Dead K1200s

Not been used for 10 days. Plugged in the optimate today and none of the
lights on it, er, lit.

Strange I thought.

Popped the key in the ignition. Nothing. No bleep, no lights, er, lit.

The famed BMW reliability... anyone any [1] suggestions?

[1] angle grinder, shit in the carbs and gixxer thou' not permitted

 

It's fucked, give you £100 for it ..

Paul.

 

Totally fucked battery & i reckon you must have left parking light on.

Odd

--


Nige,

Land Rover 90
Yamaha R1
Range Rover Vogue

 

The Odyssey battery in my RS seems to have died. I have it on the Optimate
but I'm not hopeful. Which is a ****. Expensive and meant to last forever.
It did 6 months in the IoM airport carpark without complaining.

 

Hook some jump leads up for a minute or two then try the optimate again.

 

I remember, they did have a problem with a batch of earlyish batteries
going dead for no reason.

My battery went tits, i took it back, they fit a new one & it survived 6
months outdoors in shitty winter weather without a charge & started
first time.

Jump it, bung a new battery on it

 

Hmm... got out my multi-meter. That was dead too! So replacement battery
for the multi-meter and popped off the battery cover.

3.8v

I will assume that I did leave the parking lights on though am amazed
that I didn't notice as we're in and out of the garage several times a
day. I *hope* it was the lights anyway....

I have the BMW "optimate" which plugs straight into the accessory
socket. Bizarre thing is that it wouldn't register *anything* yet when I
put my original Optimate directly on the battery terminals, it
immediately set off the alarm and started charging.

 

Same thing on the Wing a while back - stuck it on a normal charger,
and it's been fine ever since.

 

if the odyssey is totally flat then an Optimate[1] won't recover it as the
power output is too low to overcome the initial internal resisitance. If
you look here http://www.odysseybattery.com/chargers.html you will see the
minimum output is 6A

This is one of the recommended chargers for AGM batteries
http://www.mdsbattery.co.uk/shop/productprofile.asp?ProductGroupID=2655
an alternative CTEK here http://www.tayna.co.uk/ODYSSEY-PC680-P3107.html

FWIW, I've never used anything other than a mk1 Optimate, but I've never
let the battery go totally flat: one top up after the usual 3 month lay off
to replace what the LCD clock has used and away it goes. Been the same for
5 winters now.


[1] although the latest mk4 version claims to work with all 12V batteries
inc AGM. possibly so as it claims 33% more output. I'd still get the CTEK
if you are going to go the deep discharge route.

 

OTOH our FJ, which has been on an Optimate all Winter, wouldn't turn
over despite the lights on said Optimate saying everything was fine.

I then plugged in a Oxford Maximiser which, after a while, told me the
battery was 'weak'. I think the fact that the battery was dry may have
had something to do with it...

I have to say I'm not at all impressed by the Optimate 3SPs we have as
none of them seem particularly reliable and they are gradually being
replaced.

Kevin

 

Now you've got the battery charging it might be worth checking if the first
charger now starts - could be a dud.

 

I have one of those and I'm also less than impressed with it. My
housemate's cheapie C-Tek charger, that he got free with a magazine
subscription, has recovered three previously dead batteries that my
Optimate 3SP wouldn't touch. I'm buying a C-Tek and changing the plugs
for Optimate ones.

 

Good thought - just disconnected the optimate and connected the BMW-
specific one - it is now charging on the BMW one...

So whoever said that perhaps with a completely dead batery, the BMW one
could't "see anything" maybe was true.

 

AFAIK most/all electronic chargers sense a small voltage to confirm correct
polarity before energising a relay to connect the charger circuit to the
output leads.

It compares the battery terminal voltage with a small reference voltage to
verify the positive lead is connected to the positive terminal, there
probably isn't any particular standard for the reference voltage but most
chargers I've seen its somewhere close to 2V - 3.8V seems a bit high IMO but
the manufacturer may have their reasons for specifying that.

 

Most of the time my optimate chargers do what is expected of them, but a
while back someone gave me a UPS for my PC that contained a pair of 12V/12Ah
SLAs, I decided to give both batteries a refresher charge on the optimate
before trying out the UPS.

Both batteries charged and both batteries reached the green LED "battery
good" indication, but the UPS refused to start, one of the batteries
couldn't even light an indicator bulb.

 

A cheers, Bee wants her Opti back anyway

 

in a simple logic gate circuit you need a voltage >3.5V to give you a
definite high. Similarly, only a voltage <1.5V will give a definite low.
Anything in that 2V range in the middle will be floating and the output is
indeterminate, depending on the total impedance of the components in the
circuit.

Of course, the manfacturer could design a more sophisticated circuit but
probaly won't bother on grounds of cost.

 

Dead last night, barely alive this morning. Had it on the BMW
"optimate" overnight and this morning it didn't have enough to turn the
engine more than once.

BMW wants £100.71 for the replacement. It is apparently "glass mat"
technology.

My local place can supply a Dynavolt 12ah for £59.98 - YTX14BS

I care about the £40 difference in price, should I care about the
difference between "maintenance free with lead acid pack" and "glass
mat"?

 

Dunno. WTF is "glass mat"?

 

Well I thought it prevented those circles from appearing on your coffee
table.