Damn Batteries

SaintsPaul · 5 Nov 2013

As this evening was quite pleasant I thought I would take a trip down to Bournemouth for the TIPEC meeting.
Open the garage, take off the cover, open the car, turn the key..........nothing !!!!!!

Bloody battery is flat :evil:

Its only been 4 weeks since I used it and the battery was new at the start of the year.
Looks like I will have to purchase a solar battery charger as the garage is remote from the house.
Or I use the car more often. But as much as that makes a lot of sense it is not always possible.
I did not think this car would be as bad as my E46 M3 for battery drain but she really is :sad:

chriscoates81 · 6 Nov 2013

Does your car have a tracker fitted? Im not sure how long a battery would normally last, drive it more

SaintsPaul · 6 Nov 2013

The car does have an old tracker fitted.
I have read on previous posts that they can be a drain on the battery.
Problem is it may be a pain to have it removed :dont know:

GT4 · 6 Nov 2013

A Tracker will mildly drain your battery (over 8/9 weeks).

A Tracker with a dead battery (too many recharges) will strongly drain your battery (just a few weeks or less)

SaintsPaul · 8 Nov 2013

A quick update.
Spoke to the technical department of Tracker today.
They confirmed what GT4 said that early (1st gen) tracking devices had a drain on the cars battery.
Due to this there was a change in the way the device was charged and the gen 2 trackers do not have a drain on the cars main battery.
My car is fitted with a gen2 device so removing it would make no difference to the drain I am experiencing.
Unfortunately the cars own systems will drain the battery in 4 weeks, so drive the car more or buy myself a solar battery charger.
He did also say that I would need a minimum 10v solar panel as anything smaller would have little effect on the battery.

Igurisu · 8 Nov 2013

Quick question, will an inactive tracker still be taking power from the battery?

By inactive, I mean I never renewed the previous owners subscription when I bought the car. I fitted a new battery 3 months ago, it hasn't failed but I have that nagging feeling sometimes.

GT4 · 9 Nov 2013

The subscription is just an entry in their P&L.

There is no deactivation or reactivation of the actual unit.

If you don't pay a subscription, you can still Track your car (if stolen etc), but the penal costs are meant to dissuade people from going down this route and only paying on the event (that's not how an Insurance premium business model works).

Rob Marsden · 9 Nov 2013

Damn batteries

I had a similar problem. Car now hooked up to a CTEK charger and no more problems.

Igurisu · 11 Nov 2013

GT4 said:
The subscription is just an entry in their P&L.

There is no deactivation or reactivation of the actual unit.

If you don't pay a subscription, you can still Track your car (if stolen etc), but the penal costs are meant to dissuade people from going down this route and only paying on the event (that's not how an Insurance premium business model works).

Thanks GT4, I thought that was the case. What I'm trying to determine is if a tracker uses charge from the battery, ie, is a a potential source of battery drain?

GT4 · 11 Nov 2013

Erm, still the same reply I gave to the OP.

Igurisu · 11 Nov 2013

GT4 said:
Erm, still the same reply I gave to the OP.

Doh

Note to self, read whats been written, thanks again.

mpowerrob · 11 Nov 2013

I know you said you cant get power to the garage but if you want a good charger id get a ctek 3.6 i bought one after having similar problems and its great you just plug in and forget best 50 quid ive sent in a long time, and it restored my battery from a deep discharge aswell.

the solar charger are crap i tried one and none are powerful enough to keep battery charged if you leave your car for more than a couple of days.

Think a charger is the only way if your only using occasionally like allot of us seem to do.

SaintsPaul · 11 Nov 2013

There are plenty of solar battery chargers up to the task.
Check out the Maplins website. Just depends how much money you want to spend.
I have just ordered the 5w version to see how that works.
The 10w version was £60 and best for batteries over 70aH.
As long as the solar panel is over the size of an A4 piece of paper it should be adequate to trickle charge the battery.
I intend to make more time for the car so the charger I have bought should help with the battery drain.

SaintsPaul · 9 Feb 2014

Due to the poor weather I have not got round to fitting my solar charger yet.
Drove the car about 4 weeks ago and thought to help the battery I would leave the car unlocked in my garage.
Went to get the car out of the garage yesterday and you have guessed it another bl**dy flat battery :sad:

What made it worse was I was due to take the car to have new rads, condensors and LTT fitted. Luckily the indi came to me with a booster pack to get the car started and took my car with them. Top effort Brookspeed :thumb:

Red993C4 · 9 Feb 2014

SaintsPaul said:
Due to the poor weather I have not got round to fitting my solar charger yet.
Drove the car about 4 weeks ago and thought to help the battery I would leave the car unlocked in my garage.
Went to get the car out of the garage yesterday and you have guessed it another bl**dy flat battery :sad:

That was counterproductive, unfortunately. Contrary to what intuition might tell us, these cars apparently use a little more current if left unlocked for a period than if they are locked normally and allowed to go into sleep mode by leaving them undisturbed for several (5 minimum?) days.