So our “good” car, a Honda FRV 2.0, didn’t get used much this winter and now the battery is completely flat when I do go to use it.
I think the battery is three years old and is a reasonable brand. It starts off the jump pack ok but I’m not doing any big mileage to fully charge it up at present?
So the first question - just buy a new battery and stop fannying around with a jump pack - £50ish from Tanya or can I save this one?
Second question - solar trickle chargers, do they work?
a 3year old battery that's discharged completely should bee replaced IMHO
No idea about solar (I think they do but not lot of power) - have you tried charging the battery properly either with a charger or go for a decent drive?
If it's gone completely dead then I doubt there's much coming back from that. If it's £50 for a new one then I wouldn't put too much effort in!
Second question – solar trickle chargers, do they work?
Yes but they won't charge a dead battery. It made the world of difference to me when I had Capri's, Opel Manta's, rusty old Volvo's etc. It went from 'will it or won't it' to firing up every time.
Never used one on a modern car but they are full of crap which are a constant drain so they might be worth it.
I just have mine almost continuously connected to a trickle charger bolted to the front wall of the house. Every 3-6 months I do a recondition. My car is used maybe once per week and can occasionally go a month without moving. It's a big engine (3.0l) and the battery is 5y old and doing fine. The current draw is minimal for the charger.
I've got a solar charger for the car (Driven 3-4 times a month, enthusiastically, battery is probably past it's best and could do with replacing) and the best it managed over the winter was it 'Slowed' the discharge, now we are getting more sun it appears to be slightly charging the battery. It is on the dashboard, against and parallel with the inside of the screen, I'm assuming it loses a little efficiency by being through glass, its a 'Semi' intelligent charging system to stop over charging and regulate the voltage, 30W.
I've tried using a charger to charge and recondition the battery before adding the solar charger and it still steadily drops over the space of a few weeks.
They do work .
If being parked up for any time I would remove the car leads from the battery and just have the charger on the battery
I had one and used it via the cig lighter port for charging...I have to say it was crap.
The car I had at the time was a Jag Epace....tbh we hardly used it , hence the solar trickle charger because was showing the low battery sign...one day I took it out for a long run down to Brighton beach about 50 miles away, parked at the seafront solar charger in full sun for 6hrs and still the low battery sign stayed on...rest of the time the solar charger was plugged in on driveway soaking up the morning sun....and for 8 months from the low battery sign to the day I sold it on ,the low battery stayed on still..imo the charger did sweet fa
My car gets used infrequently. It's just stood for 6 weeks which is pretty typical. I was getting the 'stop/start battery needs TLC' messages more frequently so I just stuck it on an old Optimate I had lying around. No bother, no messages. Many garage flavoured pounds saved - hopefully.
I had one and used it via the cig lighter port for charging…I have to say it was crap.
So you had a ****ed battery and this is the solar chargers fault ?
I had one and used it via the cig lighter port for charging…I have to say it was crap....
...and for 8 months from the low battery sign to the day I sold it on ,the low battery stayed on still..imo the charger did sweet fa
I'm not an auto electrician but I'd have thought the cig lighter would have been on an accessory circuit so almost all the time the ignition wasn't on it'd be isolated from the battery. The circuit on my car only stays on for 15 minutes after the ignition is switched off iirc. Which might explain why it didn't charge your battery.
Hopefully someone else with a bit more knowledge can chip in.
A small solar trickle charger is only ever going to maintain at best, not fully charge anything, there’s only a few milliamps getting to the battery.
Our MH has 2 x 150w panels on the roof to charge the leisure batteries and a b2b charger that picks up the spare charge and diverts it to the driving battery, and that only just keeps pace with the discharge if its left un-driven for months over the winter. It does work though as without it, the battery would be too flat to start in 2-3 weeks left un-driven.
I had one and used it via the cig lighter port for charging.
I’m not an auto electrician but I’d have thought the cig lighter would have been on an accessory circuit so almost all the time the ignition wasn’t on it’d be isolated from the battery.
Think you are right there. Moist cig lighter ports are switched live rather than permanent live.
one day I took it out for a long run down to Brighton beach about 50 miles away.
from a shagged battery to a fully charged battery will take a lot more than 50 miles. My last car had a low battery when the kids left a door open in the garage all weekend. Took about 300 miles/6 journeys/6 hours before the warning stopped appearing every time i keyed on after the initial jump start, and probably half that before the stop start worked again. And that was a 6 month old car with a smart battery charging strategy.
And yes, typically, the 12v socket in the passenger compartment is switched, or timed to go off after 3-5-10 minutes. The one in the boot is typically permanently on. Or linked to battery voltage threshold.
Can't help specifically with this problem but when I flattened the battery on my old Volvo, it took 5 hours of motorway driving to recharge completely so a quick run definitely isn't enough.
