jimmyslr Posted October 5, 2003 Share Posted October 5, 2003 I have an Odyssey (sp?) 680 as often recommended here. For reasons I cannot quite work out the engine is still loathe to start from cold (turns over sluggishly on starter and won't fire) - Emerald related maybe, still not sorted cold starting - will discuss that on another thread. The answer seems to be to whip off bonnet, jump leads to one of my old Banners and bob's your uncle. Lots of engine whirring and it fires. This seems to suggest that all I am short of is "grunt" from the battery. It starts fine once less than cold. My thought is to wire an additional (larger) battery in parallel that could be removed for track days and the like where weight is at a premium and the car not cold, but which would avoid painful bonnet on/off antics early in the morning. I would use maybe a bigger Odyssey. Could the alternator live with this? Essentially it would be just 2 haevy duty power cables from additional battery to terminals on existing one. Thoughts? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AMMO Posted October 5, 2003 Share Posted October 5, 2003 I think your problem is not battery related (unless the battery is faulty). I have an Odyssey 545 which is smaller than yours and I have no problem starting a Zetec. Have a look eslewhere for your problem. Potential areas are bad earths, dodgy starter motor, bad alternator or insufficient charging, alarm or immobiliser draining the battery, faulty igniton switch. You don't say what engine you have. If it very high compression or the engine has a lot of drag (clearances and tolerances towards the small side, tight end floats) then you may need a bit more umph. Try an experiment when the engine is cold. Make a lead with a female spade connector, disconnect the spade connector from the starter motor, attach the cable to the starter motor and touch the other side of the stripped cable directly to the positive terminal of the battery. If with the ignition on it starts the engine immediately you have an electrical fault somewhere. If the problem is the same then look at the battery (it may have a dodgy cell or not being properly charged) or the starter motor is not as good as it should be. Hope this helps. AMMO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimmyslr Posted October 5, 2003 Author Share Posted October 5, 2003 Looks helpful. Will experiment. Engine is 1.8k VHPD (ie 190hp, SLR engine). It is now sporting an Emerald and also has the oft mentioned relay fix re hot starting / clicking. I don't imagine it's anything to do with the Emerald; whilst I haven't fixed the cold start settings that would give a poor firing/idle not a tendency to tun over too slowly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimmyslr Posted October 5, 2003 Author Share Posted October 5, 2003 Oh yes, no alarm or immobiliser used either and I had a look at earths the other day. Also, battery is fully charged and the Banner (also a new one) had same issue so don't think it's battery related. I think you might be right re checking wiring, could be master switch. That being said, why would wiring only be dicky when cold? Might point to something nasty in the starter. Bu**er. Any other SLR owners have similar issues? Is it my "cold tolerances"? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter Carmichael Posted October 5, 2003 Share Posted October 5, 2003 I have looked at this a lot. Sometimes the voltage drop on cranking is too much for the electronics. Two batteries can be arranged with a device like the STO-P Power fault protector. In this case you can leave the main battery doing the cranking, and use a fill in to keep the electronics happy. The problems lie in hooking into the existing wiring loom and also choosing a battery technology that is suited to the duty cycle and charging provisions. From looking into this, NiCD are no good because of memory issues. NiMH don't have the current capacity, so I have been looking at some dry lead acid cells from DMS Tech. It might be possible to rig this to get a running battery configuration down to below 1 kg. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony C Posted October 5, 2003 Share Posted October 5, 2003 How are you checking the charge state of your battery? Are you certain it is in fact fully charged? Just getting 13 volts is not good enough - the battery could be knackered BRG Brooklands SV 😬 It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye. (Antoine de Saint-Exupery) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tricky Posted October 6, 2003 Share Posted October 6, 2003 .... and another thing. With everything "off" remove the earth led from the battery. Conect the multimeter in serise with the battery (on the current range) and the earth lead. There should be zero or very little curent drawn less than 0.1 amp. Anything more and you have a fault. Don't forget to remove the meter before doing anything else. Tricky Academy 2003 Group 1 Number 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CHRIS CLARK Posted October 6, 2003 Share Posted October 6, 2003 I had a start problem with the Emerald set-up. The battery voltage had to be top notch , ie. just off charge befotre it would catch & start. Karl altered the way that the unit 'looked' for the flywheel pattern (I was using a 1400 'K' one from a Metro eng) and it sorted it. I also had running on problems as the Emerald 'held on' leaving the engine running even after the key was turned off & until the voltage dropped to about 3 volts. This meant that the alternator kept the Emerald on line until it got to that 3 volts. I have heard of others that have a problem if the cooling fan is running at the time of turning the key off, & then the eng also keeps running for a very short while. He altered a component (surface mount resistor) so it would 'die' with about 5,8 volts. Problem solved. No run on problems with the cooling fan etc. Depending on the age of the unit (new ones are supposed to be modified but who knows) I'd contact Karl rather than go extra weight/complication of two batteries. I use the std Banner one and it's no problem. Good Luck Clamshell Club Founder Member. Edited by - CHRIS CLARK on 6 Oct 2003 20:28:43 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimmyslr Posted October 6, 2003 Author Share Posted October 6, 2003 Interesting variety of responses, but would any of these Emerald issues account for what seems slow turning over of engine at cold, but fine 2 mins later at the petrol station after I've driven down the road? Battery was tip-top on both occassions (is both new and charged with Optimate, plus I checked volts, evil though that measure might be). The suggestion that I think gels most with my issue is something about engine being "stiff" from cold, something which limits the starter's ability to spin it up. However, never had these problems on the Mems and some form of engine stripping isn't high on my list of fun solutions! Who is Karl? One of the Emerald guys? Seems like another logical query to add to my list. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KenEvans Posted October 6, 2003 Share Posted October 6, 2003 If you're sure the battery is in top condition and that you have an unidentifiable drain then one of these would save you a lot of hassle. Ken Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
7Convert Posted October 7, 2003 Share Posted October 7, 2003 My Dad's got one of those on his boat - works well apparently. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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