Ticking noise from under the bonnet when parked and locked.

[edwardmk]

Voltage at end of long charge
3 mins after disconnecting charger
Voltage 4 hours later
Conclusion. This battery is OK.
Further investigation of central locking and manual locking needed.


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[Ducati750cc]

Originally Posted by edwardmk

Update on voltage readings.
With charger connected
Immediately after charger disconnected
Ten minutes later

Four hours later

So battery is OK.
Took off door card. Examined with flashlight and mirror but didn’t find anything obviously broken. With no power, found the key would not unlock the door as before. Inside door handle also didn’t work but I could see the button moving up and down. Oddly, if I leave the key in the door at lock position outside, then the door unlocks with two pulls from inside. However, I can’t remove the key from the door unless I close it and lock it manually from outside again. Key out, inside lever doesn’t open, key in at lock position and inside lever works but again key is trapped in the lock. Then door opens and closes normally from outside.
I’ve sprayed a large quantity of electrical contact cleaner into the lock to clean it and need a recommendation on the best lock lubricant as the next step.


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Hi, going by the LED's I've noticed two things on your charger:


1) you have it set for an AGM battery, is yours an AGM , this program charges at up to 14.7v


2) you have enabled recondition mode,this mode operates at up to 15.8v, only to be used occasionally, at this voltage it causes excess gassing which stirs up the electrolyte to combat stratification which can occur when batteries are stood for long periods even though fully charged as on a shelf or a car stored but without movement, used frequently or for prolonged periods it can damage a battery.

[SD1too]

Originally Posted by Ducati750cc

Hi, going by the LED's I've noticed two things on your charger:
1) you have it set for an AGM battery, is yours an AGM , this program charges at up to 14.7v
2) you have enabled recondition mode,this mode operates at up to 15.8v ...

Thanks for reiterating this Bill. I brought the reconditioning mode to Martin's attention in post no. 93 when he expressed concern at the high voltage during the charging process.

Martin; please read carefully your C-tek instruction book as a matter of urgency to ensure that you are using the charger properly. Also, whilst an off-load voltage of 13.8v after waiting 4 hours following charging is encouraging, the real test is whether the battery can deliver the current required to start the engine.

It's very interesting that Rick has experienced the same problem with opening his driver's door mechanically when the battery is deeply discharged (as opposed to disconnected).

Simon

[Ducati750cc]

Thanks SD1, yes it is important to check exactly what the CTEK mode is every time it is switched on, it remembers the last mode and if it has been a while since it was used for say an AGM and you pop a conventional battery on it will still charge and may marginally over time charging in AGM mode affect a battery, recon. used the same way isn't forgiving at all.


My son has a garage and especially during Covid has had many flat batteries, some down to 0v, others hovering around the 10v-11.5v, on the marginal ones,depending on age, he offers his customers the option to charge and test before replacing, many simply say just change it so I get a few to play with.


I had a nice 9 month old Bosch one that came up quite well showing only a marginal loss of health ( Midtronics tester )a week later the voltage held up and started an old stubborn Deutz engine without problem so time to experiment with a recon.


As usual with a CTEK plug in and get on with other things knowing that it would go through the process,the recon stage could be up to four hours but ten it would continue to float and pulse.


Later in the evening I could smell the 'rotten eggs' from the battery, switched off and the battery was more than quite warm,the casing slightly bulged, let it cool and the next day tested it both with the tester and on the engine, battery US.


At a loss how this had happened I put a similar battery through the same cycle but kept my eye on it, it completed no problems, the problem was soon solved when I remembered that my grandchildren had been in the outbuilding all day building something, glue guns and all sorts still on the bench, when questioned it transpired that throughout the day, they unplugged the charger many times to use the socket, then plugged the charger back in starting the whole process from step one many times, I sliced the battery open, being a nosey B to find extensive plate distortion with loss of paste bridging plates.


Anyway enough about chargers, the thread prompted me to go out this morning and check locking and unlocking on one of my 75's with a fully charged battery, it unlocked OK and locked OK, I didn't open the door, but after locking with the key the alarm went off ( non volumetric) and couldn't be turned off by the key, only with the remote, I tried the same but opened and closed the door, the same happened, I'll try it with the battery disconnected in the next couple of days and come back with what happens.

[edwardmk]

I shall definitely be checking the mode from now on when I use the CTEK.
With correct mode
Three hours later

Learning a lot about batteries. Thanks to everyone keeping me straight!
Decided to investigate the locks manually with no power. I was satisfied the rear locks were all working correctly.
Looking at the passenger side, despite removing and cleaning the connector to the actuator several times, when I connect the battery and press the fob, only the rear doors work correctly. There is nothing happening on the passenger side so I took the whole unit off and put it on the bench. The mechanism was a bit sticky so I cleaned it with contact cleaner and liberally flushed with AC90 and an air gun to remove the gunk of the ages. That has really freed it up and manually it’s now working fine. Now I’m looking for advice on how to bench test the unit? Pic shows it has pins 1 and then 3-8.



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[Avulon]

TBH, Interesting as the battery charging information is. And even more interesting the failure of the mechanical open/unlock of the doors with a flat battery (alarm triggered I think). I keep coming back to find out about the 'ticking' noise from under the bonnet. Has any further progress been made on identifying the cause of this? I believe whatever this was, was the original cause of the battery being flattened in the first place.

[edwardmk]

Originally Posted by Avulon

TBH, Interesting as the battery charging information is. And even more interesting the failure of the mechanical open/unlock of the doors with a flat battery (alarm triggered I think). I keep coming back to find out about the 'ticking' noise from under the bonnet. Has any further progress been made on identifying the cause of this? I believe whatever this was, was the original cause of the battery being flattened in the first place.

That is the question I'm asking myself. The 'ticking' was loud enough to be heard 20 feet from the car, about two ticks per second. No ticking when first parked and locked on the Thursday night, and nothing noted on the Friday. Saturday afternoon heard the ticking but it could have started overnight. No alarm or flashing indicators, but no CCTV to check timeline when it started up. Stopped of course when the battery went very flat. I've not heard the ticking since. Nervous of course about whether it could catch me out again

[COLVERT]

Originally Posted by Ducati750cc

Hi, going by the LED's I've noticed two things on your charger:


1) you have it set for an AGM battery, is yours an AGM , this program charges at up to 14.7v


2) you have enabled recondition mode,this mode operates at up to 15.8v, only to be used occasionally, at this voltage it causes excess gassing which stirs up the electrolyte to combat stratification which can occur when batteries are stood for long periods even though fully charged as on a shelf or a car stored but without movement, used frequently or for prolonged periods it can damage a battery.

Stratification of a battery.--Never heard that before. What exactly does that mean ???

High voltages are sometimes used to try and remove compacted sulphation. That's where the molecular bonding of lead sulphate crystals don't easily respond to normal charging voltages.

The acid in a battery has a set specific gravity for the optimum working of the battery.

Charging at too high a voltage can cause excessive heat inside the cells.

The result is the acid strength increases as the water content of the battery is vapourised. This results in poorer performance of the battery and also lowers the level of the electrolyte exposing the tops of the plates. Thus the surface area of the working plate is reduced and so is the capacity of the battery.

[edwardmk]

Originally Posted by COLVERT

Stratification of a battery.--Never heard that before. What exactly does that mean ???

High voltages are sometimes used to try and remove compacted sulphation. That's where the molecular bonding of lead sulphate crystals don't easily respond to normal charging voltages.

The acid in a battery has a set specific gravity for the optimum working of the battery.

Charging at too high a voltage can cause excessive heat inside the cells.

The result is the acid strength increases as the water content of the battery is vapourised. This results in poorer performance of the battery and also lowers the level of the electrolyte exposing the tops of the plates. Thus the surface area of the working plate is reduced and so is the capacity of the battery.

That was a new one on me too. I found this article which also mentioned battery formatting in the field for new batteries, also new to me.

https://batteryuniversity.com/learn/...surface_charge

[COLVERT]

Originally Posted by edwardmk

That was a new one on me too. I found this article which also mentioned battery formatting in the field for new batteries, also new to me.

https://batteryuniversity.com/learn/...surface_charge

Nothing to worry about as this won't happen to a battery in normal use.

Batteries nowadays are sealed. The older batteries had removable filler caps to allow for checking the specific gravity of the electrolyte and also for topping up if necessary.

With a cap removed and with the battery on charge it was possible to see bubbles rising in the cell even when charging normally. The rising bubbles would keep the electrolyte on the move and the acid strength in the cell uniform.

Hence no stratification.---Actually the very best way of checking the charge in a battery is by using a hydrometer if the battery has the original acid in it and has not been tampered with.