AuthorTopic: My battery's flat ..............................  (Read 1296 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline boogieman

  • Posts: 192
  • Attack: 100
    Defense: 100
    Attack Member
  • Karma: +0/-0
  • Referrals: 0
My battery's flat ..............................
« on: August 23, 2008, 20:10:54 »
Well, I don't think it's a real problem but just wanted your imput on this before I charge it & get it checked out to see if I need a new one.

 I've had my Grand Cherokee for over 16 months & never had a problem starting. It's garaged & often only gets used every couple of weekends. This time however, due to me being laid up in hospital, I haven't used it for about 5 - 6 weeks & when I tried to start it I just got the clicking. Now some time ago when I had an AA man round getting my Tranny going ( battery was dead !), he told me he & his fellow AA-ers quite often got called out to GC's with flat batteries. I think he said it was when they weren't used that often the battery became discharged because the computer was always active - or something was always draining the battery - & he said it should be disconnected if the car wasn't going to be used for a while. I never experienced that problem until now with the long period of inactivity. Anybody hear anything similar ?
 Anyhow, now I've got to charge my battery. I've only ever done this on pretty basic cars but never with a car loaded with electronics like the GC ! I'm aware of the disconnect earth 1st & reconnect it last, but as when I reconnected the battery after charging on my Defender, is the alarm likely to go off when I reconnect ? It frit the life out of me 'cos the siren was right next to the battery under the passenger seat & the noise was deafening. Subsequently, I've stuck a rag in the siren to muffle it & had the remote at hand to shut it straight off !!! :rolleyes:
 The other thing is - when I reconnected the battery earth on the Defender, I got a bit of a flash when the lead touched the terminal, presumably because the alarm was instantly switched on - I'm aware that accessories should be off whilst reconnecting, but had no on/off switch for the alarm - so the question is, can I expect any flashes when reconnecting the GC battery & should I just put the terminal on quickly & firmly ?
 Any advice welcomed - I know it's pretty basic stuff but I really don't like anything to do with electrics on cars - even though I've fitted enough stuff in the past - including towbar electrics & alarms & radios & never had a problem - it must be my age !!!  :lol: :smiley:

skip

  • Guest
Re: My battery's flat ..............................
« Reply #1 on: August 24, 2008, 02:27:59 »
All modern vehicle put a continual drain on the batteries, e.g. security systems. Most people don't experience the same problem you have because they use their cars more often.

The best solution is the one commonly used in the motorcycle word. As you'd probably guess alot of riders park the bikes in garage for the winter and due to bike batteries being apparently more delicate, the solution is to use a fully computerised trickle charger that just gets plugged in and forgotten about until you need the bike again.


This is one of the most commonly used charger/maintainers  http://www.accumate.co.uk/it010001.htm

Offline boogieman

  • Posts: 192
  • Attack: 100
    Defense: 100
    Attack Member
  • Karma: +0/-0
  • Referrals: 0
Re: My battery's flat ..............................
« Reply #2 on: August 24, 2008, 19:12:39 »
Thanks skip - I'll definitely consider one of those. Seems a good solution.  :smiley:

 






SimplePortal 2.3.5 © 2008-2012, SimplePortal