Technical Batteries

[306maxi]

tbh I think you're just delaying the inevitable by doing a charge. Your battery is getting to the end of it's life and will probably need replacing before the end of this winter.

 

[123barney]

Yes, your quite right and I did think there may be problems, so I imagine that if a new battery is bought it would have to be rigged up connection wise to the old battery during the swop to keep all the electronics happy, tricky job though making sure all the leads are well connected during the operation, I am unhappy though taking it to my "friendly Fiat dealer, when I can get a good deal on Bocsh batteries.

 

[306maxi]

I'm not quite sure what problems RUI was talking about, but you shouldn't really have any issues with a battery change or even taking it out to charge it, though as I said before, you're just delaying the inevitable if you charge the battery.

 

[RUI]

I'm not quite sure what problems RUI was talking about, but you shouldn't really have any issues with a battery change or even taking it out to charge it, though as I said before, you're just delaying the inevitable if you charge the battery.

If it is a start and stop it will need reconfiguring at a fiat dealer, I am sure also other people have said they have had flashing milage and other problems after leaving the battery off for a length of time.

 

[Most Easterly Pandas]

If it is a start and stop it will need reconfiguring at a fiat dealer, I am sure also other people have said they have had flashing milage and other problems after leaving the battery off for a length of time.

Nope, shouldn't do, surly thats what all these sensors are for, to tell that the battery is now correctly charged

 

[306maxi]

If it is a start and stop it will need reconfiguring at a fiat dealer, I am sure also other people have said they have had flashing milage and other problems after leaving the battery off for a length of time.

I don't think start & stop was on pops till 2010 though

 

[123barney]

My 1.2 pop 59 plate is the bog standard pop and I am very pleased with it, but this very cold weather and deep snow is preventing any chance of a decent run out to charge things up. I used to think that a well maintained battery would last about 5-6 yrs but perhaps these standard fit ones are not up to the job these days. We do seem to live in an age of throw away mentality though, much to the delight of manufactures.

 

[ahmett]

My 1.2 pop 59 plate is the bog standard pop and I am very pleased with it, but this very cold weather and deep snow is preventing any chance of a decent run out to charge things up. I used to think that a well maintained battery would last about 5-6 yrs but perhaps these standard fit ones are not up to the job these days. We do seem to live in an age of throw away mentality though, much to the delight of manufactures.

My Fiat OEM battery lasted me less than 2 years! (at least they covered it under warranty).

But yes with all the electric gizmos in cars these days and batterys being built to questionable standards you will do very well to stay on the same battery for 5-6 years.

 

[bgunn]

Nope, shouldn't do, surly thats what all these sensors are for, to tell that the battery is now correctly charged

If you take the battery sensor off the -ve battery post, and place it on a new battery, you have to reinitialise it to store the 'at rest' voltage of the new one. It's important that the new battery is given a full/slow charge before being fitted/used also - and sufficient time to allow any surface charge to drain.

 

[Mondaugen]

If you take the battery sensor off the -ve battery post, and place it on a new battery, you have to reinitialise it to store the 'at rest' voltage of the new one. It's important that the new battery is given a full/slow charge before being fitted/used also - and sufficient time to allow any surface charge to drain.

How is the reinitialising done and how long is ‘sufficient’?

 

[bgunn]

Reinitialising is done with Examiner. Sufficient time for surface charge to dissipate is one of these:

1) Allow the battery to sit for between four to twelve hours to allow for the surface charge to dissipate
2) Turn the headlights on high beam for five minutes, shut them off, and wait five to ten minutes
3) With a battery load tester, apply a load at one-half the battery’s Cold Cranking Amps rating for 15 seconds and then wait five to ten minutes.

 

[306maxi]

Interesting

 

[123barney]

Reinitialising is done with Examiner. Sufficient time for surface charge to dissipate is one of these:

1) Allow the battery to sit for between four to twelve hours to allow for the surface charge to dissipate
2) Turn the headlights on high beam for five minutes, shut them off, and wait five to ten minutes
3) With a battery load tester, apply a load at one-half the battery’s Cold Cranking Amps rating for 15 seconds and then wait five to ten minutes.


Quite frankley I cant see all that being done by a Fiat garage or any other for that matter. Halfords are advertising a battery change "buying a new one from them" for £6.99, If they did the 500 would it start up and drive away without instrument lights flashing if it did at all.

 

[bgunn]

Quite frankly, that's why there are an increasing number of faults with S&S equipped vehicles - or any that have battery sensing.

It's not difficult or any more time consuming, people just need to ensure they follow the correct technique.

 

[123barney]

Quite frankley, I am glad as said previously, that I dont have stop-start on my pop.

 

[bgunn]

Why? It works perfectly well, and is hardly difficult to work on.

 

[306maxi]

Why? It works perfectly well, and is hardly difficult to work on.

I agree. I would happily have it in my 500

 

[306maxi]

Have just fitted my new battery tonight, that is after charging it with my new Ctek MSX5 charger. Old battery was still OK and will go back on after a recondition with the charger, going to see if the charger can revive the Subaru's battery after it's been standing for more than 6 months and when the battery was already knackered 6 months ago........ Fingers crossed!

 

[306maxi]

If like me you don't use your car sometimes for several days at a time, then you might want to consider investing in a CTEK smart charger:

http://ctek.com/gb/en/chargers

I recently bought one for my own car. I got the MXS 5.0. It is a superb bit of kit, Swedish made and very small compared to the chargers of old. They aren't particularly cheap, the MXS 5.0 costs around £53 from places such as Amazon, but they are worth every penny if you want to prevent a stuffed battery through leaving your car unused for days or even weeks at a time.

Mine is connected even now as I type, with the optional 2.5metre extention lead which runs to the charger in the garage. It's great that I don't even have to remove the battery from the car, I have a CTEK Comfort indicator lead permanently connected to the battery and the Comfort extension lead plugs directly into that, fed through the grille on my car so even the bonnet stays correctly closed. The car battery is fully charged and is only given a 'pulse' charge to top it back up if the charger senses the battery requires it, otherwise the charger stops charging and effectively remains in standby mode.

I can't speak highly enough of this bit of kit. Modern cars use can use quite a bit of juice from the battery with the alarm/immobiliser constantly sapping power when the car is shut down. Not only that, if you aren't doing long enough journeys to keep your battery fully charged up, then it is going to be more difficult to start the engine, especially in sub-zero temperatures.

I just wanted to highlight Frupi's post, the Ctek charger appears to be a fantastic bit of kit, Bgunn was saying how his msx10 revived a battery on his Audi which had been sitting for months, it's just taken little more than 90 minutes for my msx5 to run through a reconditioning charge on the 500's original battery and it took it about 2 or 3 hours last night to run through a regular charge on the bosch battery I bought in this thread which had been sitting around for nearly 4 months. Car starts much better with the Bosch battery in it. Going to get the battery off the wifes Subaru tomorrow night and see what the charger can do with it, suspect it'll be a bloody long charge to get it back to health.....

 

[Most Easterly Pandas]

Is it worth investing in one of these then? Whats the difference between the 5.0 and the 10