Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Classic Morgans (pre-CX) Battery woes

I went to start the Roadster yesterday & the battery was flat. It had only been standing about 4 days (OK,OK I know I should use it more! ). I never had this problem with the mk1 Roadster. It seems to be charging OK (14.5 volts at tick-over with headlights & screen heater on) so it's either an iffy battery or one hell of a drain while it's not running. As it's the same basic set-up as the Mustang, I somehow can't see Mustang customers putting up with that. Has anyone else with a 3.7 Roadster left it for a similar time?
Ian

Maybe it wasn't fully charged from new. I use a conditioner all the time................
Or maybe its faulty, therefore a warranty job?

Sounds like a duff cell - get it load-tested by a friendly garage or similar...

Mine's been fine Ian....

There's no drain on the battery is there? Unless you have a tracker.

You'll have warranty on that battery won't you? I never trust a battery once it's been completely discharged.

There is always a small drain on a road car, the alternator takes a small amount and any alarm system like wise.

However, it should not be an issue as both should be small drains and the car should start normally after being left for at least a fortnight.

I'd check with a dealer to make sure there is no proceedure to be done when changing a battery, and then without turning anything on, put my meter in the path and measure the current drawn when the car is turned off.

Thanks for the comments, everyone. I have fully charged the battery, I've also been on some longish runs, so it should be fully charged. The only drain I'm aware of is the immobilizer. I'll put an ammeter on it when I get chance. Could be a duff cell but it's only a few months old.

What's the longest anyone's left their 3.7 Roadster without any charger/conditioner on?
Ian

I'm only up to 3 days. My garage is trickle city because of other cars....

But my Range Rover has been left for 3 weeks (holidays) without a problem.

Not sure that helps, but tight I'd mention it!

Iv'e left my 2009 Sport for 3weeks (holiday) and all was well.

Ian,
I left my 3.7 Roadster for 2 weeks in the garage and had no problems to start it.
But a month ago I had problems with the electrical system, too. After having started the car the brake lamp was illuminated (but the park break was not applied), the signal lamps and flash lights didn't work. I opened the magic aluminum box on the right-hand side and pressed all these small black boxes into their sockets (because some were not really fixed) and now everything was o.k. and worked without problems. After this exercise I am not sure how reliable the electrical system is.
Regards,
Axel.

Thanks, Axel. It seems that there is a problem with my car then. I'll have to investigate further...
I suspect that the relays on your car ( that's the small black boxes) weren't properly fitted, or possibly knocked partly out. I've not heard of relays coming loose during normal use, so hopefully, it won't happen again.
Ian