12v battery maintenance, issues, etc.

18 minutes ago, Dala said:

Yes

Do you use that for a trickle charger and a jumper pack ?

5 minutes ago, 152bobby said:

Do you use that for a trickle charger and a jumper pack ?

Only for charging. No for jumper pack. 

I thought I'd have a go at using the AA charger on my wife's 2020 Nissan Micra just to practise using the OBD option before topping up my Yaris.  Fell at the first hurdle - where is the OBD port on the Micra?? I can't see it in all the usual places and the handbook doesn't mention one. 

Don't laugh!  Where is the OBD port on my new Yaris Cross?

1 minute ago, Jeff43 said:

Don't laugh!  Where is the OBD port on my new Yaris Cross?

More or less in line with your right knee under the dash

Any recommendations for a device that will plug into the power outlet (ciggy lighter) to show the Battery voltage?  I'm keen to keep an eye on this for obvious reasons.  I've seen several on YT and the web but I'm sure that you guys are the ones to ask.

Only problem being, that because the cigarette lighter is only active when the car is powered on, you'll only ever see the voltage while the 12V Battery is being charged i.e. 14V. If you try to overcome this by switching to ACC mode there will be drain on the Battery by the ECU's which will lower the displayed voltage.
You either want to get something which plugs into the OBD socket to see voltage when the car is powered off (in order to see whether the Battery is holding in excess of 12V (ideally more than 12.3V)), or, as I do, use a BM6 bluetooth device (permanently attached to the battery) which I can monitor remotely (up to 12ft from the car), and which continuously captures and stores voltage readings for you to view when you interrogate with your phone. These cost around £25 from Ama*on.

I keep forgetting that the lighter is off when the car is off! I've attached a solar charger to the OBD port today so I might as well do the same for measuring the voltage.  Any recommendations?  Thank you very much for replying, by the way - I'm a bit new to all of this.

You can see the start voltage at the lighter socket when you start but in only displayed for a few seconds then its charging voltage on display.

One option is a Battrey monitor using bluetooth.

You may also find one solar panel just wont fully charge your Battery.

4 hours ago, Jeff43 said:

Any recommendations?  Thank you very much for replying, by the way - I'm a bit new to all of this.

BM2 or BM6 bluetooth Battery monitor

I may be wrong but am sure i read in this thread that the solar panels do not charge the Battery they maintain it.

Solar panels charge it, they just might be very slow (depending on the panel capabilities and sun availability). Charging the Battery with the solar panel might take months, that's why everyone considers it to be a trickle charger

On 6/21/2024 at 3:34 PM, Dala said:

It's a DCM module.

https://www.furuno.com/en/its/articles/20190830/

I took out the fuse for it. SOS system stopped working, so I thought it was the solution...

Sadly the microphone is connected to the same module, so no more phone calls in the car, which wasn't acceptable for me.

I put it back in 😞

8 hours ago, Yaris_Cross said:

I may be wrong but am sure i read in this thread that the solar panels do not charge the battery they maintain it.

My setup charges the Battery!

One will only at best just slows down the Battery discharge so maybe it works if you do high miles.

23 hours ago, dash said:

BM2 or BM6 bluetooth battery monitor

I using BM2 monitor but you can find newer versions of it give Battery temperature but slightey less days mines 15 days but then you can jump back 15 more days until 28/2/24 from today.

2 hours ago, einfachGaer said:

I took out the fuse for it. SOS system stopped working, so I thought it was the solution...

Sadly the microphone is connected to the same module, so no more phone calls in the car, which wasn't acceptable for me.

I put it back in 😞

You need to use the bay-pass behind the radio. Removing the fuse won't help. There's a lot of instructions on the internet, I don't want to put links here. I'm glad this forum exists 🙂

It's interesting what all can be done to a car these days:

  https://youtu.be/q1QrAaouPYI?feature=shared

Been away from the Yaris for 15 days and got in this morning and it “started” without any issues, other than the rust coming off the discs for the first few applications!

Happy there were no issues, maybe the change to a Yuasa Battery as recommended (search this thread) helped.  £70 well spent, methinks. 

23 hours ago, Yaris_Cross said:

I may be wrong but am sure i read in this thread that the solar panels do not charge the battery they maintain it.

The 20W solar panel fully charges the car Battery 44Ah in the summer when the sun is shining.

Now I would like the solar panel to also fully charge the car Battery in spring and fall. I'll try a 45W solar panel.

https://www.victronenergy.com/solar-pv-panels/bluesolar-panels

Is it OK to leave the plug in the OBD port (and disconnect the solar panel from the cable of course) overnight? I'll be re-connecting at 5 am tomorrow to catch the sunrise.  (Actually, do I even need to disconnect anything at all?) It's the AA charger.

No need to disconnect. The panel has built in blocking diodes so it won't drain the Battery if that's what you mean... I've left mine hooked up for 3 days straight before now with no ill effects.

Thanks for that - I was a bit concerned that it might cause some sort of drain once the sun went down.  I did have an AA Smart Breakdown (now discontinued) gadget that was permanently in the OBD of my Corsa and caused a very tiny drain.  It sent information which helped them to spot faults remotely so one December day I got an alert in their app to warn me that the Battery was very low and that I needed to take action.  I don't think the sender was to blame though, as I hadn't used the car for 3 weeks or so.  

9 hours ago, Dala said:

The 20W solar panel fully charges the car battery 44Ah in the summer when the sun is shining.

Now I would like the solar panel to also fully charge the car battery in spring and fall. I'll try a 45W solar panel.

https://www.victronenergy.com/solar-pv-panels/bluesolar-panels

  

Even the smallest Victron panel you struggle moving that around inside a car they  more for outside jobs.

I dont bother disconnecting the solar panels or its charge controler I even leave the Veepeak ODB unit pluged in so thats a additional discharge that I can be remove.

2 hours ago, CPN said:

No need to disconnect. The panel has built in blocking diodes so it won't drain the battery if that's what you mean... I've left mine hooked up for 3 days straight before now with no ill effects.

Mine have been connected for weeks at a time only disconnect if I need the fourth seat or extra luggage area.

8 hours ago, Derek.w said:

Mine have been connected for weeks at a time only disconnect if I need the fourth seat or extra luggage area.

I do the same.