# Fed up with starter battery



## Seeker (Dec 26, 2005)

Battery is about four years old. I flattened it a few months ago leaving the fridge door open but it soon charged up fully on hook up for 24 hours. Then put the van in store for the Winter back in October. Checked it every couple of weeks and was looking fine. Thought I'd turn the engine over today but there's not a spark of life in it - won't even light the instrument panel or gauge.

It's set up to get a top up from the solar panel via a gismo connected to the leisure battery and I'm certain there's nothing drawing on it now so cannot fathom why it's flattened.

Am resigned to buying a new one in the Spring unless someone has an idea?

Cheers

Harry


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## eurajohn (May 9, 2005)

Leaving the fridge door open should not draw any current from the vehicle battery!
I would suggest you need to look elsewhere for your problem.


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## clive1821 (Mar 27, 2010)

I also was thinking that the fridge lights should be conected to the leasure battery, the main battery is only conected to the fridge when the alternator is running.... the main battery is conected to the engine elcetronics, like the emu, radio, alarms etc and can draw upto 400mA which over say 3 weeks will flatten the battery, it would be usefull to check if the solar pannel is indeed charging the battery.... this time of year you may only get about 500mA at best and with only 6 hours of daylight will not be enough to maintain the discharge.... just my view :roll: have a good christmas and new year from us at southsea in the cold )


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## CliveMott (Mar 10, 2008)

Modern vehicles will discharge a starter battery if the vehicle is left unused for 4 weeks or so due to the small but continuous currents taken by the engine management ECU, the Radio etc. So if you don,t use the vehicle regularly you need to do something to take acount of this. For me this is a solar panel with regulator and a bridging fuse to keep all batteries topped up. 
Alternatives like Battery Master or something similar from CBE will also do the trick.

But leaving a battery in a fully discharged state for a while WILL cause permanent damage to it so you may need to change it anyway.

http://www.motts.org/BRIDGING FUSE.htm

Take care

C.


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## emmbeedee (Oct 31, 2008)

Thoroughly check *all* of your battery connections before condemning your battery. I have seen many instances over the years where a battery is thought to be at fault but it is actually a connection fault. 
I once went to a friend's car where a garage had said he needed a new battery. He had driven to the garage to fill up, but when he went to leave, completely dead. He was suspicious (& tight) so had the car towed home instead & asked me to take a look. 
The battery did appear to be completely dead, not even attempting to turn the engine over. I removed both battery connections from the terminals but no problem there. Next, I removed the main earth terminal from the engine/gearbox bolt. Although this was quite tight, there was a film of white corrosion on the underside of the terminal & on the gearbox face. Cleaned off corrosion & voila! Battery then spins engine over like a good un!


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## Techno100 (May 8, 2010)

Good advice emm


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## Techno100 (May 8, 2010)

The battery master is the way to go if you have no solar power! it will draw from the leisure battery whilst ever the engine battery is half a volt lower and charge at 1amp.
If you have solar then the CBE is better for the majority of the year and will send anything up to 4 amps to the cab battery once the leisures reach 13.6 volts


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## teensvan (May 9, 2005)

Hi.

You need to do a proper test on the battery. First off what voltage have you got across the terminals. If it is as low as 12.2 volts it is only half charged and will not start your engine. If it is even lower then it requires a good charge or permanent damage could be done.

In the cold winter months the battery needs a charge once a fortnight or start and run the engine for at least 1/2 an hour once a fortnight this will then replace the power you used in the battery to start up the engine even longer would be better.

Most people do not realise how quick a lead acid battery loses power during the cold. It is not like your torch battery.



steve & ann. ---------- teensvan


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## Seeker (Dec 26, 2005)

clive1821 said:


> I also was thinking that the fridge lights should be conected to the leasure battery, the main battery is only conected to the fridge when the alternator is running.... )


What if the fridge was switched to the alternator position and the fridge door was open?

I revisited after a few days, tapped the connections to the terminals with a hammer and then found there was 11.5 volts across the terminals and the gauges came on. I assume they had corroded. But still nowhere near enough to get the engine to turn. Also noticed while there that, unlike on the previous visit, the top-up gismo from the solar panel was clicking on and off every 15/30 secs.

So, my guess now is that it is losing charge through just standing unused and the terminals have corroded enough to prevent the top-up gismo from doing its job.

Harry


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## eurajohn (May 9, 2005)

If all systems on the van were working correctly then there should be no current flow from the vehicle battery to the fridge unless the engine alternator was producing a charge! dependant on the build of the van you will have at a minimum a split charge relay most probably a Shaudt (or similar) control system, which has built in relays to control this, it is possible that there has been a malfunction of the system and it would be a good idea to check out the unit when you have a fully charged battery and ensure that on the fridge feed terminal there is NO flow of current when the engine is not running.

I guess you are referring to the battery terminals being corroded if that is the case then that will be why your solar panel was unable to keep it topped up, the regulator would have been clicking because the battery voltage was so low.


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