Battery life....

Scania

Scania

Scania

Caporegime
Joined
25 Nov 2004
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26,036
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On the road....
I got up yesterday morning, and my Scania would not start, reading 17V on its battery meter instead of the 24 - 28V it usually reads.

Scania eventually turn up and the fitter told me, "Yeah,this is an 08 reg, 2 years is about right for the batteries on these things...."

This surprised me a bit, I thought they would last a little longer.

Anyway, despite the truck having 2 batteries with it being 24v (2X12) he only replaced one.

This morning? Yes, you guessed it! Flat as a fart again.

Perhaps this time he will replace the other battery! - I even suggested that he swapped the pair, oh no, he knew better.... :mad:

So how long should batteries last? I ask as my own car (a 1996 328i) has a battery with a date stamp of 1990 on it, by that logic, the first BMW battery lasted 4 years and the subsequent one, it seems, has lasted 10 years!!!

Sure, a truck has a far harder life than a car - currently my Scania has done 268,000miles, the car has just ticked past 132k...

Just a bit of a rant whilst I await the Scania fitter for the second time - I hope its the same bloke so I can say "Told you so!!!" :p:(
 
I've always been of the school of thought that if a battery is maintained in the correct way (kept at decent temperatures, never allowed to drain beyond it's low voltage, never kept on trickle charge for too long, etc etc) then there is no real reason that it should die.

Of course in the real world the metals start to oxidise and break down, and that's only exaggerated with wet cell batteries, but I'd still expect a good 5 years out of a car battery.

Oddly enough I've never had a battery die that's less than 5 years old.

The one in my LCR is still original at 7 years old, and as far as I can tell, the one in the 330d is original at 8 years old.
 
paradigm said:
I've always been of the school of thought that if a battery is maintained in the correct way (kept at decent temperatures, never allowed to drain beyond it's low voltage, never kept on trickle charge for too long, etc etc) then there is no real reason that it should die.
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You can trickle lead acid batteries indefinitely provided the current is low enough (called float charging).

Car batteries get frozen and baked when placed in the the engine compartment, and also get shaken and vibrated not to mention the 100's of amps drawn every time you start the engine. It's amazing they last as long as they do really.
 
Where are the truck batteries 'housed'?
If they're open to the elements like on some commercial vehicles, that is presumably a harder environment than in a car's engine compartment.
 
The plates 'sulphate' rather than oxidise in most cases.

Then you can have issues with the plates warping and shorting so you lose the potential between the plates and the battery voltage drops, hence the glass mat batteries for the deep cycle and stop start cars that are being introduced.
 
If the Scania fitter say they last 2 years I guess that they last 2 years, I can only assume that because it's a truck they wear out much faster than a car.
 
markweatherill said:
Where are the truck batteries 'housed'?
If they're open to the elements like on some commercial vehicles, that is presumably a harder environment than in a car's engine compartment.
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Sorry about the late reply...

They live under the step that leads to the vehicles "catwalk", sitting side by side.

They get an easier life than a car battery from a heat point of view but thats about it I'd guess.....

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Just replaced my 54 Diesel Mazda 6 battery, was flat one day after leaving the boot light on, the terminals kept corroding no matter how much vaseline was on them and also sometimes the radio and all the clocks would just reset.

New battery from Mazda seems to have solved all the above
 
Hi,

Cold weather seems to show up battery weakness more than normal I think? My battery won't start the car after about twenty minutes of just the stereo on. Another thing that seems insanely expensive, be thanful you don't have to pay for the batteries for your lorry - they're huge :eek:
 
When I worked at halfords and fitted batteries all the time, it generally seemed that most batteries we replaced had been on the car since new and were on the way out after 5-6 years.

I also noticed a trend for some cars to get through batteries quicker than others - Renault Clio and Fiat Punto's seemed to need them changing a lot, though I expect this is a lot to usage profile (lots of short journeys etc). Also, Rover 200s/400s or equivalent Civic models (seemed to have a low rated battery on them to start with) and Mk4 Golfs seemed to require batteries to be replaced more frequently than other cars.
 
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Super Heavy duty! Only 180ah thought, would have thought it would be much higher than that.
I've got a problem with my car draining the battery overnight, its a right pain in the bum to find as its intermittent. Put a new battery on, thinking ah its the cold, must be that ! Having to bump start it down the hill i live daily is getting quite a pain.
 
Did he use a battery analyser? If so if it comes back with one battery ok then only one battery he changes as warranty/contract will BUM you for chaging a pair when only one comes back as duff. Especially when they ask for the analyser print outs!
 
Defcon5 said:
Mine is on the original battery after 9 years - its in the boot so maybe that helps?
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My long life (so it seems!) e36's battery also resides in the boot, you may have a point !



crankbro said:
Did he use a battery analyser? If so if it comes back with one battery ok then only one battery he changes as warranty/contract will BUM you for chaging a pair when only one comes back as duff. Especially when they ask for the analyser print outs!
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Yes, he did. And the gizmo told him to replace just the outer of the two batteries. Sure enough, the following morning the second fitters machine told him to change the inner battery although the guy who came out the second time was puzzled insisting that in such a situation he would change both batteries.

Fwiw, Stobart were far from happy. 2 consecutive breakdowns, one imo entirely unavoidable. It was interesting, Scania took well over an hour to get to me the first time, on the second occasion, I was back on the road, sorted in under 40minutes!

I think somebody at Scania assist got a rocket from one of their biggest customers!!!! :D

http://www.scania.co.uk/about-scani...-group-and-a-w-jenkinson-forest-products.aspx
 
R420LA6X2/4MNA said:
I think somebody at Scania assist got a rocket from one of their biggest customers!!!! :D

http://www.scania.co.uk/about-scani...-group-and-a-w-jenkinson-forest-products.aspx
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R 440 LA6x2/4MNA Highline cab right hand drive tractor units
(Stobart Group)
R 440 LA6x2/4MNA Highline cab left hand drive tractor units
(Stobart Group)
G 400 LA4x2MNA standard sleeper cab right hand drive tractor units
(Stobart Group)
R 440 LA6x2MNA Highline cab right hand driver tractor units
(A. W. Jenkinson)
Click to expand...


What does your username mean?:p
 
tommytinkle said:
What sort of service intervals do these things have? We had a few palets delivered on a large lorry and the turbo was :eek: HUGE!
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Most Scanias have a 60,000KM interval, many other manufactuers are around 100k. Iveco for example , offer 150,000km intervals, sounds good? - Count the number of old Iveco's still running and then count the number of old Scanias.... :D

Skillmister said:
What does your username mean?:p
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R Series, 420BHP Highline cab right hand drive tractor unit. :o;)
 
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