battery
Turbo Mini Forums

if i run a brand new big battery (astra diesel) on my 998 it coughs splutters hardly starts (just spins over) and runs like a bag of spanners

if i run the small mini jobbie it starts on the button idle perfect and drives lovely

i though a battery was just a battery????????????

Edited by wolfie on 3rd Mar, 2005.

did you fit the astra diesel engine as well.lol

I recon that there is somthing amiss here a battery is a battery if it is a higher output battery and it is slower to start then the battery must be duff check the voltage with a volt meter while cranking the starter you should still have over 12.5 volts.

http://www.rabdunn.co.uk/

volts are not a problem its spins very quickly

would it be the points gap? to small/large for a higher power battery?

although it is higher power as it is bigger and meant for a diesel engine, the power that is different is the cold cranking power and the reserve capacity. The cold cranking is to do with how fast it can spin the engine over in harsh conditions, the reserve capacity is how long it can last if your alternator craps out on you.

In terms of what the engine sees when it is running, the voltage will be the same or very similar to any other battery in good condition (as a guide usually 12.5ish Volts when the engine is not running, and somewhere around 13.5 - 14V when the engine is running and alternator charging)

The battery type should make no difference to the points gap at all, the gap is set to give you the right amount of points dwell at full distributor cam lift to allow the coil to produce a spark at the correct moment and of the correct 'power'.

If it is making your car run crap I would suspect your superduper astra battery, try testing it on something it is destined for e.g. a diesel engine, if that struggles to start then you know the battery is a shitter. Don't be tempted to think along the "its new it must be OK" lines, I bought a brand new battery from a factors once and it crapped out within a month to the point it struggled to crank the engine over. Tested the alternator etc etc and all checked out OK, a new battery from somewhere else was fine for 3 years until I sold the car, for all I know it could still be OK now.......

Good answer Tom. It's worth nothing that the dizzy module on the Metro dizzys are very voltage sensitive. i.e. a low supply could cause a missfire.

wil

Fastest 998 mini in the world? 13.05 1/4 mile 106mph