Alternator or battery fault?

[haydn callow]

Cold Cranking Amps

[g8dhe]

Continuing the story of flat batteries. Today at Mission Control we have had not 1, not 2, but 3 separate enquiries about flat batteries. As usual, I refer to a bit of paper stuck on the wall, tell people to avoid Halfrauds, and go to a good local Auto Factor and ask them for either a 95 a/h or 105 a/h battery type 068 or 249.

A few minutes ago, 1 of these autofactors rang and said, for future reference, we should ask for type 335. Which was a tad confusing.

Can anyone out there with a knowledge of the various battery reference numbers clarify what all these numbers mean. And what is a CCA ranking (cold crank something???).

Yer, well that's the Battery Council International (BCI) for you, they seem to exist to make a profit only I think rather than to inform

Batteries of this type are grouped into a code that the BCI publish each year, its a quite complicated code, the numbers specify the sizes and terminals and hold down methods into groups that should be compatible. Here is a link to the Battery Replacement Book - 2007 . You will often find that several group numbers will of course actually fit any vehicle, but the specified one "should" be the relevant one. However there always seem to be more group codes than are ever published in the above book!!

Along with the BCI Group code, is the Cold Cranking Amps and the Capacity (reserve), all three sets of information are needed to make a sensible decision as to what to fit.

For more info I suggest looking at these two Wikipedia articles Car Battery and Lead Acid Battery as starters, however there is loads of info. on the web, its just not all in one place!

[bigdaddycain]

Interesting stuff... I must start my bongo up for a bit i reckon!

Now i'm going from memory here, so feel free to shoot me down in flames (at least it'll warm me up ) I don't pretend to understand how a failing striplight tube can drain a battery when the light is off, but the fact remains that numerous forum members at one stage had power leakages (for want of a better term) resulting in a flat battery over time... When one member (i think through desperation, tried everything else) fitted the new tube, the battery stopped becoming flat over time! The other forum users tried the same thing and had the same results... I've searched and searched and can't find a SINGLE relevant thread in the archive though... I might have dreamt it up!

[g8dhe]

I don't pretend to understand how a failing striplight tube can drain a battery when the light is off, but the fact remains that numerous forum members at one stage had power leakages (for want of a better term) resulting in a flat battery over time... When one member (i think through desperation, tried everything else) fitted the new tube, the battery stopped becoming flat over time! The other forum users tried the same thing and had the same results... I've searched and searched and can't find a SINGLE relevant thread in the archive though... I might have dreamt it up!

Yup, I've seen it mentioned several times, and yes its not an obvious fault but having fitted a second striplight in the front Cab area I can understand how it could possibly happen.
The lights are directly connected to +12 volts, either to a L/B or to the S/B via Fuse 1 which is always live. The light itself is controlled by connecting earth via the three position switch to the electronic inverter (standard transistor based oscillator), however the lights base is a piece of sheet metal that is earthed via the screw mountings, my suspicion is that moisture / condensation causes tracking from the base metal onto the PCB which is attached to it and hence causes a current to flow, even when turned off, its not sufficient current to get the oscillator running and light the lamp itself but is enough to flatten a battery over time. Now I can't prove this hypothesis without laying my hands on such a faulty light, but its my best guess.

[francophile1947]

Interesting stuff... I must start my bongo up for a bit i reckon!

Now i'm going from memory here, so feel free to shoot me down in flames (at least it'll warm me up ) I don't pretend to understand how a failing striplight tube can drain a battery when the light is off, but the fact remains that numerous forum members at one stage had power leakages (for want of a better term) resulting in a flat battery over time... When one member (i think through desperation, tried everything else) fitted the new tube, the battery stopped becoming flat over time! The other forum users tried the same thing and had the same results... I've searched and searched and can't find a SINGLE relevant thread in the archive though... I might have dreamt it up!

Relax Ste, you're not dreaming - I was one of them I guess there must be some sort of short circuit in the tube, but not enough power to light it

[mikexgough]

Here is the Yuasa Cross reference table - If you have a Japanese battery under the JIS standard......it has the replacement....... for Bongo...its is 068 or Yuasa 030 (This was thee replacement for the JIS Jap battery fitted according to this table) or ...... 249 - Yuasa 335..... for a bit more welly....

http://www.yuasa-battery.co.uk/automoti ... ssref.html if it is a help......and it has the DIN equivalents too....

[B*Witched Blingo]

And and Den had the same problem. I think it was earlier this year. I'm sure it was them.