Battery oddment

pvr

pvr

Dutch
 Ruler of the South East UK
Have had the M on the CTEK tender since new, all the time.

Was surprised though that when I got to the car (not started for 3 months or so) that it seemed that everything was reset (clock dashes, counter 0 etc). The CTEK was still showing green so am surprised that the battery did not seem to be happy.

Still in for Insp I at the moment and the garage mentioned the battery showed low. Hmm.
 
How old is the battery ? If it is original maybe it has exceeded it's shelf life :?

Also, does leaving it on trickle for so long do it harm in the long term ? I know nothing about batteries in cars, but I do know that leaving your laptop plugged in all the time shortens the battery life.

Oh, and you need to drive it more :poke: 3 months :o
 
Do batteries have shelf life though, irrespective of how often they are used properly ?
 
Some of the higher end CTeks can do a "recondition" on the battery as well as just trickle charge it. I think they pulse a higher voltage for a while which removes sulphination.

Might be worth seeing if you could borrow one of these (I'm in Winchester if you're anywhere close) and see if it brings your battery back to life.

All batteries have a lifetime and no matter how carefully you look after them they will eventually die.
 
I know PVR's ctek conditions the battery. I guess like everything else batteries fail regardless of how they are used.
 
I was just surprised that when turning the key, all the counters had gone off whilst the car had been connected to the CTEK all that time. I would have thought that the power that it delivered would have been enough to keep the memory going.

Yes - original battery, but it would be the first that would fail with a CTEK attached to it. The Golf has had the same battery for over 10 years now with the CTEK whilst before it would fail after 3 / 4 years.
 
Is it possible the CTEK got switched off for a period of time by accident ? Someone using the socket for something else, or a power cut in the garage ? That would explain the re-set... Though not the poor battery power.
 
Nope, the charger is on all the time and I am the only one that comes in my kingdom, sorry - garage :D .

It has a dedicated power connection right next to the car as well (ok, sad - I know ...).

And I can see the tell tale of the charger when I lovingly look at the car whilst walking to the X5 :D
 
pvr said:
Nope, the charger is on all the time and I am the only one that comes in my kingdom, sorry - garage :D .

It has a dedicated power connection right next to the car as well (ok, sad - I know ...).

And I can see the tell tale of the charger when I lovingly look at the car whilst walking to the X5 :D
Click to expand...


:roll:


You know what, I could have guessed ALL of that if I'd tried harder :lol:
 
Here's my half baked theory. A sophisticated battery maintainer should not be sending any significant current to the battery all the time, that would slow cook the battery to death. Rather, it sends frequent test pulses to see if the battery's charge has dropped enough to warrant another charge cycle. I don't think you can rely on it alone to be a UPS for car electronics.

If the battery had developed a major defect, it could appear to be in a charged state to the CTEK, so it interrupts the charge current, yet the battery cannot provide adequate voltage for electronics, though it has plenty of current to spin the starter.

Just a theory mind you. I'm no expert in these things, but I do know enough to be dangerous. :roll:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom