battery issues, a question ?

[Ralf*]

so with the colder weather upon us, older batteries that are not 100% anymore, will now show up their weakness

so is it in my case

the 6 year old 654 (80A/h) requires to be on trickle charge every night, to ensure sufficient charge available to start

skip just one day of not putting it on trickle charge and I am "stuffed"

and this occured yesterday, no start, very very weak crank, then just click click click

I have a spare (smaller) battery 652 (66a/h), which I have temproraily replaced/fitted

It cranks like a demon, and starts perfectly

but

browsing these forums and Bimmer forums and RealOEM, it looks like the correct a/h rating should be between 80 and 100

question

Is it safe to continue using this 352 battery (66a/h) or am I doing irreversible damage, that I am not aware of.
Money is tight, and battery replacement is not on the budgetary cards

 

[Danny2]

Not sure if it will do any damage, but on my previous car i experienced the same issue and used a smaller battery.

Only issue i found was that sometimes when using too much power it would cause the car to behave weir, for example driving at night with the lights on the car was fine, but minute you turn and Electronic power steering kicked in, then the car would run rough until you were going straight again .

 

[Ralf*]

Not sure if it will do any damage, but on my previous car i experienced the same issue and used a smaller battery.

Only issue i found was that sometimes when using too much power it would cause the car to behave weir, for example driving at night with the lights on the car was fine, but minute you turn and Electronic power steering kicked in, then the car would run rough until you were going straight again .

thanks

by the electric steering, you are referring to a newer model car, that I have read is a lot more "sensetive" to the correct battery amp/hour rating.

mine is a much older E39 530d, and doesnt have a lot of electrically driven stuff, except for the normal radio/lights/computor

 

[Donovan2412]

My understanding is that AH is just the capacity of the battery.

As long as the smaller battery is the able to supply the same amps as the other one I don't see a problem.

 

[Ralf*]

So I took a walk over to the "Battery Centre" in my vehicle complex, and asked a "Specialist"

his words were, that I am NOT going to damage the cars electrical system, but due to the load for starting on the smaller battery, it will kill the battery in next to no time...?

 

[ChefDJ]

Yeah the E39 has a lot of electronics. Your smaller battery won't last as long as one specified for an E39.

If I recall, I paid around 1700 for a new one from a battery centre but that was 3 years ago.

 

[Ralf*]

Yeah the E39 has a lot of electronics. Your smaller battery won't last as long as one specified for an E39.

If I recall, I paid around 1700 for a new one from a battery centre but that was 3 years ago.

I am glad you said "won't last as long" ..and not something like "doing irreversible damage"

I can live with this scenario for the cash-strapped moment

 

[sash]

the load when starting is determined by the Cold cranking amp rating not the Amp hours, but i agree that a smaller battery will be under more strain.

Also the other issue is that diesel motors require more power to turn than petrol, thus the extra load on the smaller battery.

 

[ChefDJ]

Ralf, logic dictates that should your smaller battery go because of strain, you would need a replacement anyway and another small one would only be a couple hundred rand less than the correct size you need. I would make a plan to get the correct one now and keep the small as a spare, for rainy days such as those being experienced right now...

 

[Ralf*]

the load when starting is determined by the Cold cranking amp rating not the Amp hours, but i agree that a smaller battery will be under more strain.

Also the other issue is that diesel motors require more power to turn than petrol, thus the extra load on the smaller battery.

thanks, at the moment it is cranking like a "demon", hasn't cranked this nicely for a long long time, my concern is the effects after it has started, on the usage of the remaining elec systems, vs the amp out put etc