[alfa] Elizabeth's battery

[Tessie McMillan <tessmc@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Elizabeth,

There have been a ton of posts on the digest about Spider batteries dying, 
so I imagine you'll receive a slew of replies! I'd expect these to range 
from suggestions to check the footwell lights (perhaps you're 
unintentionally leaving them on), to suggestions that your radio face is 
discharging the battery over time. What-ever...

The bottom line is that you need to get a kill switch for your battery. 
Are you familiar with this? It is a $10 spigot-shaped oddment that you 
attach to the positive battery terminal. It has a screw on it that will 
let you engage or disengage the terminal. The idea is that when you're 
going to park the car for any length of time you unscrew the kill switch 
and that will prevent the car from slowly draining the battery because... 
the battery is disconnected now from the draining source! A nice 
little feature is that -- the battery being in the trunk and all and 
a lot of people not knowing much about Alfas -- you have a little bit of 
extra antitheft protection by using the kill switch, because a thief who 
tried to steal the car wouldn't get very far even if they hotwired the 
ignition... since the battery would be disconnected.

Anyway. There have been many many many discussions over the years about 
why Spiders trickle down their batteries when the cars sit for a while. Some 
of the folks on this list insist that a properly sorted out Spider will 
not cause the battery to trickle down, but I have my doubts. Having killed 
a few batteries myself. &:-)

One esteemed gentleman on the list -- and my apologies to him because I 
cannot remember who it was -- pointed out that the wiring harness for the 
Spider is not of the largest gauge, so he posed the theory that just 
driving the car around the block for a few minutes wasn't good enough to 
build the charge back up as the "pipe" was too narrow. He had 
remedied the entire situation by replacing his harness with larger gauge 
wire... like that used in a Volvo, if I recall. So, if you want to 
recharge the battery by driving around, you need to be more patient and 
get out on the freeway and do a goodish jaunt for a half an hour or so. 
Ask me how I know that just driving to work (a mere two miles) is not good 
enough to recharge the battery sufficiently to start the car again.... 

Start by getting a good new battery. I'd recommend a marine-style sealed 
battery like an Optima for a lot of reasons -- the first being that 
nothing will happen if you tip it over because all the acid (which I'm 
blatantly afraid of being around) is sealed inside the battery... but 
also you don't have to maintain it by topping it up with distilled water. 
Check the manufacture date on the battery to make sure it is a new one. 
I've been given "bad" batteries before, and it took me a while to figure 
out it was the battery that was the problem. Then go to your local car 
parts store and buy a kill switch. Install (or have a friend install) the 
kill switch. While you're installing the kill switch, make sure the leads 
(from the car to the battery) are properly clean and shiny. You can use a 
wire brush on them to clean them up. This will ensure that you get full 
contact, which you need to ensure a good flow of juice. It wouldn't hurt 
to check around the car to make sure all your electrical connections are 
clean, as well, as corrosion acts as a resistor to the already very small 
amount of current that is flowing around. If you have a car alarm, 
needless to say this will run a battery down in no time at all, so 
disconnect it and use the kill switch instead.

That's my non-technical advice, and I've Been There and Done That with an 
'87 Spider.

Good luck!

Tess
in Bellevue, WA USA
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