Very Stange Battery Issues.

[paulrichardson]

The Van Battery (not the Leisure battery) on my MK7 Camper conversion has gone bonkers.

It often goes flat after not being used for a while (even with a Solar panel and a Mains charger) but it has excelled itself this time.

When I walked passed it yesterday it was buzzing from under the bonnet and three of the warning lights were flashing on and off.

The battery was flat (no central locking) I opened her up put the key in and turned it "as if to start" and the buzzing stopped, turned it off and the buzzing started up again.

A few more turns of the key and it stopped. I had to go out so left it to look at the morning.

I was messing about with the chargers (I have 2 CTECs one for each battery) and the horn went off for about 10 seconds frightening the begeezers out of me.

I have no idea what could be causing all this behaviour, the battery is now disconnected while I figure out what to do next.

Any ideas would be MUCH appreciated.

[Altransit]

From your description, my experience, and assuming there is only a single battery in the standard setup ............ it needs replacing.

Modern vehicles do some very strange things when the batteries are at end of life

[gotgcoalman]

To confirm battery health don't use a multi meter use one of these

IMG_20251020_205008.jpg

Sent from my LE2101 using Tapatalk

[paulrichardson]

tester.jpg

I found this one on Amazon, looks identical, just a different manufacturer name, it's £13.99 is that a fair price?

[gotgcoalman]

Very good.

I paid more than that many years ago

It'll let you know if the battery is buggered even if it's showing 12v+ when you load test it

Sent from my LE2101 using Tapatalk

[paulrichardson]

[quote="gotgcoalman"]Very good.

/quote]

Great stuff, I'll get one on order and checkout both my batteries.

[Altransit]

Great stuff, I'll get one on order and checkout both my batteries.

Just to confirm, you only have one van battery, and the other is a leisure battery, not directly connected to the starter battery

[paulrichardson]

Just to confirm, you only have one van battery, and the other is a leisure battery, not directly connected to the starter battery

That is correct

[bortaf]

Possably the ign switch, known weak point, maybe it's not fully switching off ?

[paulrichardson]

Great stuff, I'll get one on order and checkout both my batteries.

Just to confirm, you only have one van battery, and the other is a leisure battery, not directly connected to the starter battery

I forgot to mention that I do have a Durite Voltage Sensitive Relay between the two batteries but I understand that that would be disconnected if the engine isn't running.

[paulrichardson]

Possably the ign switch, known weak point, maybe it's not fully switching off ?

Thanks for the advice, is there any way to confirm that it's fully switching off?

[paulrichardson]

Very good.

I paid more than that many years ago

It'll let you know if the battery is buggered even if it's showing 12v+ when you load test it

Sent from my LE2101 using Tapatalk

The Battery tester has been extremely useful, many thanks for the recommendation.

The leisure battery gets a good reading but the starter battery was 8 volts in the "BAD" section.

I thought I was going to need a new battery but I saw this on Amazon

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B094VQ88X2? ... title&th=1

I spotted the High Efficiency Pulse repair mode........

【HIGH-EFFICIENCY PULSE REPAIR】Automatically detects battery sulfation and acid stratification, take newest pulse repair function to restore lost battery performance for stronger engine starts and extended battery life. Note: can not activate or charging totally dead batteries.

I love Amazon's returns procedure, so I thought I would "try" one and it seems to be working a treat, the battery is presently in the yellow and heading towards the green.

It's looking like between the two devices I am going to be able to save my battery - RESULT!

[Radiofence]

Ive never in all my grand old days, witnessed a battery restorer actually restoring a battery. Even my optimate.
Just get a new battery and give your alternator a break.

[metalworker0]

Probably get a few months more out of them with the pulse gadget.

I seen this a while back on youtube, i think, should not be done with anything but a normal lead acid battery.

Run the battery down to nothing with the headlights etc. overnight perhaps .. it has to be dead.

Take it out and reverse charge it .. negative charger lead to positive, positive charger lead to negative.

The battery has then become a swapped polarity battery, it now works backwards.. the negative post is now the positive post and vise versa.

Doing this will make the deposits on the plates fall away into the bottom of the battery.

You then run the battery down to nothing again ---- not on the van .. with a head light bulb on leads or something like that.

Then charge it the normal way. Pos to Pos , Neg to Neg

This should also give you a few months.

Note batteries that have failed due to overcharging and have buckled plates are finished.

And because this is new to me (never tried it) .. and you .. the charging should be done outside with caution. goggles , gloves, ppe

IDEA = After the first stage, of opposite charging is it possible to turn battery upside down in a bowl and collect the acid and filter the silt out ... i don't know .

oh and never connect live leads up from the charger .. always connect them and then switch on at the mains, as spark may explode the hydrogen gas of a freshly charged , still gassing battery, ive seen this happen. not by me, was by my boss, when i worked at a garage when i was 16

all the best,.mark

[bortaf]

Pulse charging or desulfation mode will only clean the sulpher off the plates, that will get your voltage up a bit but once the plates turn into lead suphate they loose mass and hense capacity, you'll never get back all the cranking amps it had, they arnt quite snake oil, more missleading advertising or plain BS if it's a video on YouTube
Most of my solar staorage batterys are EX vehical batterys i desulfated and re used, cos my solar batterys only have low power drains on them not heavy loads like a starter motor the lower amp capcity isn't so much of a problem BUT they all die eventually.
On my camper the vehical batterys are solar charged and the charger does an equalisation charge once a month, similar to the pulse charge it keeps the plates clean of suphation but it does it by raising the voltage to 15 odd volts once a month (every 30 days), just having the battery into float every day certainly helps, my dayly runner has the same solar setup and the battery is 7 years old now and still sits at 12.78 after 48 hours off charge (IE no sun), very healthy for a new battery let aloan and old one, i have BT battery monitors on all my batterys