My F4

[CyCo]

Andrew, it's not making sense to me either.

1)  The Battery Terminal doesn't say what (amp or volts), but I'm pretty sure it's in volts. They're a Jaycar unit, like this but not exactly like it.

2) Yes, I do have a battery charger, bought a new one as I couldn't find mine earlier this year. It's a trickle charger, with the auto cutout/top up feature.

The battery that's in the car now is only a couple of weeks old. But the previous one I didn't know how old that one was and I had to charge it about half a dozen times since last year. I took a punt on that the battery was terminal (pun intended   ), so bought a new one. Could hear the difference in how the engine was running at idle, 100% better. So I thought that was the problem. It seems it was just the tip of the iceberg.

I have no idea what the starter motor is, other than it's a VW unit. It's tucked down under the drivers side of the engine, nice and accessible to hit it with a piece of lumber & a hammer. lol So it's certainly not mounted in the gearbox.

Battery terminals & posts are new and clean.

Anyway, I went out and started the car this morning. Started second turn (had to get in and goose the loud pedal, fairly typical). No jump pack used, in fact it's still charging from being used the other day. I checked the readout on the terminal before I started it, was 12.8, went to 13.8 when the car was up and running. Also I didn't need to hit the starter motor with a piece of wood & a hammer.

Trying Darren's suggestion, I flicked on the headlights, and there was a slight drop in revs, but just slightly. I tried it several times and noticed the drop in revs about 1/2 the time.

You do have one thing correct Andrew, the stereo is very temperamental (Yes Simon, it's still the same unit, lol). And I have noticed that it's been worse than usual lately, finally making me think I should replace it. But surely if I drove the car to the petrol station, filled it up, paid and came back out to the car, it shouldn't have drained a car battery in that time?

Actually, same with the alarm. Hmm. Been meaning to get that sorted out as well. That's more likely the issue.

Thanks for the PM Andrew.   
  

[Agroeureka]

Hi
The radio or alarm may not discharge the battery while you are in the servo but when the motor is hot it will be harder for the starter to turm over. So if the time from your house to the servo is short the battery may ot have recovered from your first start and being slowly drained by alarms/radio these last two are more than likley the killers.Batterys are rated in amper hours Eg 60 aph so knowing this if a part or unit draws 1 amp it should take 60 hours to flatern the battery but before the battery can no longer supply the 1amp their will be a point that the energy levels in the battery are too low to supply the 150amps for 20  seconds to starte the motor.UNLESS
I had another thought the lead from starter to battery may be a bit small???Is your battery in the nose or in cabin?this can also effect the charging of the battery by the alternator.

My Eureka had only very small 16mm (bad choice of cable)cable from battery to starter motor(battery in nose) I up  graded it to a 120mm and all starting/charging problems from the previous owner went away.This can all be explained by ohm's law (another time)

Andrew

[CyCo]

Just before I left home for work, Ron rang me back. He's thinking it might be the bushes in the altinator, but suggested I check the connectors on the starter motor from the altinator. he also suggested checking the battery terminals as you suggested. So tomorrow I'll check both wiring for the battery, altinator & starter motor.

The cable from the starter to the battery (which is up in the front of the car), is actually earthing cable for a mainframe that Rod got from somewhere. So that should be more than able to cope. 

Gotta go, have to go do some lurnin', that's the reason we've been stood down for the firtst 1.5 hours of shift.   

[CyCo]

Ok, another bit of 'tinkering' and checked those connections. Only thing I found was two grub screws on the positive terminal were just a tad loose, so I tightened them up. That's it.

I'll call in an auto electrician over the weekend and see what he can find. 

[cruetoone]

an auto electrician on a long weekend goodluck ..   an no not a april fool joke ...

[CyCo]

Well we'll see. There are plenty of businesses that don't observe Public Holidays. Was going to do it this weekend anyway (calling an auto electrician), as this is my rostered 4 days off, and that was before I realized it overlapped with the Easter weekend.

[cruetoone]

  goodluck hope it all goes well..

[CyCo]

Quick update. Have yet to get an auto electrician to look at it yet. But have booked it in to get it seen to next wednesday. We'll see how it goes then. 

[tmerivale]

i wish luck mate

chances are its something very simple, its usually the case, yet it always cause such nightmares.

[CyCo]

I'm not really that worried about it. My main worry is taking it out for a spin using only what's in the battery then just stopping somewhere on the roadside and requiring a tow, again.

[tmerivale]

just a thought cyco, i mean it all depends on your budget but is it worth just completely rewiring the car? you would no 100% that there would be nothing wrong with any wires,. not sure when yours was constructed or who done it, but it could have been a bit of a backyard job. if the problem is still evident, then you know its either battery alt or starter. as you said its HIGHLY unlikely to be battery considering when you purchased it.

i know its easy for people to sit back and throw around ways to spend YOUR money but i guess its something to consider.

[redreek(the stig)]

it's just been rewired last year.

[CyCo]

As the Stig said, it got a full rewire last year. It spent some 11 months off the road whist a mate rewired the car during his spare time, which he didn't have much of. I'm not worried about his work, he rewires/troubleshoots planes at Bankstown airport. So as far as Im concerned the wiring isn't the problem. It truely needed rewiring, probably one of the worst examples of wiring on a 'reek.



Don't have any 'after' photos to show.

I've eliminated the battery terminals, various connections, and the starter motor. It seems to be alternator. Guess I'll find out next week.

[tmerivale]

going by the before shot, i get the feeling you guys werent telling any fibs, that WAS a mess!

[CyCo]

If you go back to the first page of this topic, the second (long) post is about the rewiring of the car, and several examples of what we found when we started rewiring.

That 'before' photo I believe was taken after three milk crates worth of useless wire was removed from the car, at least one crates worth was between the dash and the drivers side front wheel arch.