Quote:
Originally Posted by Laird Scooby
If you try a new battery, ensure it is NOT a calcium/silver-calcium variety. Your alternator is NOT capable of charging this type, try a Halfords HB096, it's a traditional lead-acid battery that uses lead-antimony as a coating on the plates to help prevent sulphation. Newer batteries use silver-calcium which increases the necessary charging voltage to 14.7V MINIMUM just to start the charging process!
In fact, if your current battery is a calcium variety, this may be your problem....... 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silver...alcium_battery
Have a read of that, you'll see what i mean. Also do some more research as you will find that 14.4-14.8V is a conservative estimate, it's normally 15.1-14.7V for a calcium battery but the point it does make in that Wiki page is that calcium batteries do deteriorate rapidly if they're not being fully charged at the correct voltage. |
Various posts on various threads mention calcium and antimony re batteries. The Lucas Classic and some Halfords batteries are apparently NON calcium and described as lead acid but how do we know that. All the batteries are lead acid. I’ve just had a browse in my local Halfords. Their calcium batteries are coded as HBC*** clearly marked as calcium, and their alternatives are coded HB*** lead acid and no mention of calcium. But other brands do not make it that obvious. My current Bosch battery silver 096 S5 008, which is now 5 years old, is marked as Silver, as was it’s predecessor, which lasted 12 years, but no indication as to whether there is calcium present. My current battery only shows 12.27 volts after standing overnight and sometimes less than that. I suspect that it is actually a calcium battery, but not marked as such. It still easily turns the engine over though. I’ve trawled around t’internet and have been unable to find any batteries marked as “non calcium” or “antimony” in their descriptions/specifications.
PS: I have a USB device, which also shows battery voltage, plugged into the cig lighter socket. I’ve compared it’s displayed voltage against the actual voltage at the battery whilst the engine is running and it is always 0.6 V less than the actual battery voltage. When driving it indicates a charge voltage of 13.1 or 13.2 so I presume that the alternator is providing 13.7 or 13.8. However, when the ignition is first switched on, prior to start up, it shows 11.9v or even less which would seem to indicate that the battery voltage is actually 12.5.