Collapsed Battery

Collapsed Battery

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Telboy

Original Poster:

25 posts

261 months

Thursday 27th February 2003
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Hi all,

Got a Tuscan 4.0 in Viper Blue a few months ago, only one problem so far and thats the battery. The guy who had it before me only did 150 miles in 9 months so the battery was dead when the car was picked up. It was then fully charged and car was fine. Now battery is dead again ao I suspect its not holding a charge and is donald ducked. Have a new battery waiting to go on but need some advice. How do you stop the alarm going off all the time when it can't detect the battery! Any quick workarounds or do I have to wear ear-plugs and grin and bear it?

bertie

8,566 posts

291 months

Thursday 27th February 2003
quotequote all
I'd get yourself some proper ear defenders. From my expierence you'll be changing the battery often.

Telboy

Original Poster:

25 posts

261 months

Thursday 27th February 2003
quotequote all
Cheers Bertie - I guess I'll just have to get deafened for a while then! Is there a point where the system will reset or will it just bleed my ears throughout the whole operation?

fish

3,998 posts

289 months

Thursday 27th February 2003
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When I disconnected the battery the alarm didn't go off. And I'm still on the origional 2yrs down the line.

Telboy

Original Poster:

25 posts

261 months

Thursday 27th February 2003
quotequote all
Hmm... When I disconnected the battery to put it on charge it never went off but when I came to put it back on as soon as the connection was made the alarm started? It then carried on until both connections were secure when I could disarm it. I put it down to the battery being flat at the time of disconnection and according to the alarm booklet it searches the system for the battery as on of its checks.

Anyone got a definitive answer cos that noise goes right through me - would love to be able to do it at a peaceful leisurely pace.

ianf

108 posts

290 months

Thursday 27th February 2003
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Alarm can't go off when the battery is off the vehicle? But once you connect the terminals....Ouch! I had my fob in one hand to press the moment live terminal went on!

Telboy

Original Poster:

25 posts

261 months

Thursday 27th February 2003
quotequote all
I'm sure there's a backup battery on it somewhere cos when I first got the car the battery was dead - it wouldn't even unlock the door. After a bit of a charge (10 mins) I tried again and the alarm went off - doors still didn't open and I was stuck in a garage with a very noisy Tuscan. Also seem to recall that the alarm really increased in volume when the charged batteries terminals were secured as if it was using some other power source first.

Logically it must have cos if someone wanted to nick the car they could just unhook the battery and tow it away.

Anyhow looks like I'm going to have to get a headache.

What about if I hooked up a slave battery to the terminal under the car before I started - would this solve the prob?

vindaloo

122 posts

275 months

Thursday 27th February 2003
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cat1 alarms have to have a battery back up on them, so yes there is.

bertie

8,566 posts

291 months

Friday 28th February 2003
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Right then, as some folks will know from other threads I have long held a belief that the Tuscan has excessive quescant current being taken from the battery so last night I did a little investigation.

Mine is just over a year old and appears to be knackered.

So removed the whhel and access panel to get at the battery and tested it.
At standby the drain is about 500 mA for a couple of minutes, then once the alarm has gone into sleep mode it settles to around 50 mA.

That is massive. Where I work we design original equipment electronics for many car makers and anything with a permenant battery feed has to take under 1 mA so that is a huge drain and it's no wonder you can't leave the car for too long before it flattens tha battery.

But there are bigger priblems than that, less than two inches away from the battery just behind some heat shielding fabric are.....the two catalytic converters! Now these get incredibly hot and batteries don't like hot at all. They're being cooked and I'm suprised they last as long as they do.

I don't know if the Tamora and T350 are the same, I suspect so, but if they are they'll suffer too.

Not a clever peice of design and I'd reccomend checking the battery fluid levels as mine were well down, boiled out no doubt.

Nick Elliott

2,410 posts

288 months

Friday 28th February 2003
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bertie said:At standby the drain is about 500 mA for a couple of minutes, then once the alarm has gone into sleep mode it settles to around 50 mA.


You think that is high when I had a similar problem with the Chimaera I measured 250ma with the imobliser on and about 200ma with the alarm & imobliser on & I or the dealer could find nothing wrong with the electrical system, so it would seem they have improved things with the Tuscan!

Nick

kevinday

12,295 posts

287 months

Monday 3rd March 2003
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On the alarm system in my car there is a 'by-pass' fuse. I can put this fuse in and the alarm is de-activated. I can then remove the battery etc. replace and then remove the fuse to re-activate the system without it going off. My alarm is a Scorpion system.

Edited to add: BTW my car is not a TVR but you may have a similar alarm system.

>> Edited by kevinday on Monday 3rd March 08:40