Hi, I recently had some work done on my 2007 Freelander, this involved the gear box being taken out and work being done on the clutch, I had the car back for a couple of days without any obvious problems but one morning it would not start, just a clicking noise when I pressed the button. My neighbour charged the battery for me but after about ten hours the charger still said "charging" he seemed to think that was not normal. Anyway the car started so I left it running for about ten minutes turned it off and left it for an hour or two but when I tried to start again it was flat !! Is it just coincidence that the battery has given up after the garage visit or is it possible that they have not connected something properly ?
Freelander 2 (LR2) Dead Battery after being in Garage
- Thread starter Loublou
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freelance
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Modern batteries do seem to just give up without warning, is the batt more than 4 years old ? Or it might be draining through a chafed wire if they’ve been tinkering
Hippo
Lord Hippo
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Yer need to measure the battery voltage to see what's going on. When the engine is running it will be about 14.2volts. If it's say 12volts then it's not charging.
Yer also need to measure the battery when the engine is oft to see if the battery is holding its charge or if something is pulling it down when everything should be switched oft. Eggspect to see something like 11.5 to 12.5volts 20 minutes after it's switched oft and the battery voltage settles.
Yer also need to measure the battery when the engine is oft to see if the battery is holding its charge or if something is pulling it down when everything should be switched oft. Eggspect to see something like 11.5 to 12.5volts 20 minutes after it's switched oft and the battery voltage settles.
As Hippo said.
10 hours charge doesn't sound a lot, but it depends on the capacity of the battery, how discharged the battery was and the current the charger can supply.
Example
If the battery is rated at 80 Ah and it was flat, say down to 10.5 Volts. Then it's going to need a charge of about 12 hours, if the charger can sustain an 8 Amp per hour charge rate.
Many domestic chargers, charge at around 5 Ah charge rate, which would take over 24 hours to fully recharge the battery used in this example.
10 hours charge doesn't sound a lot, but it depends on the capacity of the battery, how discharged the battery was and the current the charger can supply.
Example
If the battery is rated at 80 Ah and it was flat, say down to 10.5 Volts. Then it's going to need a charge of about 12 hours, if the charger can sustain an 8 Amp per hour charge rate.
Many domestic chargers, charge at around 5 Ah charge rate, which would take over 24 hours to fully recharge the battery used in this example.
Thank you all, I have just been looking at the price of a new battery!! I guess I need to be sure before I buy a new one. Going to try charging it again. I have found a cheap voltage meter which I can get today. Am I right in thinking I just touch the battery connectors with the probes ? I don’t have to disconnect it ?
Charge the battery and start the engine. Then measure the battery voltage with the engine running. It should show at over 14 volts, with all electrical stuff switched on. If the voltage is below 14 volts then there's an issue with the charging circuit.
Hippo
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Yes. If yer can find an "auto ranging" multimeter it will be betterer than the type with manual volt selection fer different ranges of volts. And easier for yer to use. Tis a shame Maplin has closed.
Maplin was my favourite shop and it's a shame it closed. However the reason it closed was clear. It was just so expensive and moving away from its core customer base didn't help. Unfortunately Maplin lost out to on line companies big time. It became a show room for tech that was available for much less elsewhere and it's went bust as a result.
Hippo
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I agree but if peeps don't support the shops they will close. Imports have risen since brex** which Maplin couldn't offset. I guess they tried to follow the sales they had to keep going. Too many selling components online for little with no shop overheads.
guineafowl21
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You often hear that, and it’s undoubtedly true. But if the shops don’t provide the service, people won’t go.
They hiked the price of stuff far too high - I went in for some alligator clips well before Brexit was even on the cards. £4 for 4 of them, while on Amazon I could get a bag of the same (poor) quality for the same amount.
They lost that sale, but with sensible prices I might have browsed around and picked up a few other odds and ends. Instead I walked out in a bit of a huff. How many have done that over the past few years?
Infrared thermometer - £40 when the same Chinese-made thing is on Amazon for half that. And the serious electronics stuff got driven to the back in favour of crappy drones and novelty items.
Same story with Focus and Homebase - insulting prices for little things that drive people out. They then lose the ‘pick up a few other bits’ phenomenon that drives the engine of commerce.
Hippo
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Amazon is a dark dingy werehouse and much cheaper to build and rent out to peeps. A shop is more eggsperience to fit out and run. A shop has higher overheads than a warehouse. Commercial costs of shipping is dirt cheap compared to what the public pay. Discounters like Amazon have realised they only need to knock oft 10% to tempt peeps out of the shops. Before is was a much bigger discount. Amazon reduce prices by not paying correct tax due to schemes they run to avoid it, or pocket it themselves.
It was inevitable that they went really. I used to use them for all my electronic hobby needs when I was young. The catalogue was a repository for everything electronic, which included detailed circuit diagrams and component specifications. The prices were sensible and the mail order system was excellent, although a little slow.
In the early 2000s they moved away from the electronic hobbyist and went into general tech instead. This was a bad move imho, as many hobbyists, me included, simply stopped using them. I loved visiting our new local Maplin superstore, but only bought stuff if I was desperate for it. Otherwise I simply looked at what I wanted, then ordered the identical item for a quarter of the price elsewhere.
I don't think brexit has much to do with it myself. I'm more inclined to blame the internet and sites like EBay. I buy loads of cheap electronic gear off there. It mostly comes from China at a fraction of the cost that Maplin could sell it for. It's expensive having large superstores and lots of staff to man then. These online warehouses have little in the way of overheads, so can sell and ship items for a fraction of the cost if a UK retainer.
Hippo
Lord Hippo
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Start charging it. See if the voltage rises first. If it does then get the engine running once the battery is charged reasonably and see if the car is charging the battery on its own. Tickover is enough as batteries saturate when charging. It won't take that much current regardless of how much is available. It will only take what it wants from what's available.
freelance
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Charge it, they are not jumpstart friendly
I absolutely agree. I was, and still am into RC cars, and latterly quadcoptors. Maplin used to sell decent RC car kits, made by premium manufacturers and all the RC gear to go with them. Then out the blue, all this quality RC stuff went, only to be replaced by ready made "toy RC cars". This happened to all there products over the years. This is why they lost sales, as they stopped giving the purists what they wanted and started pandering to the throw away generation.
It's all very sad, but only the decision makers at the top are to blame.
Charge it as it's very flat. You need to look at the charger to ascertain it's output, and look at the battery to identify it's Ah rating. Then charge the battery for the length of time needed based on those figures. If you can't work out the time needed. Post the figures here and I'll work out the time needed for you.
teddywood1
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do not for get when you start you car it takes that much out of the battery and it takes approx. 20 minuets to put that start back in but winter is just around the corner so you will need a decent battery for then, also Maplin like a few other companies had stuff on credit and did not pay until it was all sold and people got fed up with waiting for the money that is why they closed .
