Hi all,

 

A bit of an odd question from my corner of this mad world today. The battery in my wife's MX5 has "just" not enough power to start it up after sitting for a couple of weeks in the cold. It's got about 11.8V across the terminals which I guess isn't quite enough to get the engine going. I've got a very old battery charger but I'm not sure if it works properly. It doesn't have any LED's or meters to show it is working. I've just plugged it into the mains and the output is about DC0.23V regardless of whether it's set to "Low" or "High". Does this sound right? I was under the impression that (car)battery chargers put out a lot more than that. Also, I can't get any AMP reading. If someone in the know could let me know whether I should trash this charger or whether it is functioning I would be very grateful.

 

(I jump started the MX5 and the Mrs is now out driving around the village to try and charge the battery up a little.)

 

Thanks!

 

Dan

The charger should show about 14.8v under load, eg when connected across the battery terminals. Under no load the voltage may very depending upon the type of circuitry, but it should be more than .23v - sounds like it could be Donald Ducked.

The charger should show about 14.8v under load, eg when connected across the battery terminals. Under no load the voltage may very depending upon the type of circuitry, but it should be more than .23v - sounds like it could be Donald Ducked.

 

Thanks for the input Andy - I thought that might be the case ...

 

Happy new year to you and yours by the way! :)

 

All the best,

 

Dan

I have a capacitor for the ICE installed in my boot. I can see it though the back window.

So I know if the car has enough power to start or if I need to fast start it with a charger :). When it sits at 11.7 it's good to start, anything below 10 and I'm gonna do my impression of a toy machine gun !

I have a capacitor for the ICE installed in my boot. I can see it though the back window.

 

Is that a "flux" capacitor ?? ;)