Thread: battery isolater getting hot

Originally Posted by crump

just put a new cranking battery in the fender today and have noticed the isolator gets hot and then cools down after driving, is that just due to the current moving thru it as it dispenses charge or something more sinister??Have never taken any notice of it before so dont know if its normal.

Depends on how hot - can you still hold it when it's 'hot' or is it too hot ?

It's pretty normal for these to warm up a bit when you are drawing a high current through them - like when you start the car - but not too hot.

If it's too hot - then I would normally check for dirty/loose terminal, take them off clean them, then replace nice and tight.

no, too hot too touch for any length of time, have checked all connections and all good. Cables are fine and dont warm up, just the body of the unit.

Originally Posted by crump

no, too hot too touch for any length of time, have checked all connections and all good. Cables are fine and dont warm up, just the body of the unit.

You'd expect a spike when initially starting. Could this be the course?

Originally Posted by crump

no, too hot too touch for any length of time, have checked all connections and all good. Cables are fine and dont warm up, just the body of the unit.

If it's that hot you may want to have a spare ready for when it fails - is it the correct rating for the amp draw ?

Been In There Since New, And Replaced With Same Battery, It Wouldnt Be The Reason The Battery Dropped Its Guts In The First Place, Was Only Three Years Old.

Hi crump, first off, what brand is it.

Next, to my knowledge, none of the isolators come on ( connect the batteries together ) until the motor has started, so what were the circumstances leading up to when you noticed the thing was getting hot.

Cheers.

Surepower Battery Seperater.Charging battery dropped a cell so I replaced today, whilst I was hooking it up with the ignition off I noticed the unit getting hot as I was fiddling round with the poxy positive connection in the poxy underseat box.It got hot and then cooled down, stil with the ignition off. Went for a drive and it was hot again, so disconnected it when I got home.Has three connections, two leads one to each positive terminal and a small wire to an earth screw,thats right isnt it??

Originally Posted by drivesafe

Hi crump, first off, what brand is it.

Next, to my knowledge, none of the isolators come on ( connect the batteries together ) until the motor has started, so what were the circumstances leading up to when you noticed the thing was getting hot.

Cheers.

Make sure the earth wire from the Isolator is properly grounded to bare metal and make sure that, that metal is grounded to the Chassis and the chassis is properly grounded to the engine. By Properly grounded I mean bare metal to contact to and spotlessly clean terminals. Most electrical and battery problems can be traced back to Poor earth. A friend of mine was going thru 2 to 3 batteries a year, when I checked his car out, I discovered he had no earth strap from engine to chassis all of the wiring that is normally conected to his engine was acting as a P!ss Poor earth, most of the wiring to the engine was buggered, replaced it and fitted an earth strap, engine to Chassis and now his battery has lasted 3 years and still going strong, cant have too many earths, Regards Frank.