratch, makes no difference, the L322 still develops problems that would appear to be unrelated, and replacing the cranking battery is the only fix.

Found this out first hand!

This is a problem unique to the L322 and does not seem to happen with other LR models, and whether you get a new battery or not, because of the little use your L322 is getting, I would recommend you start regular charging of your cranking battery.