Battery On The Blink And Seat Belt

[Notebook]

Battery not turning the car as it should and also drivers seat bels slow....

Think the Battery is slow - not like it was.. what are the specs...v amps power etc.. toyota the best?

also

seatbelt slow on retracting - how much etc

thanks all

Nick

[firemac]

Petrol or diesel?

The consensus of opinion is that diesel batteris are not difficult to source and that Halfords is a good bet.

If the car's petrol then there is an argument for fitting the biggest Battery you can find as some owners are nervous of the little OEM Battery - the diesel spec Battery would suffice, as long as you check the arrangement of the terminals. Many are on the "wrong" side of the battery compared to your leads so you need to make sure that the leads can reach the terminals.

Personally I've always found Toyota's own batteries to be good value and their OEM battery for the petrol RAV 4.2 has always been extremely good despite its size and they are usually Yuasa or Varta white-label units. Our 02-reg petrol RAV had its original battery for 9.5 years and I only renewed it at that point because I wasn't confident that it could do another bad winter; a personal judgement that wasn't based on anything other than a suspicion that it simply couldn't go on given its age. I went with a Toyota replacement as it was competitively priced, they fitted it FOC and it had a 5 year warranty.

Before you go changing the battery, are you sure it is on the way out? If it has suddenly started cranking the engine slower it could be a loosening terminal, bad earth, poor starter connection, etc. If it were me, I'd check and clean the battery terminals, the earths from engine to body and g/box to body, the starter terminals and the alternator terminals. You could get your nearest auto electrician to do a couple of checks on outputs, if you have a multimeter you can do these yourself.

Re the seatbelt, have you tried pulling it all the way out and allowing it to retract itself. Doing this a few times may remove the dust and other detritus that gathers in the fabric over time. If the belt is really grotty, I belive that you can sponge it clean with a mild solution of soap (something like Johnsons Baby shampoo) & warm water - but don't soak it! That could affect it's integrity.

[bonjo]

I think the petrol 4.2 is rated at 45AH whereas the diesel is 95AH.

I also think replacing it with a higher capacity Battery is well worth it although other than checking for connector location and Battery size, make sure the alternator and charging system are capable of charging the high cap Battery.

In addition to the checks suggested by firemac, one thing that affects the engine cranking speed in cold temperature is the engine oil. How old is it? What is it's cold viscocity? Both of these will put extra load on the cranking.

On long term basis, get an intelligent charger and charge the battery once every month or two (depending on the type of journey you do).

Mine is a JAn 2003 car still on the original battery!

[Notebook]

Thanks

It looked like the original - anyway fitted a yuasa 48ah 430a.

working like a dream.

will fully extend the seatbelt a few times now..

fingers crossed

Thanks