Is it time to change battery?

My diesel Land Rover had four batteries and four alternators over 22 years and there is nothing wrong with the fourth battery today but the engine has failed. Perhaps we should change alternators every fourth year at the same time as changing batteries? While we are at it, best to change engines every third set of batteries. Of course not. These things should be changed only when they are on the point of failure, whenever that is. Certainly not at set intervals.

Huw

So does my 97 Primera original battery, spins up fast as ever.

The worst battery I ever had was a brand new so called heavy duty one (unheard of manufacturer) from a motor factors, bought in an emergency after a 9yr old Yuasa one died suddenly. It only ever turned the engine over at half the speed of the Yuasa.

The distinction needs to be drawn between a workable solution and the

Hands up, how many of you stick to "five veg a day", eh? Well, "suit yourself" is what I'd say!

Ah, now, we are talking about two different things. The smart charger is for recharging a depleted battery (could be near its minimal working capacity), and the alternator for topping off a fully charged battery (probably at or near its maximal working capacity) that has just been used heavily in its cranking capacity and is returned to its fully charged state within minutes, if not seconds. At least that is what the alternator is designed for.

Using the alternator to recharge a depleted battery works but is not the

That's only part of what the alternator is designed for.

Its other (main?) function is to satisfy the electrical loads of the vehicle.

Some vehicles (certainly recent Fords) do not use a regulator within (or externally mounted to) the alternator. Charge regulation is controlled by the ECU, and uses a similar "smart" strategy.

Chris

Chris

I'm humbled in front of somebody who is so disciplined. :o) Five veg a day. You are the first person I have come across who is sticking to this best practice to gain good health, according to the government health directive. I'm still waiting to meet the first person who is sticking to the best practice of replacing his old car battery strictly every 3 years. This will almost certainly avoid the drama of a push start, a bump start, or whatever to get a dead battery working, possibly in a most unwelcome situation. It's your choice: a few more years of saving money, a drama in anticipation, or peace of mind. Take the option that suits your personality/inclination: "Suit yourself!" That's what I meant.

That's good news. It appears to me that for a meagre £20 (Okay, it was a bit more than this a few years back), the car makers have not been taking seriously recharging the battery properly in situ. Without a smart recharging strategy from the alternator (through a new 'battery management module'), the fate of the battery is doomed.

Given lead acid batteries have been around as long as the internal combustion engine - and despite the hype have changed very little - they would have had a life measured in hours with a dynamo if this was the case. The important thing is never to allow the battery to go to deep discharge, and never to overcharge it. There's no reason to charge it to 100% capacity either. So a decent car alternator manages pretty well without fancy control circuits.

Methinks he means 3 stage charger. Although technically the alternators a

However it has way more current available, so even in short spells it'll do a better job. 3 stage chargers where designed for sealed gel batteries, which get used in standby applications & hence suffer sulfation fairly often, they;re almost entirely pointless on a car battery. (They're quite good for keeping your vintage motor topped up)

You're allowed fruit & fruit juice as well, that makes it fairly easy.

YMMV but I would say 10 years to be pretty good value for money even if it's possible to squeeze a bit more out. From my own experience a car that starts on the button will not always show any obvious signs of failing until more often than not on a dark winters morning in minus freezing your bollox off weather with the bonnet welded shut in a layer of ice.

Oh, it's nothing to do with discipline. I just enjoy eating a wide variety of things that happens to include fruit and veg. I was doing it long before it was an EU recommendation. (NOTE: Not a directive from anyone!)

I don't remember anyone advocating changing a battery every *three* years. I always wait until cold-start cranking gets a bit slow, then shop around for the best value replacement. In 42 years of motoring, I've only had a non-start caused by battery failure twice.

Chris

And according to the sandwich I bought from Tesco: "Use by 4/1/2007". Even though it'll be good for at least a week after that if you keep it in the fridge. But no, no, don't do that, bin it so we can maybe get you to buy another one so we can make more profit out of you!!!! :-)

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember Alex Buell saying something like:

Tutre koblocls.

While looking up some information entirely unrelated, I stumbled on this: "Intelligent Battery Monitoring From BMW", news dated 2006-10-18

Which isn't actually a bad thing. I'm currently in the process of implementing something that'll do this amongst other things. Looking at the starting voltage over time.