ODYSSEY FLAT BATTERY PLEASE HELP

[rsch]

Hi all,
This morning I was about to start the car (CUP 260 1 week old) and it was
completly dead. The battey is the Odyssey dry one. In the last few days I missed to connect the Lotus trickle charger and having triggered the alarm yesterday,this may be the reason why this has gone flat.
Having now connected the charger again, the strange thing is
that only the mains light is on and not also the green light "compensating" as
usual.

[ads_green]

If it's like my charger on a flat battery it'll take a long time to get to maintenance stage.

Can you connect a voltmeter to the battery when you charge it and see what the voltage is through the system?

[rsch]

Originally Posted by ads_green

If it's like my charger on a flat battery it'll take a long time to get to maintenance stage.

Can you connect a voltmeter to the battery when you charge it and see what the voltage is through the system?

Hi ads green,
Thank you for your reply.
Unfortunately I have not a voltmeter, and what is worring me is that the
compensating light is off.
Any idea of how much could it take eventually to charge?

[TheViper]

It is almost impossible to charge a flat battery with a maintainer that puts out a very low amperage. What you need is a charger that puts out at least 10 to 15 amps. Don't know the model you are using or the function of the green light, but probably it won't work as you expect because the battery voltage is not high enough.
Michael

[ads_green]

I think it'd be worth getting a basic battery meter - you can get ones that plug into the power socket really cheaply from most good auto stores.

I don't know if the Lotus charger is just a charger or a conditioner. If a battery is completely flat then only a conditioner based charger will have a chance of resurrecting it.

[The Captain]

I had the same thing happen to me this past winter. The battery would not take a charge. I took it to Advance, they tested it and determined it was a bad cell.

I returned the battery to Battery Mart. Not wanting to be without the battery I bought another. They were able to charge it and resell it for me.

This battery will go to a very low charge which fools most battery chargers. It takes a powerfull charger to bring it back.

[tesprit]

The Odyssey dry cell batteries are weird when fully discharged and will act like a conventional battery with a dead cell and seem to not want to take a charge. As The Viper said, it will not recharge with a battery maintainer and needs to have an old fashioned high amperage charger attached to force the charge in. Your battery really will come back to life using a standard battery charger.

[TheViper]

"Smart" chargers simply will not charge a battery with a voltage below a certain threshold, they see it as having a fault. There are two alternatives here, one as Tesprit stated with an old technology charger or placing another well charged battery in parallel with the flat one to fool the "smart" charger.
Michael

[JoshS]

Does anyone see a problem with Jump starting the car and letting it idle for a while, then seeing if the charger will work?

[TheViper]

No problem.

Originally Posted by JoshS

Does anyone see a problem with Jump starting the car and driving it for a few hours? Sounds like a fun way to charge the battery

[rsch]

Hi all, thank you for your replies, problem sorted ( I hope), I took the battery out to a Garage, they charged for nearly an hour, now the Lotus conditioner seems to work again.
I' ll let for this night an tomorow I'll try for a start, It should ve fine so.

[Paul260]

Originally Posted by rsch

Hi all, thank you for your replies, problem sorted ( I hope), I took the battery out to a Garage, they charged for nearly an hour, now the Lotus conditioner seems to work again.
I' ll let for this night an tomorow I'll try for a start, It should ve fine so.

Ciao! Excuse the OT but from your car photos I cannot even see the Lotus traction control regulation on the steering column..where is it?? Thanks

[bentheswift]

Originally Posted by JoshS

Does anyone see a problem with Jump starting the car and letting it idle for a while, then seeing if the charger will work?

I've done this twice now... I have a PC680 in my MR2, one time I left a couple of gauge backlights on unintentionally over a 2-week vacation... jumped it, drove it for a half hour or so to charge it, and it's worked fine ever since. This Odyssey has been the best battery I've ever had, and only cost $100 shipped from eBay when I bought it over four years ago.

[Noel]

+1 | Get a charger with 15 AMPs, they're very useful and serve more than trickle charging at times. These ones usually are also more high end, with some useful features, one that I can think of is reverse polarity protection and warning. You would think red and black is not confusing, but there are those doh! moments.

Agreed that those tiny Odysseys easily go flat. Once the car gets fired up, definitely an excuse to take it out for a drive and let the distributor do the work.

[rsch]

Originally Posted by Paul260

Ciao! Excuse the OT but from your car photos I cannot even see the Lotus traction control regulation on the steering column..where is it?? Thanks

As usual, on the LH side of steering column cover.
When your new car will come in ?

[Paul260]

Originally Posted by rsch

As usual, on the LH side of steering column cover.
When your new car will come in ?

Ciao!dicono che dovrei riceverla la ultima di Settembre ma se dovesse tardare credo di immatricolarla a Gennaio 2010

[rsch]

Originally Posted by Paul260

Ciao!dicono che dovrei riceverla la ultima di Settembre ma se dovesse tardare credo di immatricolarla a Gennaio 2010

Cs
così tardi ? quando l'avevi ordinata?
la mia considerando il numero limitato di guide sx per il mercato UK in due mesi
e mezzo.
So Late? when did you placed deposit?
Mine came in 2months and a half, bearing in mind that UK dealers have a limited allocation of LH cars

[Paul260]

Originally Posted by rsch

Cs
così tardi ? quando l'avevi ordinata?
la mia considerando il numero limitato di guide sx per il mercato UK in due mesi
e mezzo.
So Late? when did you placed deposit?
Mine came in 2months and a half, bearing in mind that UK dealers have a limited allocation of LH cars

L'8 Giugno..
Eh lo so..non ce la faccio piú

[ads_green]

Just found out that most conditioners have a safety feature where no power is sent to the clips unless the charger is sure they are connected correctly. It does this by looking at the batteries voltage but if the battery is so flat it wont register and no charging happens.

[TheViper]

+1 Any microprocessor controlled charger will not operate if it detects a voltage below about 8V, as it interprets this a a defective cell.
Michael

Originally Posted by ads_green

Just found out that most conditioners have a safety feature where no power is sent to the clips unless the charger is sure they are connected correctly. It does this by looking at the batteries voltage but if the battery is so flat it wont register and no charging happens.