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Battery problems.

adrian996

adrian996

New member
Tried to take the car for a spin yesterday "" but my battery had other ideas! The car was last used 10 days to two weeks ago and the battery seemed fine - but was completely pancake yesterday. (I try to run the car up at least once every two to three weeks during the winter. She is not trickle chargeed due to lack of garage.) Got the RAC out to start me and went for a 70 mile run "" volt meter reading 14 volts for most of the run. Stopped to get a paper when nearly home and she wouldn't start when I got back to the car. RAC out again and I got her home.
Have spoken to OPC today and they say that there is no problem with charging the battery whilst connected to the car (11 amp charger). I've charged it this afternoon for about 4 hours and the needle hasn't dropped at all - it's charging at full whack. I've got a hydrometer which I'm going to use when I've got some sort of charge back into the battery. I intend to resume charging the battery first thing tomorrow (no garage!).
I'm sure that something has drawn the charge out of the battery very quickly on this occasion "" as she's never done this before. The battery is three and a half years old from new "" MY 06/2003.
Am I expecting too quick a result from my charger? I'm still a little unsure about charging whilst the battery is connected. Any thoughts on this lot? The car has an extended OPC warranty. Thanks. Adrian.
 
had the same problem on the same year of car last month. It had been sitting in the garage for 2 weeks and when I went out to drive it the battery was as flat as a pankake. I used a trickle charger overnight and for the whole of the next day and the battery was fine. You can connect them with the battery in siteu but to be on the safe side I did disconnect the terminal leads anyway. I was a bit worried about this as I had heard horror stories about needing the keycode etc to reactivate the Bose system etc but it was fine all worked without a hitch when reconnected. The cause of my flat battery was leaving it in the garage for 2 weeks with the interior light on, something I did not discover until I charged and reconnected the battery. Stupid thing to do but I did it [:D] same year of car 2003 c2 cab.
 
There are 2 aspects to battery performance at work here:
1) The AH (ampere hour) rating - typically 90AH. What this means is that if the battery is totally flat (it won't be, but for the sake argument) it will theoretically take 9 hours to fully charge at 10 amps. Of course, what actually happens is that the charge rate is high when it is discharged and drops to more like 1 or 2 amps when approaching fully charged. 11 amps for 4 hours is 44AH, but not all of that will be retained by the battery - in practice, more time will be needed.
2) The cold crank power - typically the amount of current that can be supplied to the starter motor. The older the battery, the worse this figure becomes.

As batteries age, they tend to hold less charge (the AH rating) and supply less total current when starting. 3 to 4 years life is fairly typical for a normal construction battery, and an inability to hold a charge for long is one of the early symptoms of imminent failure, so yours may be due for replacement.

As for charging whilst connected, so long as the charger is providing decent DC power at a sensible voltage (typically just over 14v), you should be fine.
 
This seams to happen alot, i tend to leave my car this time of year for a month at a time and what i do is leave the car unlocked, it is garged and to date i have not had a problem saying that it has now sat there for 6 weeks so may be flat, but normaly no problem.

Phil
 
I had the same problem on my 996 c2, sat in the garage for 4 week, went to start it yesterday and the battery would only just about crank the engine over, I had the car on a trickle charger suppled by porsche, so when it didn't start I was surprised, I did a voltage test 13.1 volts, then I did a hydrometer test on each cell and the found the first 5 cells ok, but the last cell would not lift the hydrometer float, this was why the battery would not hold a charge, the battery was fine when I layed the car up about 8 weeks ago, the battery has been in the car from new, so it is 4 years 8 months old, time for a new one I think.
 
Well that's that sorted out. 5 of my cells were also fine but the 6th was completely knackered (unusually the one nearest to the negative terminal) - not even trying to float the hydrometer. I have just been informed (from a very good source) that the original Porsche batteries are "useless" - unless they're used all the time. Apparently even Porsche UK have acknowledged this and say that they are a weak link.
Anyway, I've just relieved myself of £65 for a Varta battery with a 4 year warranty. No way was I even going to consider the Porsche option.
Thanks to all who got involved! I'm going to get myself a Ctek maintenence charger - soon!
 
Have a look at this one!

http://www.vertar.com/battery-chargers-conditioners/car-battery-chargers/ctek-multi-xs-3600/
 
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