I have a lovely 2007 2.0L NC which I’ve had for 16 months now. However, I only really use it once a week or once in two weeks and this tends to me only a few miles to Tesco’s or B&Q and being parked on the street there’s no option to connect up a trickle charger when not in use.
So of course I’ve run into battery issues. The car came with a Unioart GBA3053 which a year ago started giving me problems starting. Ended up replacing it with a GS-Yuasa SMF053 (supplied by my neighbour via his car parts business). This though has died in just under a year.
Good enough battery but not as good as the Yuasa 5053 which is THE recommended battery on here by the looks of things. Doing some research on batteries and reading about AGM batteries that were fitted to the NA and NB figured this type of battery would be ideal for my driving style. Ie deep discharge and lots of short top ups. Explains why those batteries have lasted so long in cars that aren’t exactly commuter or family run about cars.
Unfortunately there is no AGM type battery that fits the NC, but when I went to find a 5053 a couple of websites listed the Yausa 7053 as an option. This is a EFB battery designed for start stop cars like modern AGM ones, but is just an enhanced flooded battery that copes with deep discharges and charges quicker. It is however over twice the price of the 5053 (about £130). Then again the way I’m burning through batteries that price might be worth it!
I also got the AA solar trickle charger that plugs into the OBD2 port (the only one I could find the would). Not sure how effective it will be, especially in winter, but worth a try. Will do the tests for dark current and clean the battery contacts as well.
The battery arrives in a day or so and I’ll be sure to let you all know how it goes
The issue here is that most owners seem to use their MK3 regularly and all year round whereas with the earlier cars and in particular the MK1/Eunos, fair weather drivers like me do as you do.
Your point is valid but even the vastly superior Panasonic fitted to the MK1 needs trickle charging. No battery will endure regular deep discharge.
The other issue with the MK3 is parasitic current - it drains more whilst not in use than the earlier MKs and therefore requires more ongoing charging when car not in use. The car itself also places more demand on the battery when in use so the 32ah Panasonic replaced with batteries that are 45ah+ from memory.
My advice is to find a way of looking after whatever battery you choose, keeping the voltage when checked across the battery terminals at a healthy level above 12 volts at all times.
The Yuasa 7053 EFB battery came today. got it from http://www.mdsbattery.co.uk/ price included delivery which was next day so very happy. Fitted this afternoon and solar charger plugged in (as it started to get dark ).
I was thinking about getting the Ctek battery sense https://www.ctek.com/products/vehicle/ctx-battery-sense to keep an eye on whats going on. Though the irony of plugging a device into the battery that uses it is not lost
I’ve got the stop/start on my daily driver and had to replace the battery @ 4 years old. Pretty poor for a battery and the car has only done at the time around 16k miles.
But when I think back the car was stood pre registered from March until I bought it in the September with just 10 miles on the clock and I’ve put just 16k on that in just over 4 years. So the battery didn’t have a good start in life and coupled with my minimal use I’ve 4 years it had started to fail.
The annoyance here was the car started perfectly and everything seemed to work perfectly untill one day I had lights throw up on the dash, there was no connection with these warnings that it was a battery failure. My local garage cleared the codes and told me to see how I go, same happened the lights lit up again not far down the road. It was diagnosed a low battery and not up to the job. I hardly used the stop start system on the car, a drain on the battery but I reckon it was the way I’d used the car and it’s pre sale life stood from new in a compound that did for a premature end to the battery. A new battery fitted and all fine.
I now hook it up on a maintenance charge when stood over winter for more than a few days along with my garaged MK3, that battery lasted 9 years, both cars have the Yuasa batteries the DD having the higher powered one for stop/start.
Hi Rob, I was having the same problem. The battery was struggling after about three weeks. I bought a new battery but was much the same. I bought the AA solar battery unit ( I think it would be unfair to call it a charger ) as I like that you could just plug it into the OBD II socket which is a lot easier than lifting the bonnet every time. To be honest I don’t think it has made any difference. I keep meaning to check the charging current but so haven’t got round to it, but after 2.5 weeks the car still only just caught.
I’ve resigned myself to the fact I need to connect my trickle charger, but I will use the OBD II plug from the AA unit so I don’t have to lift the bonnet.
D
Have to say I’m rather disappointed to learn that Yuasa don’t do an AGM battery for the NC.
I’m a big fan of Yuasa AGM batteries and have one in my 3 series stop start diesel and had one in my Ducati 999 as well, so I would definitely have opted for one in my NC2 as well.
I well remember my brother pointing out to me that high amp hour batteries are a double edged sword in that they take a lot of charging as well as discharging.
If a car is going to be little used over winter or not used at all, it would seem a good idea to remove the battery and keep it indoors on a smart charger.
My other car uses a EFB battery they take a lot of charging to get back to fully charged.Even though its brand new but not used much in the current situation.I put my Noco 7.2amp charger on every other week and it takes a good hour to get back to full.I would look at a smart charger and finding a way to put it on charge once a week.Mines on smart charger on the path out side my house constantly.
Hey Guys
Well, nearly a year on it’s still going strong, apparently. I haven’t measured it or anything but should give that a go in November. I’ve used the AA trickle charger religiously all year and currently, there are no problems starting.
EFB and AGM batteries charge the same as normal batteries. It’s simple physics, but compared to a normal battery these are designed to discharge way more. So if a normal battery is designed only to discharge to say 80% and these about 50% then they’re going to take more time filling up, In a modern car with way more tech to drain a battery, it will be easier to drain the battery between charges. On my 'ittle '07 NC with minimal dark current that’s not an issue.
My last battery died from most likely stratification caused by deep discharge and minimal recharge due to my driving habits. The EFB is designed to discharge more and not suffer the same and the AA solar charger helps to deal with general discharge while it’s sitting there. Happy days.
Well, we’ll see anyway.
AGM batteries don’t like to be charged to quickly it cooks them. They have an extremely low internal resistance, this is their blessing and their failure. It means they can provide very high currents with reduced bolts drop, so ideal for starter motors. But because their internal resistance is so low they will also charge super fast if you use a standard charger. Physics will tell you this results in heat and then failure.
Internal resistance has to be added to load resistance in series as a resistance network, when you use the AGM as a power supply this obviously is a good thing. When charging pretty much assume the battery to be nothing more than a resistance, and the charger as your supply. It’s easy to calculate current flow and the battery will have a chart of maximum charging rate to compare that to.
You can’t simply replace the battery on a stop start car, you have to have it coded in. This is because the charger has to be told it’s a new battery and to ‘read it’. It then sets up new charging parameters and decides at what voltage to stop the stop/start function poor rating. All to protect the battery. This is especially important when you fit a different ah battery because it’s going to be vastly different to the last, if you look in your ecu with a code reader it will tell you what ah and type of battery you have fitted to a stop start car. I use a Vgate OSB2 interface for this, it is flawless for BMW but limited on other makes. It can read everything and reset faults on all brands, but on most cars can’t recode the battery. It can on BMWs.
The Vgate works with bimmercode and bimerlink to make a thousand changes on a BMW, Bimmercode is £31 and worth every penny. Bimmerlink is also £31 and less useful for most people but it’s cheaper than paying to have a battery coded in. It does LOTS if you look. Both apps are free to download but you have to pay before making any changes.
Carley is less powerful and much more expensive for BMW.
I also use ‘car scanner’ app for free to do fault resets on other brands of cars. All with the same adapter. You can download bimmercode free and see if it talks to your car with your adapter before paying for the app too.
Carly struck me as giving very little benefit for rather a lot of dosh. Glad I got that right.
I’ve an idea my adapter is a Vgate too, will check.
Useful if it could switch off error messages from LED lights, MOT service reminders too. .
Yes it’s warm monitoring. You can set it to halogen, HID, LED or DONT MONITOR.
most people also turn off stop/start but I like it. You can decide seat heat temperatures in each number per seat for base and back. Timings for heating. Add extra menus to I drive. Add digital speedos. Change angle eye brightens in different modes. Change mirror tilt angle. Sooooooooo much. All for £31.
I also set my idrive to shut off with opening a door. Window close stays active for 120 seconds after opening a door even with ignition off. Total closure on short single press of the lock button. Instant reset of trip data on ignition off not 4 hours as standard. Turned down the alarm lock beep volume. Changed the number if indicator flashes for alarm on and off. Set the puddle lights to come on in reverse. The rear PDC sensors to activate if the car rolls backwards in any gear. Radio volume 15% max after ignition off. Stop start to work in ‘P’ not just ‘D’. Added 5 flashes as option for lane change in iDrive. Auto relock time reduced to 20 seconds. Few other things. All for £31.
