battery or alternator issue?

omodos · #1 11-02-2014, 12:47 PM

Hi everyne, this time last year my OEM battery of 9 years started to give up the ghost (so i thought). I had hesitant labboured starts more and more often as temps dropped, so I picked up a bosch silver plus on the 2nd dec 2014 plugged it in and all good....now 11months on and a sudden drop in temps here I found that I am getting the hesitiant start again, laboured start...

Now issue is I have never had any dashboard warning lights relating to the charging system having a problem. Could it be that i was sold an already dying battery that had been sitting on the shelf and is about to expire and no longer hold charge? they told me it had a gaurantee 1 or 2 years so I am going back soon, but can i get a multimeter out and stick across the + and -ve poles used to jump start the car, and use this to test volts as per table below both whilst car idle and running?

any input much appreciated

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Joshdub · #2 11-02-2014, 01:43 PM

Yes you can use those posts to measure voltage with the car running

omodos · #3 11-02-2014, 01:46 PM

thanks Hoshdub and can measure whilst car is also started i guess?

powers1 · #4 11-02-2014, 03:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by omodos

thanks Hoshdub and can measure whilst car is also started i guess?

Hi Omodos,

How are you,my friend?
Yes,you can and you must measure voltage with car running to see if alternator is charging.You should see between 13 and 14 volts.

With engine off and car in sleep mode, you should get between 12.1 and 12.7v.

If not much difference with and without engine on,then its your alternator is shot

omodos · #5 11-03-2014, 01:16 AM

powers1 been off the grid for both personal reasons and also the x5 didnt give me issues...hope u ok....now the x5 cold this a.m no ignition oand
the reading was 12.38v will try it the enigne started too and see volts....according to qsilver7 table in other posts 12.38v is like 60% charged....pretty damn annoyed to be frank 1 year old bosch (that may have been on shelf for god knows how long though before i bought it) thanks for feedback...
Also any ideas if I take out 'bad' battery how long can it be out of X before i causes issues....last time was a straight swap , so onlylost clock date etc...and had to trun steering full left and then right to get rid of abs error i think....

ps dont forget i got a diesel not sure if it could be something else

TerminatorX5 · #6 11-03-2014, 01:37 AM

even a spanking brand new battery can be bad right off the shelf... it is not just the voltage that you are looking at, but also the CCA, in other words, the capacity - you can connect 8 AAA batteries to read 12V, but we all know that those batteries will not start a car... for an E53 you should be looking at least at 700 Cold Cranking Amperes as a bare bottom minimum (totally stripped E53)... The battery should be in the vicinity of 800-850, even 900 CCA in order to perform right... my last ordeal, i bought a 900 CCA battery, it was reading 1030 CCA out the store, less than a month later, it was barely registering 700 CCA, so I returned it back to the store...

Use voltmeter on those terminals, to read the voltage before start, during start (to see how low the load of the starter will take the battery), and when engine is running. those are different measurements, in a stand-by state, you are looking at minimal draw from the battery, and you might see the voltage dropping if the battery is defective, or if one or more cells are defective... when the starter is engaged, the draw on the battery is enormous, and this is when the CCA come into play - the battery should have enough reserves to take the starter load and remain in the vicinity of 12V... and once the car is running, you are measuring the alternator output from the voltage regulator...

Seems that as temperatures drop across Northern Hemisphere, we are getting more and more battery posts... lol

good luck my friend

omodos · #7 11-03-2014, 02:11 AM

terminatorX5 thanks for reply, ok at cold and non runing it was 12.38V read through the jump start points in engine bay,

With engine started I get a 14.3volts stable regardless of what i turn on lights radio, heater etc...

the CCA i opted for a battery that 120ah not the standard 90ah and the CCA I am sure were better...hmmm what concerns me is having to read volts across alt now....not sure how....

omodos · #8 11-03-2014, 10:05 AM

Took it to a car electrician he says alternator fine and battery a tad on the weak side but should be fine...he says there may me a slow current leak...he did test the CCA though how do I check the CCA? via the obd? I can take the battery back to the store but if they just test the volts on it , it wil seem ok....hmmm

terminator x5 says The battery should be in the vicinity of 800-850, even 900 CCA in order to perform right... my last ordeal, i bought a 900 CCA battery, it was reading 1030 CCA out the store, less than a month later, it was barely registering 700 CCA, so I returned it back to the store...

bcredliner · #9 11-03-2014, 10:18 AM

The best way to test a battery is a load test. The place of purchase may be able to do that for you. Most here can and at no cost.

You can also real time monitor the charging system by unlocking the cluster.

Per chance, is most of your driving limited to short distances?

Is 1-2 years warranty the normal warranty in Cyprus? Here a good battery would have a pro-rated warranty for several more years than that.

omodos · #10 11-03-2014, 11:54 AM

Ta for reply, yup alas most driving is short distance...max 5miles a day, and during weekends a bit more, and then once a month go for longer drives...50odd miles

Ahh dont really trust the place I got the bosch from, the S4 plus bosch says its has a 4 year warranty, sellers told me it had 2 and nowhere on the battery could i see the date stamped on it, I checked today it has a sticker on the side denoting 2012 2013 2014 2015...bear in mind i bought this in dec 2013 looks like it already had been sitting there for 1 year why else would it have the year 2012 on the label? am a bit stressed now reading about diesels online cold be the starter switch some some or the glow plugs say others....

Quote:

Originally Posted by bcredliner

The best way to test a battery is a load test. The place of purchase may be able to do that for you. Most here can and at no cost.

You can also real time monitor the charging system by unlocking the cluster.

Per chance, is most of your driving limited to short distances?

Is 1-2 years warranty the normal warranty in Cyprus? Here a good battery would have a pro-rated warranty for several more years than that.

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