Battery low/broken/not charging or something!

[davidd]

I have an annoying problem with the Griff. Lots of driving on Fruday and Saturday (80 miles each day), nothing on Sunday. I went to start it yesterday and it would not turn over (alarm, c/locking etc all fine). Got a lift to work, got home 9 hours later not enough life left in the battery to even unlock it! Left on charge overnight and started first time, although was still drawing 3 amp (or whatever) on the charger after 12 hours charge.
It did this once about 5 months ago, then was fine...

On the way in I noticed the voltmeter only showing a tad over 13. Is that ok? I had a new battery 3 years ago, I'm just wondering if something is draining power when the car is turned off (maybe the alarm is taking more than it should).

How can I check? I did think to disconnect the + battery, shove a multimeter in and see if there is a current draw (what should it be?) then pull fuses and see fi it suddenly drops off. That might at least identify which component is the cause. Is that the right way to do it?

Cheers

D.

[ap_smith]

Not sure this applies to the Griff, but several years ago I had a Scimitar. Like the Griff, these were fibreglass bodies, so earthing the engine was not as simple as it sounds.

The earthing strap from the engine to the chassis had rotted so it was provding a tenuous connection at best. Symptoms were that the engine wouldn't turn over or would struggle, charging poorly, volmeter reported very poor levels. I remade the strap and the starter motor whizzed over and I had no problems from then on.

Just worth checking before you trash the battery ;-)


>> Edited by ap_smith on Tuesday 12th March 09:49

[davidd]

quote:
The earthing strap from the engine to the chassis had rotted so it was provding a tenuous connection at best. Symptoms were that the engine wouldn't turn over or would struggle, charging poorly, volmeter reported very poor levels. I remade the strap and the starter motor whizzed over and I had no problems from then on.

Good plan...please tell me there is more than one! Anyone want to tell me where I can find them ( I have a horrid feeling this involves the transmission tunnel.

[darrenlens]

davidd, I had a similar problem a few months back. My battery kept going flat. Sometimes the battery would charge (when driven) and other times it would just go flat. Traced it down to the fusable link near the starter motor. It was cracked so sometimes it would connect and charge and other times it would stay apart and not. Replaced the fuse and everything was ok. This fuses do tend to become brittle and crack after a while. May not be this but well worth checking first.

[davidd]

quote:
Traced it down to the fusable link near the starter motor.

Amother brilliant idea (I can see an oily lunchhour on it's way). How close to the atarter motor?

D.

[darrenlens]

You will probably have to jack the car up to get underneath it, you should see it relatively easy. It is a bit of a pain to get too but then again its a TVR what do we expect?

Good Luck!

[jeffgleed]

The symptoms you describe are identical to those on my Griff last year. It turned out to be a faulty alternator which Webbs got reconditioned for me. Without an Ammeter it's difficult one to spot.

[dudereed]

I had this prob on my griff 500 also, again it was the fusible link, which is on the l/h front side of car, bolted onto the underside of the tubular chassis, Just follow the main wire to the fuse link (in a black plastic case) Believe they are 80 amp links, only £1 or so from TVR. Mine had a bit of speaker wire there fitted by some cowboy....

[sipow]

youve probably seen me talk about my faulty fuel gauge,got a new one to go in(free of charge)but the gauge does work sometimes and seems to work more often under high reving engine.So i,m gonna check the fuse for this brittleness/crap connection.Will post results.
Is anything else on the F gauge Fuse.

Simon