Battery voltage @ 12.2v by morning, car is hard to start. WHY

[statowl]

Hi guys. I've been lurking on these forums for awhile,and have found answers to all my questions till now.
My car is a 2004 wl stato 5.7 :driving: and nearly 300 thou on the clock .

Problem is the battery voltage is down to 12.2volts by the morning when my car is sitting over night. and when i go to start it in the morning i hear a tick when i
turn the key. Some times it will start on the second key turn but usually on the 3rd or 4th key turn. Once the car has started, it is good for the rest of the day.
While Driving my voltage is around 13.8 to 14.2 volts.

This has been going on for about a week or so.
When i turn my car off i check the voltage on the cluster and the voltage is at 14.

Aftermarket accessories are 1 audio amp, capacitor, speakers, cd player and a roof dvd, 7 pin trailer plug and an 50amp anderson plug.

I've already had the sticky indicator and replaced the relay for it last year.
My key has a new battery and the ignition barrel has also just been replaced.

So far I've replaced my car battery with a new 620 cca century battery, cleaned both terminals, bought a good multimeter and preformed a drain test.

I have a drain of 00.02 ma. i pulled all the fuses one by one under the steering wheel and under the bonnet.

when i pulled the lighting f/l fuse under the bonnet the drain went to 00.01ma
when i pulled the main fuse drain went to 00.00ma.

i also tested between the battery and the starter motor on its own and it had a drain of 00.02ma.
There is no drain on the anderson plug.

Any ideas what could be going on?
Is there anything else connected to the wire that goes to the starter motor from the battery?
What is the lighting f/l fuse under the bonnet for?
what should the standard ma drain be on the car?

Thanks for any help.

 

[Not_An_Abba_Fan]

12.2v is enough to start the car. It's a 12v battery after all, it's just voltage settling after being at ~14v when driving. I'd be looking at the starter motor. Particularly the connections. Replaced a starter recently on an LS1 that showed similar symptoms and it turned out to be the trigger wire had a loose connection.

 

[Tasmaniak]

Nah... Not all cars will start at 12.2

My old ls1 wouldn't start on that.

OP your meter readings don't make a lot sense .02mA is WAY too low .2mA is too low also. Not for a modern car. How is it behaving with the new battery?

Personally it just sounds like your old battery is toast. Hence the question on the new battery. You didn't really confirm if its still happening or not.

 

[Not_An_Abba_Fan]

Our old LS1 Senator would start at 11.8v, under that it would just click.

 

[Tasmaniak]

one of them things mate. Will it work? Ask the car.

 

[Tasmaniak]

FWIW... 11.8 is considered dead flat. 12.6 is charged

 

[Not_An_Abba_Fan]

I'm just saying that our Senator fired up on 11.8, it was slow, but it turned over and started. The battery was on it's way out at the time, so I put the multimeter on the battery to see what it was at. Anything below 11.8 on that particular car would not start it.

 

[statowl]

I will try and tighten up the wires on the starter.

The car is acting the same way with the new or old battery. By morning shes hard to start. on both battery's its just hard to start in the mornings on the first start of the day
I dont know how old the old battery is but the new battery is 3 days old.

Maby I dont know what im doing with the multimeter but i set it at DC ma, turn off auto range and on the screen it comes up with 00.00 .
Does this sound right?

During the test on screen came up as 00.02

I forgot to mention on the 2nd night with the new battery i pulled out the sunglass holder on the roof, the one with the interior light buttons and
the next morning the car started first go.

I put the sunglass holder back in and next day its hard to start but no lights through out the car stay on and ive changed all the lights to led.

When i did the drain test i test with and with out the sunglass holder and it came up the same drain of 00.02 ma.
Maby just a coincidence but worth mentioning.

 

[XUV]

12.2 is ok, below 12.1 and it could be a dead cell, what's it read after a week of no use?

And for reference , my OPTIMA REDTOP D35 sits on 12.2 and my DELKOR 22F 610 sits on 12.8

The battery might need a charge to bring it back into line, As it's winter.

The cold does put an added strain on battery , and is a good reason to give a battery a charge before the winter .

 

[DLFHUB666]

I started my vx ss up on the weekend after it sitting for about 4 weeks, volt gague read 10.9 I thought dis anit go' be good but ill give it a crack anyway. started up on the 1st key turn. chug chug VRRRROOOOOOMMMMM!!!!!!!!!!