Bit of a strange one this.

[tony rodaway]

Hello guys.
Every few weeks I go to start my car and it starts like I have a weak battery.
My batteries are only a few months old as I bought as a pair left and right sides.
Just put my battery tester on it and says perfect with full cca 630 on both batteries.
My car charges from the alternator as got a display in the car reading 14.1v once the engine is started.
All positive and negative battery terminals are tight.
Bit puzzled as to why it does it.
If I remember correctly it's cold outside when I go to work but still done it the other day after work.
Temp outside was 14 degrees so quite warm.
Next day didn't do it.
Any ideas and been 5 yrs problem free upto now.

 

[Shayne]

How old is the starter motor ?

 

[Dave]

Dodgy earth from engine to chassis?

 

[tony rodaway]

I have never changed the starter since I bought the lc5 nearly 5yrs ago now.
Can't be the starter as it's not that sort of sound.
If it's a bad earth from the engine to chassis were are the obvious places to look.

 

[karl2000]

Can you start the car from either battery? (Disconnect the negative from each to test)

 

[tony rodaway]

Do i remove one at a time or both together.?

 

[MisterCruiser]

Do i remove one at a time or both together.?

One at a time

 

[karl2000]

Any more info Tony?

 

[tony rodaway]

I think I found my problem as think it was my negative battery connection.
A few weeks ago it struggled to start as with a slow crank but after close inspection it was the negative terminal came off the battery so only running on one battery.
I inspected the terminal connection this time and was loose again even with a new terminal connection.
The problem is the battery terminals are very thin compared to a normal battery for some reason.
I bought spacers to fit on and then fit the terminal connection over it and tighten up.
It worked OK but and cranks fast as normal but I'm not 100% with the fit on the battery terminal.
Fingers crossed it stays on.

 

[Juddian]

Might be an idea to charge both batteries fully, one at a time, get them both back up to the same state of charge.
Odd about the battery terminals being not standard size, not something i've come up against before, has someone fitted a wrong clamp sometime in the past?

 

[tony rodaway]

The battery's are a pair designed for the 120 with duel battery.
They are opposite to each other in respect to the terminals + - .
They were £107 each so not cheap battery's.

 

[tony rodaway]

If you zoom in to the negative terminal you will see why in not 100% but tight for now.

 

[Juddian]

Wonder if someone changed that clamp in the past and put the wrong one on.

Wistful looking at those Varta batteries, had a brand new one on my old Mercedes which was being smart charged by a CTEC charger over winter because i read how good CTEKs were, the bloody thing stopped working unbeknown to me and the battery furred up and scrap, was not amused.

 

[AndycruiserguyLomas]

TBH Tony I'd change that battery clamp for the correct one to get a 100% contact.

 

[tony rodaway]

I have changed it three times and sll to big.
Doesn't fit the terminal correct and once tight the clamp is closed fully but can just lift it off easy.
Even bought one from roughtrax and still to big..
It only seems to be the one terminal as all the others are tight.

 

[Shayne]

In bought varta because i didn't much care about batteries and they were recommended on here but having learned some varta fit and thats about the be all and end all of their criteria .

Positive and negative clamps are sometimes different sizes and its clear as day from your pics that the clamps is to big . aint nothing special about them so take what you got to a local parts supplier and ask for a smaller one .

 

[Dave_S]

Or you can sleeve the terminal to fit the clamp - lots of batteries these days are supplied with smaller terminals and sleeves to oversize them, so they can fit different applications. Your local battery place will likely have sleeves (I've binned a couple off of batteries bought from Tanya mail order).

 

[karl2000]

Negative terminal deffo needs sorting as you know! You should be able to start easily from one battery - when i did the same test on mine it pointed to the same dodgy -ve connection.

Stating the obvious but watch those bare live wires

 

[karl2000]

Is that definitely a negative terminal connector and not a positive one? Seem to remember they're different sizes

 

[karl2000]

Just found this in the garage - looks pretty small, from 12 volt planet.

Whats the diameter of your terminal?