Lotus Elan

Battery booster giving a clue?

PostPost by: Robbie693 » Wed Nov 06, 2024 12:36 am

I have always had problems with electrical accessories slowing down when used together. The electric windows struggle when the headlights are on for instance or the indicators slow slightly when the brake lights are on.

Anyway, for the windows I thought I needed to try one of the fixes recommended here such as relays or heavier cable. I had thought about replacing the main supply cable from the battery to the starter solenoid but now I'm not sure this is the problem because... Recently I needed to raise the windows with the engine off and decided to connect my battery pack/power booster to save draining the battery. To my surprise the windows shot up like a modern car!

I can't help thinking this is trying to tell me something as to the cause of sluggish accessories but I am not sure what.

Anyone got any suggestions why the booster had such a dramatic effect?

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PostPost by: rgh0 » Wed Nov 06, 2024 1:27 am

Were did you connect the booster to ?

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PostPost by: h20hamelan » Wed Nov 06, 2024 1:31 am

Maybe what voltage amps the booster is, Lead-Acid NiCad NiMh LiFe Li…?
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PostPost by: RichardS » Wed Nov 06, 2024 8:41 am

I would suspect symptoms are down to a poor earthing circuit, and the booster is temporarily overcoming this.
I used to have similar issues with the indicators slowing down, until I improved my earthing circuit. There is a thread on how I improved the earthing circuit on my Sprint some years ago, similar principles apply to the +2.
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PostPost by: Robbie693 » Wed Nov 06, 2024 1:18 pm

It's a 500A unit and I connected it directly to the battery.

I will have a look at your earth thread Richard, thanks.

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PostPost by: rgh0 » Wed Nov 06, 2024 9:57 pm

By connected it to the battery I presume you mean the batterry terminal connections. The first thing I would do is clean and retighten these batterry terminal connections to the battery. The second is check that the battery is truely in good condition and fully charged. Then if it does not start on the battery I would start looking for poor electrical connections starting with the battery earth cable connection to the chassis
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PostPost by: Craven » Wed Nov 06, 2024 10:21 pm

IF your battery is in good condition, they don’t last forever, check the charging voltage it maybe your battery is not being at any point fully charged a minimum of 13.8 volts is needed.
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