Alternator Output

[shokenore]

Hangs head in shame
Had the indignation of SWMBO phoning me today telling me the truck wouldn't start.


Batteries did not have enough juice to turn the motor over .
Battery voltage checked with meter at 12.2 volt
Started fine when jump started.
Battery voltage checked again and found to be 13.8 v at tickover.


Question
Is 13.8 v output enough to charge batteries?
Would lots of short journeys IE less than 2 miles be enough to drain the batteries to a point where they would not have enough charge to crank the motor over?

Thanks in advance

[Wolfracer]

Shouldn't it be 14.4V iirc?
2 miles would be fine as long as there's no other current drain. Remember Alternators cannot "replace" batteries, they purely top them up....
I've done 1 mile journeys every day for the last month, and my old (V old) batteries are still going fine.

Maybe check there's no other significant current drain when you are parked up....

[BUSHWHACKER]

Did you check the batteries seperately?
One of them might be dead and is pulling the other down.

[shokenore]

update
Just went to start and it is not turning over.
Have removed drivers side battery and that is now on a battery charger.
Oh to have two battery chargers.

Will check battery voltage of other battery tomorrow

Will stick my ammeter on to see if there is any current drain with everything off.


Thanks for the replies

[BUSHWHACKER]

The passenger side battery is connected directly to the starter motor, maybe that's the duff one?

[shokenore]

That would make sense the battery on charge now (Yuasa) is only taking about 1.8 amps on fast charge whereas when I put the battery charger on with the batteries still in the truck ie with them both connected it was more 8 amps.....


Which would as you have suggested would be a duff battery the passenger side one...the battery make I have never heard of.

[Wolfracer]

The passenger side battery is connected directly to the starter motor, maybe that's the duff one?

Surely any connection in ¦¦ will use the same current supply from both sources?
I'm thinking one duff is dragging the other down.

[shokenore]

OK
UPDATE TIME

The Yuasa 80D26R from the drivers side which I thought last night was the good one would appear to be the duff one .
After a overnight trickle charge of about 1.5 amps I have checked the voltage just as it came off charge at a whopping 11.8 volts and on further inspection found the cells from the right to be gassing but brown/grey however the last cell on the left was clear with no gassing = one dead battery.

The Numax battery fitted to the passenger side was at 12.5 volts so that one is now on charge while I figure out where to get a replacement for the knackered drivers side battery.

[tintin]

Check with toyota dealer for price on new batts before you go for alternatives.
Price for both "proper" batts on my 2.4 was very good.

Alan

[shokenore]

Thanks for all your replies.

Good idea about the Toyo option (especially as they are less than a mile from my house)
However Eurocarparts (1.5 miles away)had Exide on the shelf at £73 .

Battery has now been fitted to the truck.
Passenge side has been given the battery charging treatment for the last 7 hours,just to make sure both batteries were fairly even.

Engine started very quickly.

Broke out my HEME and I have as follows;
Charging from the alternator at between 5 to 6 AMPS.
Battery Voltage both at 13.8 Volts.

With the ignition off and DC clamp meter on the + ve lead I have a drain of about 0.1 to 0.2 amps.
The only thing that I can think of that is still "on" with the ignition off would be the permanemt memory feed to the radio and the standard clock.
Is this an acceptable loss or do I need to start pulling fuses to track down the culprit?

[gargravarr]

Thanks for all your replies.

Good idea about the Toyo option (especially as they are less than a mile from my house)
However Eurocarparts (1.5 miles away)had Exide on the shelf at £73 .

Battery has now been fitted to the truck.
Passenge side has been given the battery charging treatment for the last 7 hours,just to make sure both batteries were fairly even.

Engine started very quickly.

Broke out my HEME and I have as follows;
Charging from the alternator at between 5 to 6 AMPS.
Battery Voltage both at 13.8 Volts.

With the ignition off and DC clamp meter on the + ve lead I have a drain of about 0.1 to 0.2 amps.
The only thing that I can think of that is still "on" with the ignition off would be the permanemt memory feed to the radio and the standard clock.
Is this an acceptable loss or do I need to start pulling fuses to track down the culprit?

If you ever need to replace the batteries again, try Ducellier, the D088 and D089 are drop-in replacements for the Surf and we found them for £57 each with free delivery for the pair.
Passenger's side:
http://justcarbatteries.co.uk/index....r-battery.html
Driver's side:
http://justcarbatteries.co.uk/index....r-battery.html

At least I think it's that way around, double-check the images!