Jeez - everything is fucking breaking for me this month...! Car on the fritz today. Wife called me at work "it wont start!!" so, went home at lunch to see if i could diagnose..... Hit the starter button - relay clicking... popped the bonnet and put a meter on it....10.5 volts...very low. Hooked it up to the other car with jump leads and it fired first time. Put it on the optimate tender and came back to work.... The car is used mainly for short journeys....the wife works and travels only with a few miles radius so its stopped and started all the time (for the last couple of years in fact). The alternator is buried right down in the engine (SMAX) so not sure if i can get a probe on it. If i run the engine this evening once its been on the tender - can i test the alternator charging from the battery/what would/should i expect to see....or, have i got to measure from the alternator side. Just to say that it started fine on saturday which is leading me to think its the battery that given up...but, dont want to buy a battery....and then an alternator...!! Cheers to anyone that chips in...!
Just put meter across battery with engine running, should show 14.5 ish volts, if it is, then batt not holding charge, if it isn’t then alternator/rectifier not well.
ok - ill check when i get home....hopefully a good 5 hours on the optimate should be enough to get the charge up....
Yep - i accept that and i dont mind if it is. Car is a 2013 plate with 30k so while hardly any mileage as i accept it is started and stopped all the time...
It might not be quite that voltage at tickover, so take it a little up by say 500-800rpm then check that voltage.
Something like this is the only way to quickly and easily test if any motorcycle or car battery is going to be ok. Make sure it's been off charge for a few hours preferable over night. Check the CCA or Cold Crank Amps marked on the battery label or website. Attach the leads and check it stays at or within the CCA band on the scale for around 3-4 seconds. Even a new battery will slowly drop, Do not repeat the test within 20 minutes. Do not run the test until the battery or tester explodes... about 10-20 seconds.... They get really really hot Do not do the test with the caps open on an older battery..... Hydrogen is given off and this is surprisingly poppy.
Alarmingly hot. Don't put the unit down the front of your trousers afterwards, no matter how cold a day it is.
I take it the smax is a diesel? Ex's had the same issue, nearly a battery every other year purely because of very short trips every day, school run then to work, back to school, then back home. Never really had a good weekly run
yep - its a diesel. Just spoke to the local battery shop....he said if its showing 10.5 volts then its probably a failed cell (which sound like the most likely thing tbh) - top end 5 year warrantied battery is 112 quid...not too bad as i was seeing 140 plus on ebay...
almost...just phone the wife and got her to start it - which it did - i was kinda hoping for it not to then that would have confirmed it...have to test tonight with the meter...
Yep - ill check there tomorrow. Thanks. Garage night tonight (doing the forks on the RSV4) took the tender off when I got home. (12.9v) but literally dropped by the second. Hour later its 11.9 (still started though)!! Id say Battery at this point.
HaLords have decent ones at a good price and even better with the discount card (I already have a trade card). Probably save what it costs you in one purchase
Sounds like the battery - but try to just check everything is off - no internal lights, boot light etc that might be draining it. If its losing that voltage then almost certainly its for thwe skip ! Goosd luck
