Starting Issue

[discojohnno]

Hi all,

 

Over the past 3 or 4 days i have noticed that the car takes a little longer to start up than normal however his morning the car wouldn't start at all, i just hear a clicking noise. My first thought was the battery as the battery has died on me a couple of times so tried to get it to jump start, this did not solves the issue.  So my thinking now is that it could be the starter motor but i have no idea how to check or where it is on the car, do any of you have any suggestions

 

Kind Regards

 

John

[T14086]

John, we really need to establish that the battery is good/bad before we go further.

Are you a member of the AA/RAC etc?

To test the starter you need is simple enough however it can be dangerous if the engine suddenly starts.....could also be a bad earth wire from battery to engine which will cause these symptons.

[QinteQ]

this morning the car wouldn't start at all, i just hear a clicking noise

 

the battery has died on me a couple of times

 

- [before you start looking for other problems] get the battery fully charged, does it start ?

- If your battery is older than 3 years its likely on its last legs

- if your battery when new was less than 70/700 its likely underpowered for a CRD GV

- if you only do infrequent use & short runs you will forever have starting issues in a GV

- lastly if you are having battery problems now in a few short cold weeks you will have no start at all

 

______________________________

 

You will get conflicting reports for myself any battery that targets 800CCA/80 [ish], and can, by way of cutting bits off the tray, be made to fit. Throw into the mix for consideration :

 

- lifestyle - frequent use - winter starts - duration [50 miles every other day] of recharge from the alternator - no intervention needed

- lifestyle - infrequent use - semi-permanent advanced microprocessor controlled battery charger such as the MXS 5.0 or LiDL eqivalent - intervention needed

 

I had this issue years ago, rang first to check stock, then went to Halfords, ordered their own recommended [put your registration in]  5 year warranted battery the HSB096 @ £129:99 while the nice clepto-cashier lady was emptying my plastic I flicked up the terminal covers to find the Terminals were the wrong way [o O - they should be - O o]  round.

 

 http://i40.tinypic.com/1y8j2r.gif

 

A 12 year old expert fully trained and certificated male assistant wiped the dribble from his nose and stormed out to my MOTA in the rain which was splattering against his thin bony shoulders making a mess of his over white freshly ironed~by~his~Mother .. .. shirt, all the time asserting in a very authoritative way why I way wrong and why it could not possibly be their 'fittings dBase', his matchstick like thin arms finally managed to lift the bonnet without breaking any of his arms only to find the common standard terminals.

 

I did try to help his embarrassment, honest I did, I even offered him one of my Wurthers Originals and assured him we all make mistakes .. .. its all part of life's long learning .. .. but I still wanted my £230 snots back and I wanted them now. So then I was back to where I started, I never in my life thought buying a correct 'soddin battery would be so much trouble. So don't believe what these 'enter your registration' dataBASE's tell you .. .. they are as good as the wo/man entering the DATA and I found three within minutes that were wrong, and one [in hope more that expectation] that's correct.

 

So I start the search again - this companies dBase correctly identifies the MOTA even listing the correct colour of my car etc and suggests 2 - both in the S range both will do the job , the;

 

S4010 / 12V, capacity 80Ah, cold test current 740A / £72:95 - 5 year warranty - free delivery

S5010 / 12V, capacity 85Ah, cold test current 800A / £87:50  - 5 year warranty - free delivery

 

My one remaining indecision was that though they list 315mm long, 175mm wide, 175mm high, the 315mm is about 27mm / 1.06 inches more than my current battery which will make the 175mm installed height of the battery a full inch closer to the sound deadening material on the underside of the bonnet [radiator side].

 

Put simply with low mileage runs, infrequent use, high non-use leakage and high in-use [Ah the amount of available energy in  the  electrical  circuit  is  directly  proportional  to  the capacity of  the  battery] draw a microprocessor controlled battery charger will deliver the biggest CCA bang on any day of the year at -5°C at a hundred quid. Alternatively a solar charger will replace most of the 'at rest' draw consumed, but can never deliver the 'biggest CCA bang on any day of the year at -5°C'. 

 

In the case of frequent long runs a smaller Exide type 96 with the terminals the right way round will suffice with little or no modification of the battery tray 96 is a 'group size' not a brand, .. ..  as in Yuasa / Bosch / Varta / Tanya all do a type 96 battery. My quote on Halfords [and others] was to warn that they all have a database where you type in your registration number and they tell you the type / physical size/ terminal / etc for your specific car. Its a load of round rolling things, miles away from optimum, they are useless at finding a big capability battery that will fit - which is why everyone ends up with a wimp of an underpowered tiny thing that fits under the bonnet but will never work in a Grand Voyager.