Silver Machine Posted May 29, 2020 Share Posted May 29, 2020 Banner battery. Charged every few weeks since November. Charger shows fully charged. Get the classic click,click,click when trying to start. Battery reads 12.83v but when engine cranked reads 2.4v. Is it time for a new battery? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Jonathan Kay Posted May 29, 2020 Member Share Posted May 29, 2020 Private Messages x2 sent.Jonathan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SM25T Posted May 29, 2020 Share Posted May 29, 2020 Check liquid levels in each cell. Then do a search in here for 'click'. No point in typing it all out again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
revilla Posted May 29, 2020 Share Posted May 29, 2020 If your battery drops from 12.8V to 2.4V when you turn the key I would say it's probably past its best. Oddly mine failed in the same way a couple of weeks ago. Fluid levels all good, charger said it was fully charged, open circuit voltage good, turn the key and the lights went out. New battery sorted it. Next day delivery from Tayna. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nickh7 Posted May 29, 2020 Share Posted May 29, 2020 Talk to Dave Gemzoe, Gemzoe Motorsport his battery info on FB site is very useful. Bit more expensive than a Banner but does a better job Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nickh7 Posted May 29, 2020 Share Posted May 29, 2020 Talk to Dave Gemzoe, Gemzoe Motorsport his battery info on FB site is very useful. Bit more expensive than a Banner but does a better job Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elie boone Posted May 30, 2020 Share Posted May 30, 2020 I have a Varley that is 15 years old, after 1 year i was able to start my engine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Silver Machine Posted May 30, 2020 Author Share Posted May 30, 2020 Many thanks for all your advice. A jump start from another car worked so I guess the battery is dead. Checked fluid levels and all seemed ok. I suppose the drop to 2.4v on cranking was the big giveaway for a shot battery but it might well have been a poor connection. Many thanks to Jonathan for your email. I would guess one of our members will know what is wrong with the battery. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curly Posted May 30, 2020 Share Posted May 30, 2020 Sorry for the slight hijack..Have another problem with a non sealed battery - I over filled the cells (my mistake) and it overflowed in the car :-(So I want to move to a sealed battery but have a few questions..Would you go for a Varley Red top 30 or use it as an "excuse" to change to the Lithium 5? Or is there a better battery to choose?If I go for the Lithium 5, I believe I cannot use a CTekMXS5 maintenance charger - is that correct -what is the best equivalent one?I will be taking the car to Australia once the housing market restarts so need include that in the planning.CheersCurly Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elie boone Posted May 30, 2020 Share Posted May 30, 2020 A Red top 20 will do the job and i think it's the same height of a Banner battery, with a wooden block you can space out the width. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Area Representative Piers300 Posted May 31, 2020 Area Representative Share Posted May 31, 2020 Before you buy a new battery, I would clean up every earth connection. The one from the block to chassis gave the best improvement and all others. When I did this to mine, I had a dramatic increase in voltage drop on cranking. If no improvement, then a new battery needed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Silver Machine Posted May 31, 2020 Author Share Posted May 31, 2020 Thank you Piers300. It would be sensible to give the earth connections a good clean. Don't think that job has ever been done and it is 1997 car that I have owned for 17 years. Out of interest I checked fluid levels were all ok and charged battery for 24 hrs using conditioner/charger. Voltage read 12.9V. Left for about half a day and rechecked voltage and it read 9.2V. Battery was disconnected throughout to eliminate the possibility of any drain to anything. Looking at the connections one or two of them would benefit from a clean. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Area Representative Piers300 Posted May 31, 2020 Area Representative Share Posted May 31, 2020 So if the battery reads 9.2 volts after settling and unconnected, then you have a Cell gone down. When charging,it will read about 13.2 volts and should settle to around 12.5 volts approximately. You need a new battery. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Area Representative Piers300 Posted May 31, 2020 Area Representative Share Posted May 31, 2020 When I had starting problems on my 2004 K, I spend two years trying to find the problem. The best improvement I got was cleaning ALL the earth connections to improve the volts drop on cranking. As with you car, it had never been done before. My problem turned out to be simple, a bad earth connection on the ECU. S & C found the problem in the end. I documented it on here under A Reluctant Starter. It’s quite a long read. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Silver Machine Posted June 1, 2020 Author Share Posted June 1, 2020 Will set about a new battery and do some terminal cleaning. Thanks for advice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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