homeAdviceDIY repair of maintenance-free car batteries
DIY repair of maintenance-free car batteries
In detail: do-it-yourself repair of maintenance-free car batteries from a real master for the site my.housecope.com.
Car battery life is limited. When it fails, many simply buy a new one. And almost every battery can be rebuilt to make it last longer.
In a closed plastic container, there are positive and negative plates. A solution of hydrochloric acid, called an electrolyte, is poured inside, which forms a galvanic pair with lead plates. The terminals are supplied with current from a charger or generator. When enough of it has accumulated, the car's battery becomes a source of electricity. It is spent on starting the engine, operating instruments and lighting.
The generator replenishes energy losses, but over time, for various reasons, the accumulated reserve is not enough for a normal engine start. With proper operation, a time factor acts: the plates age. Under certain conditions, you can restore the battery, breathe new life into it. There are several methods of resuscitation. To choose the most suitable one, we first determine the reason for the inoperability.
The most common cause of death is sulfation of lead electrodes. The discharge is accompanied by the formation of plaque on the plates. If critical discharges are avoided, the crystals will dissolve during charging. But the causes of sulfation are not only deep discharges. It is also caused by other circumstances: constant undercharging, long storage in a discharged state.
Sulfation is fairly easy to identify visually. We unscrew the plugs and inspect the plates. A light white-brown bloom indicates the presence of a process. Other signs, including for maintenance-free acid batteries:
Video (click to play).
when charging, it begins to boil very quickly;
a fully charged battery does not turn the motor, it sits down in a few minutes from a regular light bulb;
white bloom on the body.
The second common malfunction is the destroyed plates, their crumbling. It is easily identified by the black color of the battery acid. If many gratings have crumbled, it is unlikely that it will be possible to revive such a source of tension.
Adjacent plates can be shorted. This occurs as a result of their deformation or shedding and sludge formed at the bottom. Closing occurs, as a rule, in one of the sections. A clear sign of a short circuit is that the electrolyte does not boil when charging in that bank or boils later, and the voltage indicator does not grow or grows very weakly.
Finally, acidic electrolyte can freeze. This happens when storing a highly discharged battery in cold weather. The ability to recover depends on the degree of frost damage. If the formed ice broke the plastic case, then the plates, probably, were warped, and they closed, after defrosting they will begin to crumble. If the case is intact, we defrost it in a warm place, and you can try to restore it.
We start any repairs with cleaning. We remove dirt from the surface, rinse with a solution of soda to neutralize the electrolyte, which is almost always present on the lid. We clean the terminals from plaque with medium-sized sandpaper. By the way, try how a car battery with clean terminals works. Often, their oxidized surface does not allow normal charging and the release of electricity.
If the battery is sulfated, and the plates did not crumble (the electrolyte is clean), then it can be restored using a simple charger.We need to break up the plaque on the plates. In the serious literature, pulsed charging, alternating with discharging, and strict adherence to modes are recommended. It is quite difficult to do it manually, and special chargers are expensive.
In practice, everything can be done much easier. We use the simplest memory with a slight alteration. We throw out the smoothing filters at the output of the step-down transformer. Instead, we install a diode rectifier. Each of the four diodes is rated for 10 A.
A hydrometer is required to monitor the density of the electrolyte. We check it in all banks, recording indicators. If there are 1.20 and below, it's time to act. We look at the level: if insufficient, add electrolyte of standard density so that it covers the plates by 1 cm. Connect the charger, set the current to 10% of the capacity. If we have a 60 Ah battery, then 6 A, maybe less: 3-5 A.
On a simple memory without fixing the parameters, the ammeter will first show a slight increase in current, then it will decrease, and the arrow will freeze in a certain position. From time to time we observe the process so as not to miss the beginning of the boil. After it, the current is reduced to 2 A, we continue to charge until it starts to boil again, and another 2 hours after that.
After the end, we measure the density: it does not grow much. We leave the battery disconnected from the charger for the same time that it was being charged. We measure again - we observe a slight increase in density. If it has not yet returned to normal, we repeat the cycle. It takes one day, usually recovery occurs after 3-4, sometimes you have to repeat 5-6 times.
Never add acid to a sulphated battery: it will only speed up the process and can lead to the death of the unit.
On sale there are automatic chargers such as "Cedar" and the like. During the charging process, they turn off on their own at the right time. We carry out a full charge beforehand to the maximum possible level. Then we turn it on in training mode for 3-5 days. In parallel with the charger, we catch the light bulb from the turning lamp, press the corresponding button. The process goes like this: charging goes on for about a minute, then discharging for 10 seconds. After training, we charge it completely.
Several schemes of home-made devices have been developed, which, like the factory ones, give out a short pulse charge current and conduct a small discharge in the gaps. The figure shows a diagram according to which it is not difficult to create such a device if you have knowledge of radio engineering.
We connect it to the terminals and observe the LEDs. Green light indicates readiness for operation, while yellow and red light indicates the need for desulfation. We carry it out like this:
we connect the device for a while until it is completely discharged (LED D1 goes out);
connect the charger and charge;
repeat desulfation until diodes D7, D8 light up green.
The charge-discharge process may have to be repeated many times. In especially advanced cases, it takes a week or more. The peculiarity of the device is that it consumes only 20 mA, it can be connected to the on-board network. It will constantly maintain the desired state of the battery without affecting the operation of the generator.
If there is no impulse memory, but we cannot do it ourselves, we try to use the manual mode. Let's take a simple charger with fixed settings. We set it to 14 V and 0.8 A, and leave it for 8-10 hours. The voltmeter will show the increased parameters. Be sure to leave it to stand for a day and charge it again, but with a current of 2 A. The voltage with the density will slightly increase.
We start the desulfation process. We connect the high beam bulb. For 6-8 hours we observe a voltage drop to 9 V, we do not allow it anymore - this is what we need. We'll have to control it with a voltmeter. We repeat the cycles:
night - we charge with a current of 0.8 A;
a day is worth;
night again - charging with a current of 2 A.
Depending on the degree of neglect, the process takes up to two weeks. A fully discharged battery is restored by 80%, which is enough to start the engine.
If the liquid in the cans has acquired an incomprehensible color: cloudy, black, it will have to be replaced. This happens in very old, unused batteries for a long time and in the event of a short circuit. In general, if the short circuit occurred due to warping of the gratings, then it can only be reanimated by physical intervention.
With old batteries, this was done simply: each can was separate. The short-circuited one was opened and new plates were installed. Now all the individual elements are enclosed in a common body, and such an intervention is difficult, but possible. We will tell you how to do this further, and now how to change the electrolyte.
A short circuit is determined by the black color, as already mentioned, and by charging. All banks begin to emit gas, but this does not happen in the short-circuited one. Then we drain the electrolyte by pulling it out with a pear. It is possible from one container, but better from all - filling with fresh electrolyte will not hurt. Then fill in distilled water, slightly shake the case and carefully drain. Do not turn it over so that the sludge does not get stuck between the plates. Repeat until the water is clear.
In a bank with short circuit, we resort to a more radical method. We drill a small hole 4–5 mm in the bottom of the case, drain the electrolyte and rinse with distilled water. All the sludge goes away, nothing remains. The hole is sealed with plastic using a soldering iron. If the plates are not warped, then it will be enough to change the electrolyte.
The further process is as follows:
Fill with electrolyte with a density of 1.28. It is possible to pre-dissolve a special additive for desulfation in it in two days. Let it stand for a day so that the air comes out.
We charge with a current of 0.1 A until the density is completely restored, making sure that there is no violent boiling and strong heating of the case. If necessary, turn it off, let it cool. We charge up to 14-15 V.
We look at the hydrometer readings, reduce the current and leave it for 2 hours. If during this time the density has not changed, stop charging.
We discharge with a current of 0.5 A to 10 Volts. If the indicator has dropped to this mark earlier than 8 hours, the cycle is repeated. If not, just charge up to nominal values.
And now about replacing the plates in a non-separable battery with your own hands. Cut the plastic around it from above. We disconnect the jumpers going to neighboring banks in any way: we unsolder or cut. We take out the bag and rinse well in water to wash off the acid residues. Now we are looking for where it closes. We examine the plates and dielectric. Objective: to find a particle that connects two plates.
Found - good, we remove it. First, you should rinse, removing all the dregs, set the bag in place. We restore the jumpers, glue the lid using glue, epoxy resin or melt it with a soldering iron. Fill with electrolyte and charge. If the plates are warped, you can use them from another old battery by choosing the least damaged package.
All work should be carried out with gloves and in a room with adequate ventilation, and preferably in the air: sulfuric acid and gases can be harmful to health.
If a strong voltage drop occurs in one of the six containers, the poles change their value during charging. A chain reaction is provoked, which leads to the same consequences in neighboring banks. The reasons for this situation are:
excessive sulfation, not amenable to recovery;
incorrect connection of the battery to the charging, which does not have protection against polarity reversal;
dirt on the case, causing constant self-discharge;
the discharge is not controlled, a strong discharge has occurred repeatedly;
errors in the operation of the generator and other power supply and consumption devices.
The polarity reversal technique is considered barbaric, but resuscitation is impossible in other ways. If it fails, there is nothing to regret, all the same, the battery had one way - disposal.
To begin with, we select the electrolyte from all the cans with a hydrometer and look at the indicators. We identify completely workers, sick and dead. The dead, as a rule, are few: one or two. To restore capacity, by and large, should only be with them. But the solid body does not allow for disassembly. You can use the technique described above to get to the faulty jar.
We will tell you how to reverse the polarity of all containers at home without resorting to disassembly:
First, we discharge the old battery to zero by connecting some kind of load, for example, a car light bulb. We measure the voltage: if something remains, we close the terminals.
In the gap of the negative terminal of the charger, we include the ballast resistance. A 50K resistor will do. It will protect the plates from short circuiting.
We connect the wires from the charger in reverse polarity. Positive - to "minus" of the battery, negative - to "plus".
We charge with a current of 10% of the capacity. The charge builds up quickly enough, but the case gets very hot.
We lower the current to 2 A and continue charging. Let it boil at a low current for 2 hours and turn it off.
We check the density: in normal containers it decreases, in dead containers it rises. Then we carry out a strong discharge by closing the terminals. We connect to the charger, observing the correct polarity. We charge according to the above scheme. For recovery, it is recommended to reverse the polarity twice.