Battery Woes

[zcacogp]

Chaps,

I'm wondering whether there is any wisdom on batteries on here. My S2 is in need of another battery; it's needed a jump start several times in the last few days (>cough<, oh, OK then, several times today). Being only infrequently used for short journeys isn't helping, and neither is the fact that the weather is getting cooler, but I don't want to get stranded somewhere with a car that won't start.

I bought a battery for the car about 5 years ago, and would hope that I'd get more than that from it. However it was a Vauxhall Trade Club battery, and I'm not sure how good those are. I've splashed out on a Bosch whizz-bang 75Ah one as a replacement and am hoping for more than five years from it. Who else uses Bosch batteries? Are they worth the extra money?

Between this, a rebuilt cylinder head and some new suspension, my S2 is going to be a very expensive plaything this year. [X(]


Oli.

 

[blade7]

I've got a Varta blue dynamic on my turbo, receipt shows it will be 10 years old in December.

 

[bmnelsc]

There you go! Actually average battery life is about 6 months longer than the warranty (as per Excellence magazine) so use that info in your comparisons. I think you can extend the life of a battery by using a battery maintainer as nothing is harder on a battery than letting it get significantly discharged and then quick charging.

 

[brummie]

IMHO there is no doubt about top quality Varta and Bosch gold batteries. I have batteries on two Mercedes that are over ten years old and are in perfect order .One car is an every day car and the other a summer only car on a c-tech for the lay off period.

 

[Monkeythree]

Oli,
5 years from your last battery is actually pretty good considering your duty cycle. I don't know who makes the Vauxhall trade club batteries but it is probably Johnson Controls (JCI). JCI also make Bosch and Varta branded batteries and they are generally very good. I would expect that your shiny new Bosch will perform well and you should again get around 5 years out of it. 10 years is exceptional but does sometimes happen if a battery happens to built with particularly good plates and serves a duty cycles which suits its construction and capacity.
Cheers,
Tom (formally of Exide batteries)

 

[kasspa]

Check out carparts4less, it's the online version of eurocarparts + further discounted prices

hth

 

[Chrishazle]

Keeping the battery on a conditioner when the car is not in use makes a major difference. CTEK are the ones normally recommended, but every once in a while Lidl do one for £15, it's also had good reviews. Can't remember if the 944 battery is in the same place as a 968 coupe (rear nearside cubbyhole) but I was able to connect the conditioner and close the rear hatch when I had my coupe, the battery was about 10-11 years old when I sold the car - and still going strong!

 

[scam75]

I have been using Bosch S3 batteries and last 2 have only lasted about 2/3 years. Got the last one replaced under warranty. My car is used often, can be lots of short trips and some longer but do have a habit of driving it half a mile to the train station when I'm running late!

Stuart

 

[zcacogp]

Chaps,

Thanks for the answers. Tom - that IS interesting information, thank you!

I'm wondering (perhaps a bit optimistically) whether a new battery will help with the hot starting problem the car has, although maybe this is wishful thinking.

A CTEK charger would be a great thing but the car lives on the road and hence there is no easy way to plug it in. If I had a garage (or even a drive) then I'd have one.

Paul (Kasspa) - thanks for the suggestion, I bought it from CP4L (using the discount code they give you on the front page). It's hard to find the true price of an item, but I ended up paying about £75 for it, with delivery. That's still £75 I'd rather have in my bank account, but it's not the end of the world.


Oli.

 

[Eldavo]

Could you rig up a solar trickle charger and leave it in the hatch?

 

[Monkeythree]

Oli,
The best solution to keeping your new battery in good condition is to take the car for a decent run every weekend! Lead acide batteries hate inactivity and love being cycled from a lowish state of charge up to full and back again. In general terms, a car which sits all week but gets a blast at the weekend will likely keep its battery in better health than a car which gets used daily for short trips.

This of course all assumes that your charging circuit is working correctly and pouring lots of lovely amps into the battery when the engine is running.

 

[zcacogp]

Eldavo, I tried that, but the output from the solar panels was woeful. Really tragic. So low that they struggled to register on a sensitive ammeter when connected to the battery. But the cells were (in commercial terms) very low quality, the glass in front of them was too thick and the wrong type, and they were sitting behind the rear window of the car as well (use a working estimate of 15% loss with each sheet of glass the light comes through), so I shouldn't have been too surprised.

Tom, thanks. The snag is that the car simply isn't used that much. When I bought it I caught the train to work and it ran only at weekends, and never ran that well. I then had a client which involved driving 40 miles a day, three or four days a week, and the car benefited hugely; it started better, pulled harder, used less juice and was much more fun to drive! I now run a business from home and the car is driven once a week for two short journeys, and it's suffering. I know I need to drive it more, but rarely find the opportunity to do so. I priced up a Tesla as a replacement the other day and they are quite expensive, but it would suit my needs much better.


Oli.

 

[zcacogp]

Small update. (I guess that's an 'updatearette' or an 'updatearillo' for the Latin-minded types.)

I took the old battery out of the car on Saturday, discovered that the stickers on top of it peel off to reveal plugs in the tops of the cells (despite the stickers themselves proclaiming "Maintenance Free") and that three of the cells were slightly low on fluid. I topped them up with boiled water (no distilled water to hand) and put it on charge overnight.

I removed the big lead from the back of the engine to the bodywork and cleaned the connections on both ends up thoroughly, as well as cleaning the connection points on the engine and car, and did the same with the earth lead on the battery. Sunday morning I put the battery back in the car and it span better than Mr A.Blair's head spin doctor at the height of the Iraq war. It continued to start effortlessly for the rest of the day (another 6 times, with short journeys between each time.)

I am hence wondering whether I really need that fandango new Bosch battery that is due to arrive here today, and whether the problems I had were a product of poor connections, not quite enough fluid in the cells and lots of short journeys. I won't know for sure until I've used it a bit more, but I'm slightly optimistic.

So, here's an ancillary question; if I don't fit that Bosch battery, is it OK to leave it on the shelf in the workshop (i.e. not connected to anything), or will that cause it to slowly deteriorate?

Thanks,

Oli.

 

[Monkeythree]

Oli,
All batteries have a slow self discharge rate so if left unattended on a shelf, your new Bosch will eventually die. If you give it a good hard charge every 3 or 4 months, it will have a longer shelf life but you can only do this two or three times before it starts to harm the battery. So you might be able to store it good condition for around a year max but then it would really need some proper cycling to keep it healthy.

 

[zcacogp]

Tom,

Thanks, that's exactly the information I needed. To be honest, I don't think it will be sitting on the shelf for that long; I expect that I will learn within the next couple of months whether the existing battery is at the end of the road or not and swap them over if necessary. If I can get another year out of it before swapping it then I'll be happy, particularly given what you have said about my duty cycle being tough on batteries.

I'll see what the next few weeks bring. Thanks again for your help.


Oli.

 

[Waylander]

you know the answer Oli

drive the thing more often and a bit further

 

[zcacogp]

Yes! And a fine answer it is too! []

BTW, those screws are in the post to you as of today. Let me know when they arrive.


Oli.

 

[scam75]

Yes! And a fine answer it is too! []

BTW, those screws are in the post to you as of today. Let me know when they arrive.


Oli.

I will do! Many thanks kind sir!

Stuart

 

[zcacogp]

Final update on the scintillatingly interesting world of S2 Batteries. My optimism having cleaned the contacts on the major leads in the car and topped up the battery cells was misplaced; it was clearly not holding charge and needed jump starting repeatedly. I therefore swapped the whizz-bang Bosch monstrosity into the car and it's started fine ever since. More encouragingly, we were away last week and it started first turn of the key when we were back, having not been run for 10 days or more.

On that basis, I think the diagnosis of duff battery was correct and the problem is solved. Many thanks for your help chaps - particularly Tom (MonkeyThree).


Oli.

 

[zcacogp]

A final FINAL coda to this piece: aforementioned whizz-bang Bosch S6 battery failed on me three days ago. By 'failed' I mean it failed to turn the engine over quick enough to start, despite having been on a long run in the previous few days ('long run' = 3 hours, 'few days' = 6 days). In my typical organised style I had managed to lose the invoice and receipt and so contacted Car Parts For Less to ask what I should do. Long story cut short; they found a copy of my receipt and eMailed it to me, and instructed me to take it to my local Euro Car Parts along with the duff battery. I did this, and they changed it for a new one on the spot, no questions asked.

Lessons learned:

- Whizz-bang Bosch S6 silver batteries can and do fail well within their warranties (this one lasted just over 3 years)
- Euro Car Parts customer service is impressively good

I fear that the new battery will outlast my ownership of the car, which is a great shame. However it now turns over very fast indeed and starts effortlessly.

Thanks again for your help.


Oli.