What size battery do you use?

[wazcov]

I have a 1 year old Yuasa 3000which gives 45ah and 440A (which I believe is the cold crank rating). 

all winter the only way to get the car started is to jump it but then I’m not able to drive far incase it stops.

So I am thinking perhaps just needs a bigger battery, but this surely is big enough for the light requirements (no alarm or immobiliser) of a 2.0 N/A Superspec.  

what do you use?

[AndyW]

I've got a Varta Silver C6 52Ah in my Superspec. Bought it in 2018 to replace the original 12 year old battery and it immediately fixed all my poor starting & cranking issues, and is still going strong. Having said that, the original Rovers had 45Ah batteries so would have thought yours was ample enough.  Check the battery earths have good contact.

 

[alanrichey]

I have a similar Varta Blue 063 Car Battery 44Ah 440A in my Superspec.   Bought from EuroCarParts last year with a 4-year guarantee,   I don't think mine cranks over as quickly as Andy's but since replacing my coil it starts well enough.

Having said that I still carry around a Battery Booster/Starter after having problems in the past.   Works incredibly well and saves having to use  jump leads.

 

[Darrell]

I have a Yuasa YBX3000 45Ah 440A had no problems starting.

I keep it topped up with a battery trickle charger/ conditioner (CTK)

deffo worth checking earth connection 

[phaeton]

23 hours ago, wazcov said:

all winter the only way to get the car started is to jump it but then I’m not able to drive far incase it stops.

If after starting & driving for more than 5 minutes if it won't start you have other you have other issues going on, alternator not charging, poor earths or even poor battery terminals, bad starter to name a few, of course it could be the battery but I'd be surprised with it being a Yuasa.

[wazcov]

Thanks for replies. 
 

fully charged the battery in the house today with a new fancy charger. It said battery is healthy. It was in warm for 48 hours. Take it to car, connect up and try and start straight away. Still won’t start. 
 

I can hear it trying. 
 

checked earth and appears well grounded to chassis, it’s connected via a kill switch key. Lights come on fine although they dip when trying to turn over (probably normal?). Battery shows well over 12v. 
 

it hasn’t really moved for a few months due to this issue and the fact I got a bad bug late last year. 

Edited February 10 by wazcov

[phaeton]

Take 'GOOD' quality jump lead not an Halfrauds or Fleecebay special & go from the battery earth to the engine, also if you can without creating sparks go from the positive direct to the starter motor solenoid. That will rule out the existing working, also the potential isolator switch

[wazcov]

3 minutes ago, phaeton said:

Take 'GOOD' quality jump lead not an Halfrauds or Fleecebay special & go from the battery earth to the engine, also if you can without creating sparks go from the positive direct to the starter motor solenoid. That will rule out the existing working, also the potential isolator switch

Recently bought some new quality jump leads. Did as you said, battery earth direct to chassis. Same problem. Haven’t tried positive to starter motor as it’s buried and pretty hard to do so with big jump lead ends

[phaeton]

15 minutes ago, wazcov said:

Recently bought some new quality jump leads. Did as you said, battery earth direct to chassis. Same problem. Haven’t tried positive to starter motor as it’s buried and pretty hard to do so with big jump lead ends

Direct between negative & engine not chassis, if you can't get to SM then can you bypass the isolator, the only other thought is a lazy starter motor, might be worth taking it out & cleaning the com up, or get it refurbished

[alanrichey]

With the Superspec you have to differentiate between the 2 types of starting problems, cold & hot.   Some of the Supspecs suffered from a hot start problem when she won't crank properly if the engine is hot.   I have written an article in the Autumn 2024 magazine on this subject so I won't repeat it here.   

The cold start is different.   Interestingly I have just gone through 6 months with the same problem as you except mine was intermittent. which made testing difficult.   Like you at some point I suspected the battery so bought a new one.  I also tried with a battery booster, neither if which made any difference.   Eventually she packed up completely and I was able to some proper testing and it turned out be a dying coil.  I suspect that like many of the parts in the Superspec kit isn't wasn't of the highest quality, but to be fair it has lasted 15 years,   I assume you have you checked you are actually getting a spark when you crank the engine ?   Whatever, it doesn't do any harm to fit a new coil.  Depending on your builder the coil should be easily accessible.

 

Edited February 11 by alanrichey

[AndyW]

To be clear when you say you have starting problems, is it the starter motor only turning over slowly or reluctantly? Or does it crank ok but not fire up and run? 

[wazcov]

5 hours ago, AndyW said:

To be clear when you say you have starting problems, is it the starter motor only turning over slowly or reluctantly? Or does it crank ok but not fire up and run? 

Seems the starter motor is working okay to me, just not firing?

 

Edited February 11 by wazcov

[wazcov]

4 hours ago, alanrichey said:

With the Superspec you have to differentiate between the 2 types of starting problems, cold & hot.   Some of the Supspecs suffered from a hot start problem when she won't crank properly if the engine is hot.   I have written an article in the Autumn 2024 magazine on this subject so I won't repeat it here.   

The cold start is different.   Interestingly I have just gone through 6 months with the same problem as you except mine was intermittent. which made testing difficult.   Like you at some point I suspected the battery so bought a new one.  I also tried with a battery booster, neither if which made any difference.   Eventually she packed up completely and I was able to some proper testing and it turned out be a dying coil.  I suspect that like many of the parts in the Superspec kit isn't wasn't of the highest quality, but to be fair it has lasted 15 years,   I assume you have you checked you are actually getting a spark when you crank the engine ?   Whatever, it doesn't do any harm to fit a new coil.  Depending on your builder the coil should be easily accessible.

 

Interesting Al. The coil is very easily accessible but I hadn't considered that it might be failing, how did you diagnose it, was it simply trying a few things to see what worked?

 

Do you know which one you bought to replace it?

[alanrichey]

I was lucky that my engine failed to start complely after months of intermittent failures.   I just pulled out a spark plug and checked for a spark.   As there wasn't one I just worked backwards checking the HT leads and the dizzy and all the connections, so the next stage was replacing the coil.

I didn't have to buy one as I had a spare one sitting in the attic.    I see from the parts list (which you should have as part of my info pack I suggested you download) that we recommend a Unipart GCL 149  (£20 on EBay)

Al

[phaeton]

3 hours ago, wazcov said:

Seems the starter motor is working okay to me, just not firing?

That to me sounds like the SM is struggling, I would have expected it to have spun quicker than that, although I have nothing to compare it with