Battery Failed

[richard price]

Hi all and Merry Christmas. When this cold weather kicked off some weeks ago (Sunny Bognor) the Battery started to struggle first start in the morning, so down to my local independant man and he did a check and said all was well. Well this morning it finally gave up the ghost. AA man very prompt and put some sort of electronic wizzard device on the Battery and it showed 11.7V in the Battery. Jump start but did find it difficult. let it run for some time. There is no amp draw, alternator charging under load, battery passed test but needs charging. The reading is:

GOOD - RECHARGE

Volts 12.63v

Measured 538 CCA

Rating 735 CCA

JIS Number 115D31

The temperature over night was -7

Is it time to get a new battery??, present original and exactly 4 years old. Or is it caused by the extreme cold,and the oil must be very thick. Comments welcome

[MarsKy]

4 years is about the life of a Battery.

With its age and with the very low temperatures, the cold cranking will struggle.

[IanXT4]

I had exactly the same experience, my first Battery lasted around 4 years.

Compared with the Battery in my wife's golf the Rav's is tiny. So its no surprise it fails after about 4 years.

I would get the cheapest Battery that has a 3 year warranty and expect to replace it every 4 years.

[local hero]

I had exactly the same experience, my first battery lasted around 4 years.

Compared with the battery in my wife's golf the Rav's is tiny. So its no surprise it fails after about 4 years.

I would get the cheapest battery that has a 3 year warranty and expect to replace it every 4 years.

Sometimes my Rav can stand idle for a week or more, sometimes it does a 6 mile journey to Sainsbury's + back in a fortnight, It has only failed to start once embarassingly when i was going to Anchs in bitter weather like now, this was two years ago, as it was still under warranty I took it in to Mr T who hooked it up to there gizmo and said it did not need a new Battery, they asked if they could keep my rav overnight to trickle charge it, I was a bit dubious as i was hoping for a new Battery but to be fair they did this + despite the poor treatment it gets it has never let me down since so it might be worth trying this before forking out on a new Battery, Stew

[Plutus]

yes same happened here last winter.

I changed mine in the summer and it's been fine so far.

Cheapest place for a new Battery was my local Toyota dealer.

[firemac]

Hi all and Merry Christmas. When this cold weather kicked off some weeks ago (Sunny Bognor) the battery started to struggle first start in the morning, so down to my local independant man and he did a check and said all was well. Well this morning it finally gave up the ghost. AA man very prompt and put some sort of electronic wizzard device on the battery and it showed 11.7V in the battery. Jump start but did find it difficult. let it run for some time. There is no amp draw, alternator charging under load, battery passed test but needs charging. The reading is:

GOOD - RECHARGE

Volts 12.63v

Measured 538 CCA

Rating 735 CCA

JIS Number 115D31

The temperature over night was -7

Is it time to get a new battery??, present original and exactly 4 years old. Or is it caused by the extreme cold,and the oil must be very thick. Comments welcome

Our 02 VVTi auto with nearly 60K miles still has the original Furagawa Battery. We got down to -13 on one night last week and it still started although at these temps, it labours a bit. I had local Mr. T test it & he reported good condition but needs charging - despite having done nothing but long m-way runs for the preceding few weeks. I've been expecting it to fail on one of these cold mornings but so far, it just keeps cranking away. Is this some kind of record, age-wise?

[RAV4Len]

I have not had to change a Battery on a car for about 20 years......

[crofter]

I have not had to change a battery on a car for about 20 years......

Go on then,why is that,Len????

[RAV4Len]

I have not had to change a battery on a car for about 20 years......

Go on then,why is that,Len????

Most likely cause was change of car before it failed :)

[crofter]

Well it's not as bad as changing it before the ash tray is full!!!

Del

[bothwell_buyer]

As I said in another recent post, we have several batteries on charge during this very cold weather - the forklift needs jump started every day; the generator needs its batteries charged every 2 days as it struggles to start on the sludge called red diesel; 2 Ford transits need trickle charged most nights as they don't get used for anything other than short journeys but the Battery gets gubbed trying to start the diesel oil-burning engine each morning.... the Previa has no problem as its Battery is a good size; and the RAVs only need charged if left for more than 2 weeks. The temp here has been down well below -10C for most of the month.

Invested in a larger commercial size Battery charger with a 30amp plug as folk kept borrowing my smaller 13amp kits.