So the car has now had its 4th main 12v fitted , tech guy said everything else looked ok.
At the moment even with this new battery the ICE is still starting up frequently, so I’m going to keep an eye on things over the next few days.
The smaller 12v was ok so that wasn’t changed.
I’ve just checked the DS maintenance schedule on the DS APP, for my car and it says the 12v battery is changed at year 4 as part of the service.
I’m assuming they mean the smaller one but it doesn’t say exactly ?
The Citroën one says the same, but what happened to test & replace, in your circumstance because the schedule says replace the battery will they, if not will they reduce the price of the service because they have to do less?
Same with spark plugs, what happened to check and reset. For me, the service schedule is expecting 48,000 miles, so yes, they may be getting tired. But in 4 years my mileage is expected to be 25,000 miles, with about 8,000 on electric, so in reality the plugs would have only done 17,000! The service schedule is either for EV or ICE, not PHEV!
Rant over.
Good point.
I have a 3 year service plan with the DS dealership, ironic though that the battery is replaced in year 4 .
My last car was a Volvo, which I also took out a service plan for.
Like my DS the mileage was low, so even though the service plan included changing spark plugs the milage didn’t warrant changing them, however the Volvo service manager would always ask me if I wanted them changed or take them away with me.
As he used to say, you’ve paid for them so they’re yours.
Cant see DS service department doing the same.
If I still have the car at the end of year 3 I’ll probably extend the service plan, but I cant see me having it that long If I’m honest, and I doubt it will include changing the battery either.
I almost replaced my car recently, even paid and forfeited the deposit when I cancelled!. As, when I thought about it, there were just too many compromises with what I could get to replace it.
So looking at a smaller garge that will charge oil & Filter and check the other stuff and only fix / adjust / replace if required, this way I stoll get the service book stamped.
If I’m honest, I would love to shift the DS on, it’s been a very frustrating car since I bought it, problem is how much it has depreciated in just 12 months.
DS offered to buy it back early last year, I should of accepted it, but like a fool I held onto it, kicking myself now.
Just remember, it’s not only your car has significantly depreciated, near on all cars have.
Manufacturers build to many cars, and most of them are sold to lease companies, who will then pass on the depreciation to the customer, the amount you pay for a car when you lease it, is nearly how much it will loose in the time you have it.
How does this look, price from a lease companies website.
DS 4 HATCHBACK 1.6 Plug-in Hybrid 225 Etoile 5dr EAT8
From £705.14 per month inc. VAT" = £25,380 over 36 months**. £44,000(**ish) new, so after three years the lease company thinks it will be worth around £18,620.
Basically, very rarely will you be in profit when owning a car.
These are the figures I’m seeing when testing bot 12v batteries.
Main 12v:
With ICE running = 14.8v
ICE off & after 30 minutes dormant = 12.7v
Small 12v:
With ICE running = 14.75v
ICE off & after 30 minutes dormant = 13.2v
So looking at these numbers it would suggest both my batteries are in good order and the smaller 12v does actually receive charge from the ICE, even though my dealership told me it receives no charge ???
The only thing that now confuses me is the SOH of the main battery which is brand new.
When I select 760 A & EN on my tester it shows SOH poor but if I select SAE 658 A it passes.
So I’m a bit confused .
You do not set the starting current (760A) on the tester, but what is given in Ah, at yours bat. it is 70. The results will show the real starting current.
The second thing I do is connect the new 12V battery to the CTEK for at least 7 days for initial conditioning. Only after that do I put it in the car.
I’ve connected the C-tek this morning and will leave over night.
Do you recommend doing this for several days whilst driving in between ?
So I set the tester to 70A & EN ?
This is the tester I have .
Thanks @Jactac, very easy to see what get charged when, now, would you be able to do the same with the car plugged in, to see if both batteries are being charged from the On Board Charger? This may be difficult as the car stops charging for a while when it gets unlocked.
I’m asking rather than doing as my battery maintainer only gives output voltages and not state of charge voltages, and I have not bought a battery tester yet, still researching.
I just used a normal multimetre to check the voltages with and without the ICE running.
But out of curiosity I will test both 12v batteries with the traction battery being charged.
This is the tester I have,
It seems to have good reviews.
But after reading Andrews advice I think I may of been using it wrong to test the SOH.I was selecting 760A with EN , but then finding the battery failing, Andrew suggested I try 76A & EN, so I’ll give that a go and see what I get ?
So after taking Andrews advice I’ve just had another play with my tester and I’ve a feeling it may not be suitable.
Hope I’m wrong.
The lowest I can drop the battery type to is 100 EN.
Maybe Andrew can look at the photos and offer a bit more advice.
First photo:
I selected Regular and then tried EFB
Second photo, battery type, I tried EN first then CCA and also SAE.
Third photo, battery spec, 100 is the lowest I can select on the tester, with any type.
Fourth photo is results set to Regular flooded, EN, 100.
Would I be right in thinking if the tester allowed to drop the spec down to 70ah I would see a better OHM ?
CCA is the starting current. So, in Kingbolen, you set either EN or CCA and choose 760. Mine is different, and I set it to 70Ah. Sorry for the confusion.
BTW, 5.5mOhm is a very good result.
Even more confused now .
I just did an internet search for a result of 5.49OHM on a car battery and the results say the battery is dead ?
The lower the better. A bad battery has 15-20mOhm or more.
When I set EN or CCA @ 760 it comes back as a fail ?
Higher battery resistance means it is sulphated.
Not 5 ohm only 5 miliOHM. It’s x1000 difference.
Ha, so the m after the 5.49 relates as milihoms ?
