L322 MOT aarrrgh

Billaboard said:

Well, it went in to be checked and then MOT'd. A tyre had an egg on it, so it had to be jacked up to replace that. Then sailed through the test with just 3 advisories. It was delivered back to me with a drooping offside rear for me to reset the suspension with my trusty BMW tools.

Only it didn't come up after resetting. So back to the garage for an auto electrician to investigate. After three days they replaced a switch, and it was back here last night all level and looking good.

This morning in first light, it was locked and had to be opened with the key. Then the ignition wouldn't turn.
Checked the battery voltage - 4.7 volts. Put my new Aldi charger on, and it decided it was a 6 volt battery.
Dug out the ancient, dropped by my son-in-law, Davenset charger with the hole melted above the rectifier, and it seems to have come up to 12 volts after 3 hours, so put the Aldi charger back on.

Assuming (hmmm) it comes up and stays at a reasonable voltage, are there any things I need to do beyond turning from lock to lock to get it able to drive again.

I'm now off to try to find my clamp round the wire meter to see if that still works and detects anything.
If the battery got down to 4.7 volts, the odds are it's fecked.
I do enjoy working with electricity in the rain.

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Billaboard said:

I did have, and loved, the D1 that caught fire while being welded. Then had the Jeep emergency purchase that was gassing us all. Then I looked for a solid D1 or D2. Solid was the problem word, and I can see why there would be so few solid Discos for sale - why would you sell on?

The L322 was cheaper and up till now (17 months) has been fine.

Anyway, after 7 hours on charge, it started and the lock to lock cured the warning lights. The garage man is coming on his way home with his digital battery tester (not sure this is any better than my Frankenstein thing with two big prods and copper strip and a meter between them, but we'll see). It started and drove 10 miles from the auto electrician last night, so I wouldn't have expected the battery to be down to 4 volts overnight, but maybe everything is just a coincidental battery failure.

The alternator seems to be charging OK, although it seems to be charging at only 13.9 volts. When this is happening, the clamp meter records a charge current of 40 amps, which seems a bit high. I don't really trust that meter, though, as I can't get it to zero properly, although it could be that I don't understand the instructions.

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Datatek said:

Should be charging at a minimum of 14.5 volts at 2K rpm. Charge current can be a lot higher than 40 amps for a short time after starting

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Billaboard said:

Hmmm. The garage came with a battery tester, which said the battery was OK. The vehicle had been on charge all day yesterday and was still up to only 3 bars on the display on the Aldi charger, so left it off charge overnight.
It started fine this morning, and we used it for a couple of very short journeys today. This evening got a son to hold a meter across the connectors while I revved to 2k rpm, and he reported that it seemed to limit at 14.1 volts.
I have this usb adapter that also reads battery voltage inside the car, and it seems within about 0.1 volts of the meter reading in the engine compartment and has always maxed out at 13.9 or 14.0 volts. The clamp ammeter reads 40+ amps soon after starting the car (the instructions for the meter are unclear how to switch from the 40A to the 400A range, or what it does in "Auto" mode, but it was reading 40.7 amps).

The whole thing is a bit of a mystery. I cannot explain why the battery dropped to 4.7 volts over one night. I cannot explain why the alternator seems reluctant to go over 14.1 volts. The suspension now goes up and down as it should, so I suppose just seeing how things go over the next few weeks is the only sensible thing to do.

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