Save Yourself The Headache!

It is such a pain when your vehicle won’t start, especially if you are rushing for work!

That’s exactly what happened here for, in this case, a commercial Dyna diesel lorry.

And this kind boss here, is not the first time we have worked on his vehicles. He always calls us back, because we know how to get his vehicles moving again.

Foregone conclusion here is that there is something draining power in the vehicle. When you see a voltage reading this low, that’s ALWAYS the case.

Some of you out there think that a battery will discharge when it is left without charging for an extended period. Well yes, but also no, because self discharge is so slow that a 12V battery will remain above 11V even after one year left on the shelf! So when you see 0.9V, yes that’s a vampire (that likes to suck your power).

So what could be the cause of this? Where is the vampire? We always try to look around for the reason why, so that we can save our customers the headache of having a new battery drain till they cannot start. Of course, if you have read our Top 5 Reasons Why Car Cannot Start, you would say: “It could be the vehicle’s alternator not working well and not charging up the battery.”

And in this case, we found another couple of probabilities, see videos below as we reported to the boss! (Yeah we called him bro because, well, I think he likes us. We presume much!).

Battery Power Vampire Suspect Number 1

A door that is left ajar can trigger the cabin lights to remain on. And in more classic vehicles without smart systems, the light can go on without you knowing, so be careful.

In newer vehicles, the car will fail to lock when you press the lock button, so you get a reminder to shut all doors fully.

But as we worked, we found that the above may not be the case. Why?

Battery Power Vampire Suspect Number 2

Because we found in the rear compartment that there are two switches in different positions, and one of them has to be on.

We left them as they are, because once we change to the new battery, we can then see if anything running with the switches just as they are.

And so we go about changing the vehicle battery, sadly, for this boss, the one that was completely flat was only 1+ month old at the point this happened. We would like to save him some money, however, a diesel lorry is difficult to jump start as they need high CCA, but not just that, the vehicle’s battery was only at 0.9V which makes it impossible.

Adding power to a battery that still shows 10-11V is possible to get some cars started, but not for those at 0.9V.

And as we changed the battery, the moment the second of the two terminals touched the new battery, this happened.

So yes, we found the cause of the battery drain. Before you car owners out there say, ha, I do not have a light switch like this  or even a load bay like this in my car, do check check again. Some cars do have a separate boot, and in that boot, some cars have a dedicated light switch that can power on the light in the boot. Good to know!

And of course, the happy end of it all, vehicle starts and we report the good news to our customer!

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Happy to Report This

But Not So Happy News This

So as promised, we said we would let you know what happened when we try to recharge a vehicle battery that is totally discharged.

It recovered on it’s own to only 5V when we shifted it back to the office for charging. That might be a good sign it may still be usable, after all, it is only one month plus old.

And this is after charge, where we test with a professional battery meter, not just for volts but amps that it is able to produce when it needs to crank start.

As you can see, it has suffered a 24% drop in life even after being fully charged by a wall plugged automated digital charger. This should not be the lifespan showing on a one month plus battery.

Due to the chemical process of sulphation that happens when battery is left in a discharged state, the battery lead plates become coated with a powdery substance that reduces conductivity and increases internal resistance of the battery. All not good things.

These are some of our tips on how to car for your car battery.

So do remember, give you beloved vehicle a second glance when walking away!