Manx Wiz

[velosolex50]

Hurray! Back to how it was. Amazing the difference a couple of dud batteries can make. Performance now satisfactory, will actually do a bit more than 40 on the flat, hill climbing probably 5mph faster than before.(still a it slow then!) BTW the batteries are easily lifted using the hooks supplied for assembling trampoline springs.....

[marctorrance]

1) If you hear buzzing at the back, check the motor brushes. GG won't necessarily have done that when they replaced the batteries.
2) GG might not have replaced all the batteries with new ones. Check the date codes on the batteries you swapped out.

[velosolex50]

Hm, yes. There was a label on one of the batteries that came out indicating it had been used elsewhere. Now 2 more bats have suddenly failed, so performance is well down. I have just picked up a couple more new ones, so hopefully it will be sorted shortly, but I could do without having to replace any more for a while. Latest price from battery megastore is £130 delivered (mainland only) I have been using deionized water rather than distilled, could this be a problem?

[MB]

Deionised water is fine. How many cycles have your batteries done?

[velosolex50]

new batts in now, performance back to normal & range ok again. Out of the 4 batteries I have replaced, 2 had a label on saying they had been removed in nov 08, at 350 (or so) cycles.
I have a GG document that came with the car saying the whole pack was replaced under warranty 17/12/08.........so clearly someone has been cutting their costs and fitted at least some secondhand batteries. Is this a regular practice, I wonder? Could this explain poor battery life for some owners?

[marctorrance]

It's standard practice at GG. "Warranty replacement" definitely does not mean "new".

[Tim]

GoinGreen wanted to use previously enjoyed batteries when I had failures when my vehicle was less than a year old. I objected and did eventually get a set of genuinely new ones. The genuinely new ones have since completed about twice the mileage that the original ones achieved before replacement.

I can't think of another circumstance where vehicle repairs to honour a manufacturer's warranty are achieved with used parts.

[MB]

To be fair to GoinGreen, they're trying to match the batteries so that replacement batteries have had a similar usage patterns to the rest of the batteries in the pack. By doing this they hope to avoid further premature battery failures caused by inequal batteries within the pack.

[Tim]

It's true that you want some degree of consistency between the different batteries. I'd also agree that it's a complete waste of effort to put one new one in a pack that is on the way out.

I suspect that sometimes we underestimate the life of a well looked after battery, but at the same time an abused battery can have a very short life.

If I take a used one what confidence can I have in its prior treatment? I don't think that simply measuring age and counting cycles does it.

Last time I needed a battery GG wanted £400 to replace it under warranty (don't know if that would have been a genuinely new one) instead I bought a new one from a third of that and mixed it in with a set which I had confidence in and have had no issues.

If another car part (like a brakepad) need replacement then I wouldn't expect the garage to find a used brake pad so that it matched the existing ones. If I needed a matched set then I'd expect the lot to be replaced.

If GG want to make the case for supplying used parts then they should be clear about it, but I think that most consumers would expect a vehicle warranty to be honoured with new parts - and if that means replacing the whole set then so be it.

[edward]

... and perchance if they use second-hand batteries, the price should reflect that!?