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race battery help
beaver34 - 30/12/12 at 04:23 PM

hi all,

i have issues with starting my car with a red top 25 size battery

the battery at the moment will not charge its not old maybe a year and hasnt been used much and i leave it on a optimate when not using but it ran it dead at the rolling road by leaving the fuel pumps on and it hasnt been used since.

any tips for bringing it back to life?

also do they work ok with car engines mine a 1.6 turbo last thing i want is to not be able to start the car!

thanks alastair

[Edited on 30/12/12 by beaver34]

gavin174 - 30/12/12 at 04:59 PM

sorry cant help with reviving the battery..

but thats the battery Rally Design recommend for my 2.0 zetec so should be fine

PAUL FISHER - 30/12/12 at 05:18 PM

Usually the red top race batterys will not recover if you let them drop below about 5 volts

beaver34 - 30/12/12 at 05:26 PM

quote:
Originally posted by PAUL FISHER
Usually the red top race batterys will not recover if you let them drop below about 5 volts


wil check what voltage it has

how many people run these batterys with no issues?

beaver34 - 30/12/12 at 06:28 PM

battery has 12.75 volts across terminals but wont start car?

any ideas?

ive connected a spare big batter that has 12.50v across and that spins it like mad fire up fine!

britishtrident - 30/12/12 at 08:25 PM

In current UK ambient temperatures 12.5v under no load indicates a full charge 12.75 is a slight over charge.

A volts drop (under load) test will probably show the battery has a dead cell. With dead cell the battery voltage under a heavy load (ie either using a specialist tester or just cranking the engine on the starter) will drop more or less instantly to just over 6v.

A heathy but discharged battery will show 11.5 to 12v with no load on it but under the test load will fall steadily to about 8v and will continue to slowly drop.

beaver34 - 30/12/12 at 08:31 PM

So if I connect it back up and put it Nader load and see what it drops to?

Sounds like its had it anyway but will check

britishtrident - 30/12/12 at 08:41 PM

quote:
Originally posted by beaver34
quote:
Originally posted by PAUL FISHER
Usually the red top race batterys will not recover if you let them drop below about 5 volts


wil check what voltage it has

how many people run these batterys with no issues?


Always put a discharged battery on charge ASAP especially if deeply discharged charged the battery should be charged a a low current rate.
A deep discharge is when you use more than 30 to 40% of the charge in the battery, i.e. when notice the engine is turning over more slowly .
With any type of car/motorcycle/aircraft/plant battery every deep discharging both reduces the amount of charge the battery can hold and shortens the life of the battery, by recharging immediately at a slowly rate the amount of damage done to the battery is reduced.

Mr C - 30/12/12 at 09:27 PM

I've done the same with a year old odessy gel battery and made some enquiries, Not sure if yours is the same, but here's my plan:

An automatic charger will not recognise that the battery needs charging so you could try piggybacking another battery on it it when starting the charging process after a few hours disconnect the piggy backed battery.

The other thing to try is to connect a larger battery (lorry or similar) across the flat one and give it a "shock" for a few seconds, this may be enough to get it to accept a charge or blow it up!!

There is also a dedicated Gel battery charger which you could purchase at considerable cost, still not guarunteed to bring it back to life.

I'm tryimng the first two options then buying a new battery. I'm also fitting a battery isolator so as not to drain the battery between use, apparently they hold a charge for months.

All the best with it.

beaver34 - 30/12/12 at 09:30 PM

thanks for the info

going to test it tomorrow when cranking as when stood its has over 12.5 volts

will report back with the results

if it is then dead is it worth using the same type again, the car has a cut off switch and i have a smart charger in the garage for when its not in use

or just fit a small normal car battery?

britishtrident - 31/12/12 at 08:57 AM

Battery choice depends what you want to use the car for and how much space you have and how much you want to spend. You won't be doing sub-zero winter starts with it so a large motor cycle battery or a smallish car battery will work. If it is for track use or just summer weekend runs then a big motorcycle battery (ideally 17ah or 19 ah) if you want to use it everyday then a car battery of 25ah (as used by Caterham) or larger will be big enough to prevent an embarrassing non-start in the the supermarket car park.