How to check battery condition?

[Stridey]

i have managed to goose an 
Odyssey Extreme PC680 Battery by leaving it for a week without being on the trickle charger and something draining it. (Probably immobiliser) Trickle charge won’t revive it. 

I picked up a PVR 25 I had and swapped it over, started car fine. Trickle charged it overnight, everything good.

...however, I can’t remember when I got the PVR25 or why I swapped it for the Odyssey.  It may have been with the car from when I bought it 3 years ago and replaced when going through alternator problems...

So how can I reassure myself as to condition of the PVR, I have a multimeter. It reads 12.8 at rest...?

Or do I bite the bullet and spend £100 on a new Odyssey from Tayna? Bearing in mind winter is coming...

Or any similar sized alternatives to consider? 

[elie boone]

try a normal battery charger, or ask a garage to put it on their big charger, that should bring it back to life. some info about Odyssy recovery http://www.odysseybattery.com/documents/ODYSSEY_Battery_Reconditioning_Charge_Procedure.pdf

[Jonathan Kay]

Trickle charged it overnight, everything good.

Is that a dumb trickle charger or a smart conditioning charger?

So how can I reassure myself as to condition of the PVR, I have a multimeter. It reads 12.8 at rest...?

That's a sealed AGM type so topping up isn't relevant here.

Measure the battery voltage:

1. At rest... that's 12.8V
2. Minimum during cranking (that's a convenient high load)
3. At 3,000 rpm (to check that the charging side is working).

Jonathan

[Jonathan Kay]

Or do I bite the bullet and spend £100 on a new Odyssey from Tayna? Bearing in mind winter is coming...

Or any similar sized alternatives to consider? 

My recommendations, including how to order a PC680.

... assuming that you aren't going for a lithium battery yet.

Jonathan

[Golf Juliet Tango]

Mike

You have my sympathy. Whilst the Crossflow can sit for weeks on end and still start well, the K Series set up in the 21 does not start after a week of being left alone.

I think this is unacceptable but, hey ho, that's the way Caterham Cars send them out. If we want these cars, which we do, we have to put up with this lackadaisical approach to electical design.

I put an isolator across the earth (so not like a proper race isolator) and this sorts it out (pretty much).

[SM25T]

Connect a good battery in parallel (+ to + and - to -) with your dud Odyssey. Then connect a normal battery charger to them for a day ... not a trickle charger.

[Ivaan]

Check the parasitic drain.

Take off the earth lead from the battery and connect your multimeter from the battery -ve to the earth.

Multimeter set to read amps, to see what the drain is. ( hopefully less than 50 mA )

Then pull out each of the fuses / relays in turn to find out what's causing the drain.

I recently had a similar problem, which turned out to be the indicators rather than the immobiliser.

Clive.

 

[Stridey]

Cheers for the tips. I’ll try to resurrect the battery using another one. 

I’ve  also ordered a new battery from Tanya, not a 680 but their ‘alterntive’, a BMW bike battery. Same size and a review by an 1.8 Exige owner swung it (and keen price).

if it’s not up to the job I have other uses for it and replace the 680 like for like.

im just wondering what killed it. It may have been a night out not in Garage that tipped it over, but hey ho, not the end of the world.

i do have a lithium ion battery booster anyway, so fingers crossed it will get me out of trouble. Lastly I have a voltmeter display on passenger kneepanel so I can check alternator kicking in.

fingers crossed.

[Sooty]

I have specialist battery testing kit which I use in my hobby business and am an approved battery test centre for lead acid and lithium batteries.

Odyssey and other racing batteries loathe parasitic loads so you need a battery isolator such as FIA switch if you are going to use Odyssey etc.

 

PM me if you want battery testing (graph/ report provided). I am based in Wolverhampton.

[Jonathan Kay]

Great offer. I think you could be very busy.

Would that be on the basis of bringing batteries to you rather than equipment you could lend?

Thanks

Jonathan

[Sooty]

Happy to help would need the battery off car and fully charged. Discharge test takes upto an hour and battery output is measured every 3 seconds until output reduces to 9 v for lead acid or 10 v for lithium. I charge  £10 for testing though when I replace golf trolley batteries fromstock I lose the test charge. Most 7 owners will want to buy from Tayna so I would have to revover my time as I am not in the business of stocking automotive/ racing batteries

[Jonathan Kay]

Thanks

Jonathan

[Stridey]

To add to the Blatchat database....

So, yesterday was the 7s first long(ish) trip to Brands Hatch.

When I first got the 7 I needed to diagnose an alternator fault so in my wisdom fitted a digital voltmeter on the passenger side knee panel. This is visible from driving position.

i monitored it and seemed fine, but figure dropped and dropped, then all of a sudden it would go up again. It never dropped too low, and would creep up.

on return journey it hovered around 12v but never shot up to above 13.8. In the Dartford tunnel I could see the alternator red light gauntlet glowing, imperceptible in daylight.

Today I checked everything.... earths, alternator plug and belt.

Lastly I double checked the battery terminals and found the Earth side slightly loose. Cases I think by me not tightening it fully against the earth strap and the extra ring earth that go to the cigarette lighter and voltmeter. I nipped it up fully. And more.

so.... started car and immediately saw the voltmeter was at 14.2v. On a drive it showed me battery was charging and as electrics kicked in, fan, lights, indicators I saw the figure drop by .1 each time

So, all seems good so far...

i think the digital voltmeter is a good addition for fault finding.