Classic cars forum & vehicle restoration.

[gresham flyer]

As mentioned in other topics I collected A Sunbeam Rapier that had been garage stored for nearly twenty years.
Once home i started work on it to get it up and running after its prolonged slumber all those years.
I removed the car battery but instead of disposing of it I filled it with distilled water and put it on charge,after a day it started to take a small charge.
I repeated this charging every time I was in my workshop and slowly it started to take more charge.

This morning i went to move a car that I was taking to a classic car event,the battery was stone dead,someone (not me) I blamed the wife, had left the sidelights on last time I parked it in its storage building.

I removed the battery and fitted and connected the old battery that had been sitting around all that time,surprise surprise it started the car and we went to our event and back with no problem.
Putting my old trusted battery tester on the battery it holds a steady charge....so no problem there.

This is not the first time an old discharged battery has responded to charging up...another car I found years ago had a battery that was discharged for 15 years,it went on to last another 10 years after being brought back to life.

Can anyone beat that.!!!!


Gresham flyer

[Ellis]

The battery in my Series 2a Land Rover is the same one I had bought in June 2002 and used in my Mark 2 previously. That's 10 years +.

What is unusual though is that because I broke my leg in March 2011 and was physically unable to drive the Land Rover for nearly four months, the battery ran flat.

I connected it up to one of these new electronic battery chargers and it (the charger) went into default mode and would not charge the battery. I tried several times over the next few days with the same (non) result.

I was about to take it to the Council reclamation centre to get rid of it thinking that it was time expired when I decided to trickle charge it with my old fashioned non electronic charger. It took two days but it accepted a charge and held it. 18 months later and it's still fine.

A word of caution, but most of you already know this anyway, is that the new generation of electronic chargers WILL NOT recharge a "dead" or rather a discharged battery.
_________________
Starting Handle Expert

1964 Jaguar Mark 2 3.4 litre
1962 Land Rover Series 2a 88"
2002 BMW M3 E46 Cabriolet

[Roger-hatchy]

I think most of us know not to store a battery on a concrete or cold floor.
I keep mine on a block of timber and a rubber mat when out of the car.

[Mog]

Correct ! The battery will discharge through the thin plastic bottom.

Good to put rubber under the battery, even in the car.

[ukdave2002]

Lead acid batteries discharging or being damaged on a concrete floor is a myth, it goes back to the days when lead acid cells were glass cased, hairlines cracks could occur if the cells were stored on a rough surface.

The rate at which a lead acid batteries discharge is affected by temperature storage, at 0°C the battery would have almost 100% full charge after 3 months, at 20°C the charge would have dropped to 80-90%.

Lead acid batteries deteriorate because of sulfation During use, small sulfate crystals form, but these are normal and are not harmful. During prolonged charge deprivation. lead sulfate converts to a crystal that deposits on the negative plates, reduceing the battery’s active material Battery capacity reduces and its internal resistance increases this lowers charge acceptance. A Sulfated battery will take longer to charge because of the higher internal resistance.

Sulfation can be corrected by applying an overcharge with a long (a minimum of 24 hours) trickle charge (what gresham flyer did by the sounds of it). The battery terminal voltage needs to rise to over 15v (assuming a 12v battery) . Increasing the battery temperature further helps . Permanent (hard) sulfation sets in when the battery has been in a low charge for months, this will generally permanently reduce the battery capacity and can not be recovered.

Dave

[baconsdozen]

The battery I use for jump starting etc is one from my Mercedes van that was scrapped about four years ago.The battery is at least twelve years old.
A few years back I dosed it with some crystals (the name of which I can't remember) sold by a marine electronics supplier that are supposed to rejuvenate tired batteries.The battery was getting tired and these did wake it up a bit.
After all this while the battery is getting a bit past starting up big diesels so its being replaced by a new one,it still has a use though ,for a stand by or running 12volt gizmos in the shed.

[ChrisD]

Those crystals would have most likely been EDTA. Can be bought cheaply off Ebay. Ethylene diamine tetraacetic acid sodium salt if you want the full name!
I'm actually a chemist and was very sceptical, but they do work. Effectively they strip a layer of lead off the plates taking the sulphated bit with it.

It does reduce the capacity a little but its transformed the monster battery in my Merc diesel that has to churn over 3L of 5 high compression cylinders after first having passed about 50 amps warming the glow plugs for 10-15 secs!

I was dreading replacing that. Even if it gives me another year, the few quid for the crystals will have been worth it.

[baconsdozen]

Thats it EDTA,
It worked for me,basically my van had the same problem as your merc,if the battery isn't fully up to it after heating up the plugs there isn't enough left for a full speed spin on the starter.A warmer day and it's pretty much OK but not on a really cold one.

[emmerson]

I replaced the original battery on my Volvo last year. The car is a 1993 850.

[welshrover]

ive got an old battery in my shed, still got the old caps that unscrew not these sealed type it was on my wolseley 1500 about 8 years ago and still holds a charge ok .ive dosed it with paracetamol a few times and it seems fine, ok as a back up i guess .got the paracetamol thing from a which! magazine i was reading in the quacks one day .

[ukdave2002]