Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Maintenance & Servicing Battery life

Anyone find their battery goes flat after
One week of non use. Battery is new red top
On 2001 4/4. New to Morgan ownership and
Not experienced this on previous cars, is this
A Morgan characteristic?

What drains are their on it whilst unused? Typically clock, immobiliser, radio memory. Anything else?

In any case you could fit a battery switch.

It seems from TM feedback that the Aero series are the worst offenders for static battery drain. By contrast my Roadster will happily start car after a month on four year old battery.

Clock and immobiliser, surprised if that would
drain battery in a week, all comments helpful

My 4/4 is good for at least four or more weeks. Imobiliser but no clock.

Agree with what Richard says above perhaps

Suggest you put a current meter in series with the battery positive terminal, report back the current drain. Its the only way to confirm current draw. We had one member who had a positive cable chaffing on the chassis and a resulting burning smell...don't want to scare you but its certainly worth investigating.

Welcome to the forum I hope you enjoy whatever time you care to spend here... You could have a duff battery, or as has been suggested you could have some sort of constant load also already mentioned above. Battery`s have improved in terms of lifespan in more recent years and as such advanced glass mat (AGM) batteries seem to be those fitted to modern machinery as they seem to last longer than old style wet acid batteries, despite their heavy duty cycle in terms of auto stop/start and numerous other on board electronic control systems.

I regularly read of a similar problem to that you are suffering, which as has been stated could either be down to the condition of your battery as the result of it`s age or the way it has been treated over time, i.e. lack of use The charging system could have an issue, or the parasitic losses clock/radio/alarm etc. etc. etc..

Just look at the battery as a container full of water, if when parked it is not filled to the brim and the container leaks due to age or mistreatment, then it will start to loose that which is stored within, and the amount of losses will be dependant on the extent of the volume lost and the time duration before the container is topped up.... Unfortunately in the case of a battery and a car, it requires an engine start which is quite the heaviest load on the battery to be applied before it can be topped up.

My Morgan lives on a CTEK float charger/battery conditioner when not in use, as do many thousands of seldom used cars of all types. These chargers can mask a degrading battery to some extent allowing an ageing battery to struggle on past a time when it might be wise to replace it... Though you will appreciate that for some it can be difficult to determine the real cause behind a fail to start...?

If buying a CTEK or similar be sure to match it to the type of battery you have in your Morgan as AGM and older wet batteries have different requirements.

Sorry if it seems I am insulting your intelligence in my simplistic attempts to help out.

As ever more than happy to be corrected if I have got anything wrong..

George raises an interesting point on battery degradation. The highest regarded most expensive battery can be ruined in months from new by a poor charge regime. An example would be one that is used for short journeys only particularly in the winter. Although lead/acid batteries don't have a memory per se there is a scenario where they are charged to only to 90% capacity. The next short journey charges them to 90% of the 90% and so forth. Eventually the capacity becomes diminished to the point it's unable to start engine. Only a specialised high voltage recovery process called equalisation can be used as an attempt (often at best) to recover the lost capacity, if it's relatively new.

My own regime FWIW on a regularly used car is a 24 hour top up with a smart charger every two or three months. If not used for weeks on end it would be on the smart charger continuously though.

The absolute best treatment you can give a battery is to use it regularly, say at least once a week, throughout the year on an easy starting engine. Second best is to keep it on a smart, multi-stage charger if not used for long periods. Second best because stratification of the electrolyte can occur with long periods in float mode together with sulphation of the plates.

Just to add some info on the float chargers I have, both CTEK brand. one I use on the Morgan the older of the two is suitable for use on older type wet lead acid batteries and is pretty simple having a charge mode for motorcycles and by comparison larger car batteries, it also has a float mode for long term low level charging

The other CTEK is specifically designed to cater for both lead acid and has a selectable option for AGM batteries, it has a multi stage programme option for small batteries and normal car sized batteries similar to my other charger, it also has a reconditioning option which may off-set the effects of long term float charging as Richard pointed out. I believe that AGM batteries operate at different voltages to older lead acid wet type batteries and that applies to in-car charging too, which may make swapping out an old lead acid and replacing with an AGM in some way problematic, in that it may be the case that old style car charging circuits may not bring an AGM up to it`s full charge requirements to ensure max capacity and perhaps longevity..?

The dual charger I use is a CTEK MXS 5.0 the 5.0 relating to it`s maximum charge output in amps, there will be plenty of info on line.
Good luck in your choices.

Thanks all for your comments and suggestions. Have had battery and charging rate checked
at local ATS garage, both good. Battery is new “Red Gel” which I understand to be
good quality. Having charged up overnight I will see what happens in a few days but also
considering an isolating switch, but still find it hard to believe it will normally drain so quickly
Appreciate the support.

If you got a „modern“ battery they are poor things. If they got down under 11V they are dead. Doesn’t matter how old.

Yes, you can charge them, and they work. But they are only living on time and with a countdown.

And: modern batteries are much more worst than in the past. They are killed very fast.

Greets René