Lockdown Bad For Batteries

[MarkS]

Originally Posted by Dawn

I have a solar charger I used on my Rover when I had my op that plugs into the lighter, but via the lighter the Toyota wont take it.

I've just done a mod to the in-car fusebox, so the cigar lighter socket on a Pre-project-drive car can be used, without the ignition key, for charging by solar panel.

A 4W panel from Old Maplins (sitting on the dashboard, facing south) is giving me up to 190mA, for ~ 6-8 hours a day for the foreseeable fortnight. That should keep the battery happy.

[wraymond]

My car gets a 10/15 mile run once a week, for shopping, the roads around me being major dual carriageways so a variety of speeds can be an advantage.
When the car is parked it is on my driveway behind gates that are tricky to open so the alarm is live only at night for about 8 hours - not much current I know but every little helps. I have for years also carried a starter/charger in the boot for emergencies. Also in the boot there is now a carrier bag with two others in it for obvious purposes.

[BigShug20]

With me be the lucky person I am, had to go shopping only to try start the car and nothing!

Currently waiting on a mobile service to supply me with a shiny new battery

Shug

[BoroRover]

Originally Posted by Arctic

When you do your shopping go the longest way to the store as possibly, ie the usual 1-2 mile trip, go the long way and turn it into 10 miles, I know we are supposed to stay at home but driving a car lets say on a dual carriage way/motorway from A to B how is that going to spread the Virus, is it clinging to the car, I doubt but I am no Scientist.

It is only when you exit the car that you can either pick up or spread the virus or am I wrong.

I made a journey to our local Aldi yesterday and went the long way, while driving I passed to parked police cars going there, on the way back a police car followed me for about 3 miles then over took and was gone.

As per my earlier post, the 10 mile drive, we are of the same mindset.

[2750 HP]

I was told many years ago to always install the biggest physical battery that the car will take and to ther best quality. Done this in my cars ever since and rarely have a problem unless they have been standing for some time. Currently they all either get a run to the shops or tick over for 30 mins now and then.


My big diesel will be more problematic when normality returns. The batteries date from June 2008 and are coming to the end of their lives. There are 12 batteries each with four cells. Each battery is roughly a 15" cube and weighs a considerable amount. My cheque book will groan when replacements are paid for - possibly next year!

[DMGRS]

Assuming a mid-life battery with 50Ah capacity remaining, you'll have a discharge of around 2.7Ah / week (10mA of load from alarm etc, and 2% self discharge per week).
While this looks a lot on paper, a lot of our cars seem to drain more than 10mA even with everything powered down, and some batteries will still start the car fine even if capacity is less than 50Ah due to age / wear, meaning you have a lot less of a 'reserve' to start with.

Actually starting the car doesn't use anything like as much of the battery's capacity as most expect - it's a lot of current (250A for a load of 3KW @ 12v) but only for a few seconds.
Even with internal resistance losses and the relative inefficiency of high load discharge vs low load discharge (the Ah rating is at lower loads, at high loads capacity is significantly less) you'll still find a few miles is plenty to replace the charge lost in starting.
Add a bit to diesels in cold weather, as the glow plugs pull a good lump of current when needed.

A maintenance charger is the best solution, as it tops up the amount lost through self-discharge and the car's base current draw.

[picky747]

They have THESE in Lidl at the moment,they connect to your phone by bluetooth.

[IMG][/IMG]

[Scaramanga]

This happened to me last friday, whilst aiming to get to the supermarket early. Needless to say I spent the next hour trying to find a supplier open for replacement battery. Found exhaust, break and tyre place empty but open by shear luck!

Was worried as was due in work the next day

Thank goodness these people enabled me to get to my shift the next day!

[bendrick]

Bought one of those compact jump starters a year ago after being stuck with a flat battery Turned out the battery was shot anyway but it has saved me twice since with the new battery after my mileage shot right down to barely going down the nearby shop with the odd little local trip chucked in now and then.


Couldn't resist using the fuel burner as well during the cold weather before going out, all of which added to the drain on the new battery which never really got the chance to recharge from a decent run and ran down the battery over a three or four month period or so.

As the experts on here will know the battery doesn't need to be anywhere near flat or run down to not start the car just marginally under its normal charge.

Its not like the old days when a battery was running down and you still managed to slowly chug it over as it slowly died but quite often the engine just caught and fired at the last. The batteries on more modern cars only need to be just under the normal stored strength and the car doesn't even attempt to start there is just a click and that's it.

So after being caught out the first time I carry this little baby in the boot which has come up trumps with no fuss or drama on two occasions as mentioned and takes less than a minute to hook up and power up the engine.

Which is bit of saviour when you're rushing. I bought an intelligent charger as well and just give a bit of a maintenance charge once in a blue moon to be on the safe side.


https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/...?ie=UTF8&psc=1


The jump starter I bought above which is brilliant appears to be out of stock but there are plenty similar out there.

[Scaramanga]

Remember this important
sticky folks about continuously trying to turn our cars over. Saved me a few years back!
https://www.the75andztclub.co.uk/for...d.php?t=106447