4841 Battery Tejo Tumuluri

Battery Assessment

The main purpose of the battery is to power the starter motor and the ignition system and also provide power to accessories in the car. Car battery comes in 12 volts, and has six plates which are 3 positive plates and 3 negative plates and each plate has 2.1 volts = 12.6 volts. Batteries come in 3 types’ conventional, maintenance free and gel type.


Car we carried the test was on:

Vehicle: Mazda

Model:323
year: 1981
Make of Battery: Lucas
Battery No: 127HD
CCA: 400

On 3/05/11 we carried out a battery testing assessment we started off with a visual check to see if anything requires attention and we found out that the negative terminal needs cleaning and we can clean by using soda/water and apply petroleum gel to protect it from rust. Then we did a test on electrolyte to find if the levels were high, ok or low. And the results we got were okay. So we moved on to perform an open circuit voltage test the result we got was 13.4 volts, state of charge percentage was over 100%. Further action we had to take to continue the test was to remove the surface charge.

Specific Gravity Test

cell	1	2	3	4	5	6
Reading	1.275	1.275	1.275	1.275	1.275	1.275
Colour	Green	Green	Green	Green	Green	Green

The above readings were from the gravity test and the allowable specs have to be within 25-50 and the variation we got was 0 so we passed the gravity test.

High Rate Discharge Test

We had to carry out a load test on the battery on using a load tester we had to determine the load current and apply which was 200 (to get the load current you divide the cca rating by 2, 400/2 =200). You apply the load for 10 seconds and battery must hold above 10 volts and our result was 10.4 so we met the specs.

Last test was analysing our results and note findings and recommendations.

1.  Visual check. We did a visual check on the battery and we found out that the negative terminal has corrosion on it. To clean it you will need to use soda water.

2.  Specific Gravity: for the specific gravity test all the results we got was same and equal which states that all the cells have equal electrolyte readings.

3.  For the ocv test the results we got was more than the specified voltage. We got a reading which was 13.4 volts which has surface charge we removed by cranking the engine.