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Signs of a failing battery?

losh1971

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I will probably wait until Repco or SCA have a sale, if I can wait that long. I will buy a Supercharge this time, if my spare doesn't work out. Have found Century to be of average quality over the last 10 years.
 

Lex

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What it sounds like to me, is fuel pump.
Pressure leaks down over night, then first start in the morning, it takes a few seconds of cranking to start the motor, instead of instant start.
Rest of day it holds enough pressure for instant start.

Funny you should mention about batteries. I put mine on the charger Saturday. The charger is a ctek mxs5. When l put it on, only came up 3 lights out of 8. Reading the manual on it, says you can start the car from 4 lights. 7 lights is fully charged, 8 light is checking that the battery will hold charge. Didn't get that far. I charged it to 7 lights
Mine was starting on 3 lights. If heater or aircon was on, it would take a few seconds for hvac motor to kick in. The engine would start instantly.
Yes l think its better. The engine & hvac motor starts instantly now.
I'll have to get in the habit of putting the battery on the charger every now & again.
 

EYY

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Generally if your cca reading is below 2/3 of the batteries rated CCA, it's time to get get a new one. They VERY quickly go down hill after that.

As soon as your alternator light goes out, the alternator is doing its job.

Generally they run a little rough on first startup anyway. Can be due to lifter bleed down which is quite common. A sign of this is light ticking on startup. It should however start immediately when you turn the key.

Agree that holding fuel pressure may be an issue. Get underneath and make sure the hose clamps are tight for the fuel lines. They come loose quite often as rubber ages.
 

losh1971

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This morn was the first long crank I have had. Never had a miss upon initial fire up until two weeks ago. Goss fuel pump is less than three years old, hopefully not that, fair amount of mucking around to swap it out, with the ridiculously small hole they give you to work with.
 

Lex

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These days you can buy new parts that are defective from the day it came of the assembly line.
And unless you replace that new part, your in the same boat as that part that didn't work.

My battery is a supercharge battery, & l bought it Dec. 2014. So a little over 4 years old.

Good luck with the battery. Also l hope the pump is ok.
 

losh1971

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These days you can buy new parts that are defective from the day it came of the assembly line.
And unless you replace that new part, your in the same boat as that part that didn't work.

Yeah I am finding that with Delphi components. Three sensors all having a short life span. One a few weeks and other the other two, just over 2 years. By all reports Supercharge are decent. My spare at home that was an aux in the Jeep is a Supercharge dual purpose and even though it has sat around it seemed to be holding voltage. Whether it's still ok I am not sure, since it would be six months since it was charged.
 

Lex

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With the delphi dfi & coil packs, l bought 4 of them, & they all crapped them selfs. To be fair, it was the dfi plug, which was loose. The pins weren't getting good contact, & were shorting out the dfi's & coils. When testing the dfi's & coils with a multimeter, they seemed to test ok. When testing on road, seemed like bad leads. Put on another set dfi & coils on, all good.

Since fixing the bad connections to dfi. I don't buy new dfi & coils any more. Just go to wreckers & get them from there. $50.00
 

losh1971

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Yeah I spent 80 bucks on a new DFI as a precaution, not knowing the age of mine. I keep the old one as a spare in the ute's map pocket. I had an O2 sensor fail within two weeks. I run new cables and messed around for days not believing a new Delphi sensor would fail. Same with the Delphi CAS I was thinking surely this wouldn't fail in around two years but replacing it seems to have solved the issue. Mech who fitted it last week, said he has had problems with Delphi. He reckons they seem to have bad runs every now and then. Funny thing is everyone says make sure you fit Delphi, or you will have problems. Should forewarn people fit Delphi and you will be less likely to have problems.....
 

losh1971

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I was wrong, I don't have a Century fitted it's an Exide Endurance... Considering it's an Exide, I guess that says it all, battery is probably fucked...
 

vc commodore

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Just about all battery sellers test batteries for free..... About the only ones that don't are K-mart, the department store....

Considering you seem to live a distance away from shops, you could even keep an eye on supercheap catalogues, as battery testers often come up on special for $100 or so....They are digital ones, that have the provision for a print out....

I bought one and it was the best investment I ever made.....I'm able to check my batteries anytime I want to and keep an eye out for potential battery failure
 
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