I've been having a few troubles over the past couple of days with the electronics in the rada. For the second time today everything just died electrical wise when I went to start the car up, and I mean everything, door lights, dash lights the lot.

Anyway, I've got it running again both times by disconnecting the terminals on the battery and reconnecting. I've discovered that if I don't push the positive terminal all the way down (its about 5mm off touching the base of the terminal atm, it seems to stay connected and powered.

Now, over the past few weeks I've also started to notice it getting a bit sluggish with turn over, could the two things be related? I'm not sure how old the battery is, but it doesn't look all that old. I'm guessing corroded terminals are the issue for the sudden death of the power on those 2 occasions, but then the wiring hasn't actually moved at all as far as I can tell, it just stops as soon as you turn the key from accessories to start.

I'm thinking about getting a new battery, but I want to be sure it is the battery and not the alternator causing problems here. Any of you guys think this could be alternator related, or would you just put it down to a battery on its way out?

Cheers guys/gals and sorry for the long post! :D

could be starter motor... mine was doing the exact same thing.
turn the key, click and no power. played with the terminals and all better. happened many a time. but it just died on me, so a new starter is in.

get a multimeter, DC 20 setting and throw it on the terminals. 12V is the norm for the battery.

hard to say really. your best bet would be to jump down to an auto electrician who'll hook up his current reader thingo to the batt and around the place so he'll be able to tell you if its the battery or alternator. Its a 2 minute diagnosis, won't charge anything...

Hmm..I can get RACV to come down and do a test on the alternator and battery for free, might do that, easier than using petrol and going somewhere lol Battery is $90, Alternator is $300, fingers crossed its the battery:pray:

What am I up for if its the starter motor?

The way its connected at the moment is like the pic below (about 4-5mm off the bottom of the terminal) and its running, if I push the terminal all the way down, everything will die again, making me think its just the connection with the battery terminal at fault? All that has me stumped is it used to be pushed all the way down, and it worked like that fine, until it killed itself yesterday arvo and this morning (both times it had be driven shortly before).
http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r161/rhys_fairall/AMC/Photo-0019-1.jpg
Ignore that squashed metal prong sticking out next to the far nut, thats where the amp was powered from, has come out from my repeated removal and reconnecting..

give the terminals a good clean with a wire brush or some scouring pad... i found this to fix my problem. crap builds up inbetween the the connection and it wont get enough juice to start the car. it happened after i washed my engine bay.

I say connections. alternator will stop your car, but thats when the battery goes flat from lights etc....

i dont think a battery is intermittant like that. it works or it dont fullstop...

Hmm..I can get RACV to come down and do a test on the alternator and battery for free, might do that, easier than using petrol and going somewhere lol Battery is $90, Alternator is $300, fingers crossed its the battery:pray:
..

$300 for an alternator is a half-assed auto leccie doing a quick swap with a reco. It will either be a reg ($45 + fitting) or the rectifier diodes (PITA to replace, you have to remove alt) - very rarely will it be windings these days, unless you are really unlucky.

$300 for an alternator is a half-assed auto leccie doing a quick swap with a reco. It will either be a reg ($45 + fitting) or the rectifier diodes (PITA to replace, you have to remove alt) - very rarely will it be windings these days, unless you are really unlucky.
$300 is my mechanic fitting a whole brand new alternator. We're had it done to the TR before, and I've asked him about mine, we've known him for years now, he wouldn't tell us it was brand new if it was a reco.

brand new or reco, you're much better off just replacing the regulator. Save yourself some cash.

But in saying that i personally think its the battery, my car became sluggish to turn over over the course of about 4-5 days, then one morning nothing, completely dead.

But in saying that i personally think its the battery, my car became sluggish to turn over over the course of about 4-5 days, then one morning nothing, completely dead.
I'm thinking that too, I've discovered I can dictate when the electronics are and are not powered by how far I push down the terminal. So I'll be getting a new battery, hopefully will be in before the meet tomorrow night, or I'll be rocking up perhaps in the TR lol

Its been getting slower to turn over for the past few weeks now. I'd say compared to 3 or 4 weeks ago its maybe 1.5-2 seconds slower to turn over in the mornings. The amplifier wouldn't be draining the battery would it? It only appears to be on when the deck is running.

Hmm..I can get RACV to come down and do a test on the alternator and battery for free, might do that, easier than using petrol and going somewhere lol Battery is $90, Alternator is $300, fingers crossed its the battery:pray:

What am I up for if its the starter motor?

The way its connected at the moment is like the pic below (about 4-5mm off the bottom of the terminal) and its running, if I push the terminal all the way down, everything will die again, making me think its just the connection with the battery terminal at fault? All that has me stumped is it used to be pushed all the way down, and it worked like that fine, until it killed itself yesterday arvo and this morning (both times it had be driven shortly before).
http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r161/rhys_fairall/AMC/Photo-0019-1.jpg
Ignore that squashed metal prong sticking out next to the far nut, thats where the amp was powered from, has come out from my repeated removal and reconnecting..

90 bucks for a battery? wouldnt last long then.

90 bucks for a battery? wouldnt last long then.
Its through government discount through dads work, they're normally around $130-140 shelf price from what dad tells me. We've got one in the TR and in the work car, both work beautifully, the TR's is about 18 months old now and still goes like new so I'd say they're pretty good.

Anyway looks like I'll be testing out the car with another battery (Thanks Boozer) before I invest in a new one, I'll keep you guys posted on results :P

Its through government discount through dads work, they're normally around $130-140 shelf price from what dad tells me. We've got one in the TR and in the work car, both work beautifully, the TR's is about 18 months old now and still goes like new so I'd say they're pretty good.

Anyway looks like I'll be testing out the car with another battery (Thanks Boozer) before I invest in a new one, I'll keep you guys posted on results :P

ahh ok, thought you were gonna put a cheap paper weight battery in the verada :bowrofl:

Hi Lugo

Battery not a bad idea in my opinion. I'd be inclined to replace the battery terminals because they look fairly worn in your picture. As for alternator put a voltmeter across your battery with the engine running and see if it's charging (somewhere around 14V would be good I'd guess)


regards
Blake

How old is the battery?, if you have been giving it a hiding with an amp, you would have shortened its life. It may be in its death throws!
Take off the terminal clamps and shine up the contact surfaces of the battery post and clamp with some emery paper, or file.
You can check the charging system yourself (altenator & regulator) by putting a volt meter across the battery terminals with the motor running at a fast idle. It should read approximately between 13.5 - 14.2 volts.

Pablo

If it dies when starting but had power before you turn the key im goin to say bad terminal conection. You then mentioned if you remove the terminals and replace it will start..

Its a bad connection. best way to clean them is wire brush if not some sand paper to get the crap off your terminals and battery. just sounds like a real crappy connection.

Dude clean up your terminals or get an Optima :bowrofl:

Do we think cleaning the terminals up will improve the turn over time too, with a cleaner connection? If it won't I'll buy a new one anyway, its getting a bit slow for my liking now. I've got the battery boozer gave me to throw in after lunch, see how that performs.

If it's a crappy connection then yes, cleaning the terminals will improve the turn over time.
Check your earth's as well, a bad connection here will do the same thing.

Alrighty, I had the battery Boozer gave me in, turned over really slowly, but it started, had it running for about 15 mins in the garage, then drove down to autobarn about 10 mins from me to get something, stereo off the whole time (ie. amp off) to give the battery a chance to charge up, parked it at autobarn, came back out, flat. Enough charge to operate the windows and radio etc, couldn't turn the engine over. Had to put the old battery back in which thankfully was in the boot of the car, and its running as usual, positive half down on the terminal, running fine.

I know at least now the battery is the problem, so I've got a new one coming tonight :D Question is, with a half an hour of the engine running, should the battery have charged enough to turn the engine over again? I'm presuming the first crank nearly ran it flat because it nearly didn't start, I guess its lost a bit of charge in the last couple of months that its been sitting around.

I'm presuming the first crank nearly ran it flat because it nearly didn't start, I guess its lost a bit of charge in the last couple of months that its been sitting around.

the battery i gave you wasn't sitting around for a couple of months, it was taken out of my car on Saturday or Sunday. so i doubt it could have lost that much charge, i knew the battery was on it way out, but i could have lived with it for a little longer as it started my car all the time, except after long breaks that it would crank up then stall, but on second crank it will keep running. but hopefully for your sake, its an old battery that was at it end of its life and not something you have wired up wrong and is draining your battery.

Ooooh...didn't know that, thought you'd had it out of the car for a while....

Certainly didn't have much charge in it when I put it in, only just cranked the engine over. Kinda unsure as to why 30mins of the engine running didn't put enough back into it to crank it again though. None the less, the new battery is working perfectly atm, if I start having issues with this one installed, then I know I've got bigger issues, but everything seemed to point towards the battery, so hopefully this solved it.

Quote "Question is, with a half an hour of the engine running, should the battery have charged enough to turn the engine over again?..Un-quote
Answer, yes.,,,,, as long as the battery accepted the charge, AND, there was a charge for the battery to accept.
Have you checked the voltage across the battery terminals with the motor running yet?
Pablo

Have you checked the voltage across the battery terminals with the motor running yet?
Pablo

This is fundamental in testing the battery voltage !!!! That's how you narrow it down to the altenator problem / connection problem / battery problem / regulator problem / Bush's problem

Also why would'nt you just change your terminals instead of wasting time cleaning them, I think two brand new ones cost me $18 and the connection and overall feeling was alot better.

I have a theory

If you had a bad connection on the battery, I am thinking that it must have had compromised charging over time.

Each time you crank the engine, you are drawing on a compromised battery, thus shortening its life. My suggestion is to do the terminals and the battery together in one hit, to be sure.

regards
Blake

Have you checked the voltage across the battery terminals with the motor running yet?
Pablo
I haven't got anything to test it with. If I did I would have. Theres a brand new battery in it now, so far its turning over really quickly like it should, if it starts to get sluggish again I'll know whats wrong.

Thanks for the help guys.

Hey Rhys, a quick rough way to tell if the charging circuit is charging, is to turn on yer lights then start the motor. If the lights are brighter with it running, she's charging!
.......a little $10 multimeter is a good investment in anybodys tool kit.

Pablo

Tuffy has a multimeter.... :D