ninja_geezer Posted April 2, 2015 Share Posted April 2, 2015 can anyone tell me if my battery is faulty on car.when i have been for a drive and park up ,with just the ignition on i get a reading through the aux port of 12.3v when i check in the morning i get 11.6v seems a large drop ,i do have a dash cam wired in on a power magic pro but now it wont even last the night before it cuts off because of the battery getting to the 11.8 cut off point.for the first 3 weeks when i had the dash cam i had no problems. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary.J Posted April 2, 2015 Share Posted April 2, 2015 What sort of journey do you do? If you do a lot of short journeys, the battery tends not to be fully replenished from the power drawn by starting the car. It's even worse at night in the cold as you have a draw from your lights, any heating elements, radio/cd, and your dashcam which mean the battery is charging more slowly. Your power magic pro and dashcam are drawing from the battery overnight. I'd suggest a decent run, or maybe a charger attached once in a while just to keep it fully charged. If you think there is still a problem, then take it back to Ford. They can test the charging circuit, and the battery health. Either that, or get yourself a multimeter, and do some investigation. You can check the car is charging, and the actual battery voltage. If you know how, you can also check what is being used by the car, with the engine off, and so calculate what is causing the loss. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ninja_geezer Posted April 2, 2015 Author Share Posted April 2, 2015 What sort of journey do you do? If you do a lot of short journeys, the battery tends not to be fully replenished from the power drawn by starting the car. It's even worse at night in the cold as you have a draw from your lights, any heating elements, radio/cd, and your dashcam which mean the battery is charging more slowly. Your power magic pro and dashcam are drawing from the battery overnight. I'd suggest a decent run, or maybe a charger attached once in a while just to keep it fully charged. If you think there is still a problem, then take it back to Ford. They can test the charging circuit, and the battery health. Either that, or get yourself a multimeter, and do some investigation. You can check the car is charging, and the actual battery voltage. If you know how, you can also check what is being used by the car, with the engine off, and so calculate what is causing the loss. Hi Gary yes lots of short journeys,i will give it an overnight with the ring smart charger i have i think see what happens. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
troy45 Posted April 2, 2015 Share Posted April 2, 2015 The voltage reading taken from the battery after the engine has been run will be artificially high due to surface charge so it's never a reliable indication of battery health. Also with ignition on a lot of the electrical system will be drawing current, which pulls down the voltage reading. To get a good indication of the health of your battery you'd either have to put the battery under load to remove surface charge, remove all electrical loads and re-test after battery has had some time to recover (bit of a faff in simple terms) or leave it ideally for 24 hours and retest while disconnected from the car. Or, plan B, wait till you run into problems actually starting the car before taking it to the dealer - start up cranking is always the most severe loading on the battery so if it can handle that it can't be in too bad shape. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ninja_geezer Posted April 4, 2015 Author Share Posted April 4, 2015 The voltage reading taken from the battery after the engine has been run will be artificially high due to surface charge so it's never a reliable indication of battery health. Also with ignition on a lot of the electrical system will be drawing current, which pulls down the voltage reading. To get a good indication of the health of your battery you'd either have to put the battery under load to remove surface charge, remove all electrical loads and re-test after battery has had some time to recover (bit of a faff in simple terms) or leave it ideally for 24 hours and retest while disconnected from the car. Or, plan B, wait till you run into problems actually starting the car before taking it to the dealer - start up cranking is always the most severe loading on the battery so if it can handle that it can't be in too bad shape. Thanks .just took the multimeter and took a reading from the passenger fuse box and permanent live is 11.8v and with ignition on it drops to 11.6v the battery has been on a conditioner for 48 hours as well ! to me i would expect at least 12.4v what do you think ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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