Battery charge %

[316]

Anyone kept an eye on their battery charge level?

I was at the drive ins the other night and thought I should check it after the first (of 2) movies. It was sitting at about 40%!

Turned the car on and watching it slowly charge. Turned it off when the next movie started. This was 3 days ago.

Forgot about it til today. Checked the charge level before I took off to work. It was sitting at 21.5%!!

WTH?!?! I've done about 300km worth of driving since the drive ins night. I haven't sat in the car without the engine on. So how has it not charged up to full???

I just watched the charge level as I was driving to work, and it didn't even budge n the 20min of driving I did. However, when I unplugged my GPS from the lighter socket, it did go up by about 0.5% which was kind of comforting. Makes me think maybe I'm using too much juice with the GPS and iPod plugged in possibly?

[UFO]

300km worth of driving, fine..... but how many times did you start and stop car to get that 300km?

because one 300km trip with the engine running non stop on the hwy would definitely give a good kick to the battery, but stop start short trips (especially if those short trips are sitting in traffic) isnt going to cut it.

go take a nice long drive... somewhere the engine is under constant load (like a hwy).
if battery doesnt have a difference then, you know you got an electrical problem. but I doubt it.

[316]

300km worth of driving, fine..... but how many times did you start and stop car to get that 300km?

because one 300km trip with the engine running non stop on the hwy would definitely give a good kick to the battery, but stop start short trips (especially if those short trips are sitting in traffic) isnt going to cut it.

go take a nice long drive... somewhere the engine is under constant load (like a hwy).
if battery doesnt have a difference then, you know you got an electrical problem. but I doubt it.

Fair enough, I didn't do more than 100km worth of hwy driving there. What's the big deal with stop start driving though? The battery was charging the other night while I was idling.

And, the rest of my driving has been on just constant 70kmh roads....ie. no traffic, but still stop-starting I guess taking into account traffic lights :P

[msf]

How new is your VE? If its brand new, I noticed on mine that the battery charge took a few weeks to go all the way down to 0%.. Then it was fine after that. I think it's a calibration thing.

[316]

How new is your VE? If its brand new, I noticed on mine that the battery charge took a few weeks to go all the way down to 0%.. Then it was fine after that. I think it's a calibration thing.

It's about a month old now. I've done ~3800kms.

[msf]

It's about a month old now. I've done ~3800kms.

Yeah, I had the same thing with mine. Eventually it got down to 5-10% and I got worried and started carrying jumper cables with me. I was going to mention it at the 3000k service, but then it sorted itself out and stays around 90% now.

[Lumps of cheese]

Common problem in the ve. I've charged my battery a few times.

[WogBoyz]

my 08 ute has batt problems all i needed was a software update/fix and havnt had any problems since

[316]

Yup, definitely some sort of problem here....

Charge has been dropping everytime I got into my car tonight. Long'ish trip home (~45km), mostly 100kmh, charge sat at 17.6% the whole way.

I asked my mate at the dealership about it, he said Service thought it may be the IQ issue that most people know about, but I've already had the update done, so.....taking the car in tomorrow night to get it looked at.

[AFM]

if you mean the percentage !!
i have 94% - 98%
cheers

[316]

Well, dropped my car into my dealer last night and they had a look at it today and ran every test under the sun. They couldn't find a problem apart from the reading being off. No fix for it either so it's a case of wait and see...

They said the car shouldn't even start if it drops below 10%, but mine does. In fact when I got it, it was reading 1.5% and is running fine.

There was apparently a couple separate issues they knew of. One being the IQ system which most people have sorted with the update. The other is some alternator software issue, but that's supposed to be sorted out with the new Series II.

[msf]

Like i said before, mine did the same.

Once it reached 0%, it was fine.

I think its some sort of calibration.

The engineering mode isn't meant for end users, so until the battery warning comes up on the dash I wouldn't worry.

The early VE battery issues on should have been fixed by now.

What is the actual battery voltage level.

Well, dropped my car into my dealer last night and they had a look at it today and ran every test under the sun. They couldn't find a problem apart from the reading being off. No fix for it either so it's a case of wait and see...

They said the car shouldn't even start if it drops below 10%, but mine does. In fact when I got it, it was reading 1.5% and is running fine.

There was apparently a couple separate issues they knew of. One being the IQ system which most people have sorted with the update. The other is some alternator software issue, but that's supposed to be sorted out with the new Series II.

[316]

Like i said before, mine did the same.

Once it reached 0%, it was fine.

I think its some sort of calibration.

The engineering mode isn't meant for end users, so until the battery warning comes up on the dash I wouldn't worry.

The early VE battery issues on should have been fixed by now.

What is the actual battery voltage level.

Yup, that's what I'm hoping too. Though if it's something that's supposed to happen, I wonder why the Holden techs didn't mention anything about it being a probably cause.

Voltage is fine. Sits on ~14V

[316]

Just doesn't seem right

[HUX 90]

Have you upgraded any components of your sound system or is it all stock. Also which dealer are you going to?

[316]

Have you upgraded any components of your sound system or is it all stock. Also which dealer are you going to?

All stock. I go to Brian Gardner Motors in Cannington WA.

I do have an ipod and gps (plugged into the lighter socket) if that makes a difference....

[316]

Happy to report my battery charge reading has started going up as it should.

Been sitting on 0% for a few days til today when I found it on 7% and climbing