Hi all,

I recently swapped out my AGM battery for a lithium battery by Antigravity. I am using it as the sole battery in my vehicle. It was totally fine for everyday use for literally 2 weeks! Today my vehicle just shut off. Voltmeter showed that battery at 0 volts.

Does anyone have experience with this? Will our Defender alternator not charge this battery?

I see many videos using a lithium battery as a secondary battery but I wanted to know if anyone has any experience using them as the primary battery. Thanks all!

 

First, did you try the emergency power reserve feature on the Antigravity battery to get you going? (the little jump start button, they all have it)

Read Post #14 here - https://www.aulro.com/afvb/l462-disc...ml#post3191563
This is why I’ve hesitated putting one in my L663.

Have you talked to Antigravity? They’re awesome w/ customer service in my experience btw. BTW, Their CEO is very active on Rennlist (Porsche message board) and debates these types of problems pretty openly there.

BTW - I do run their Li-Ion batteries in 2 of my Porsches, one of which came with an AGM out of the box and is a newer car, 1 of which came with standard lead acid and is a 1986. Zero issues with either. The newer 911 does have a smart alternator too, but Porsche has a provision to code the car to tell it that it has a Lithium battery which changes the charging parameters (or something like that). Notably, I do keep both of these cars on tenders 100% of the time when I don’t drive them and neither is a daily.

 

Unless these batteries are different than LifePo4, lithium is not a good option for a vehicle battery that needs a large amp surge tonrun a starter motor. Also, they are not designed to be constantly charged by an alternator. Also, the dirty current created by an alternator is also bad for a lithium.

 

Not sure I agree - a majority of high performance sports cars, as an example, are now optioned with lithium batteries

 

Thanks for the info, yes I used the jump start button which worked perfect. It was just odd to see the battery drained and I have yet to test out whether the battery is being charged by the alternator. I'll be a doing a few more tests today. I do believe the newere Range Rovera come with lithium batteries.

This happened late last night so I'll be calling Antigravity today to check with them. When I made the purchase, the Defender is on their list for comparability with their Group 49 Battery.

 

So you made this post without using a voltmeter to test and see if your alternator proper voltage ? Never ever go off road by yourself

 

A bit more context. I have over-thought this so much it’s not even funny.

In 2 of my cars, I have a radar detector hard wired in that is set to display voltage full time (which I enjoy and wish the cars would show). I understand this voltage is system and slightly different than at the battery - but it’s mostly accurate. I can see the voltage vary up and down as the smart alternator does its thing right there in front of my face. So realize even if you use a voltmeter, just a quick test will not work with a smart alternator. You need to watch it over the course of a very long drive cycle or go through a pre-planned test to have any indication of whether or not it’s working. It’s not like an old car where you can just check it quickly to see if it’s charging. Quite fascinating really.

2 Notes on Antigravity:

1) You are not supposed to use them at below 23 degrees F

2) You are not supposed to charge them above 14.6 volts. I’ve seen the Defender hit 14.8/14.9 btw on colder days. Notably, my 911 will actually charge to 15.6, even when it’s set to “Life-Po” or Lithium battery. This used to freak me out but it is apparently “as designed”, but the Antigravity spec says “never exceed 14.6”. I talked to Scott (CEO of Antigravity) about this and he said not to worry about it. Unsure why, and it hasn’t been an issue, but it does seem odd it’s out of spec.

So -- the information out there and the specs do not totally jive.

Again what I suspect is happening is the battery is fine, your alternator is fine, but your smart alternator is dropping below 12.x or whatever, for a longer drive or period of time -- and this is running your L663 solely off the battery until the battery is drained, then it kills it. Would explain why it lasted 2 weeks.

 

I wonder if the LRD’s charge controller/BMS needs to be set / reprogrammed for the new start battery type? Changing from AGM to LiPO4 would seem to require a different charge profile.

Both battery types are in the LRD now, the electric turbo is connected to the lithium battery in the rear cargo area - starting AGM under the seat. However, I have no idea if those are connected to the same BMS (seems to be the case based on a quick look at parts diagrams) - or if the LRD BMS is programmed / hard cut assigned for Battery A = AGM (starting) and Battery B = Lithium (turbo) - or if the LRD BMS uses some type of smart controller that figures out on it’s own what battery type is attached (seems unlikely given the state of the problem).

Given the AntiGravity jump start function works it appears that independent BMS is working correctly.

I have no idea how to check or program the LRD BMS, or if there’s more than one BMS, but that seems to be some low hanging fruit worth checking if possible.

EDIT: I wonder if the new battery needs to be “coded” to the vehicle? Seem that in some performance cars

 

Thank you all for the response. I'm very surprised that no one else had swapped their main start up AGM battery to a Lithium Battery. Most that I've seen have done a duel battery setup with the secondary battery as a lithium battery being charged using the appropriate equipment.

The reason I wanted to swap out to a lithium battery is for several reasons:

1. The phantom battery drain is ridiculous. So much so that when I brought in my vehicle to Land Rover for the dreaded dead halo headlight, they swapped out my battery out of warranty as it was drained. My vehicle has 30k miles

2. I have a high end stereo setup in the vehicle. On ACC the battery puts out a little over 12V and the battery just doesntast long. I'd always have to start the vehicle if waiting for the family in the vehicle and listening to music as they're shopping...

3. The Antigravity battery sits at 13.3V and on startup it's a good 14.6V. that's what I was able to measure with a multimeter. I haven't checked for fluctuations.

The odd part for me yesterday when the battery dropped to near zero volts was it was very sudden. Car wasn't on. Doors were open for about 10 minutes and all of a sudden on the lights went out. I thought the car just went to sleep mode. But after trying to start the car, battery turned up dead.

The startup button/remote worked as intended. Everything started right back up. I put a trickle charger on and the battery charged to max in about 30 minutes which is odd.

I called aantigraity tech support today and they said the battery dropped to zero for some reason to save for the start up. It had drained for whatever reason. They recommended me to get a battery Bluetooth tracker to see the voltage fluctuations in voltage and if it's being charged.

 

I am yet to change the battery on my Defender but my question is don't you have to code the new battery to the Defender? Just wondering if you had that done when you swapped the battery?