Discussion
QBee said:
YHM 
YHM too!I've emailed you a method I've always imagined would work (though I've never tried it). I'd be grateful if you could tell me whether I'm right, and if not what is the correct technique? Just in case I ever need it!
Edited to add: Thanks Anthony!
Edited by Dr Mike Oxgreen on Saturday 31st January 18:31
The battery shouldn't have discharged in two weeks, even if the car were locked and alarmed. With the alarm inactive, it absolutely definitely shouldn't have discharged the battery.
To give you an idea of what a healthy battery should do, when fitted in a car without any excessive parasitic drain... When my car broke down in France with a failed coil a couple of years ago, my battery had to put up with endless failed attempts at starting. It then spent two weeks, locked and alarmed, in a holding compound before eventually being repatriated back to the UK. Many people would think the battery would have been on its knees, but when it got back to Str8Six and the coil was diagnosed and replaced, the car started without hesitation and without charging.
There's a lot of nonsense talked about it being normal for a battery to go flat in two weeks. It isn't normal. If that's what is happening to your car, then you either have a battery that desperately needs replacing or you have some source of drain on the battery over and above what's normal.
Edited to add: If your battery has been on the car for more than five years and now it has been deeply discharged, you should indeed replace it, as you mention.
To give you an idea of what a healthy battery should do, when fitted in a car without any excessive parasitic drain... When my car broke down in France with a failed coil a couple of years ago, my battery had to put up with endless failed attempts at starting. It then spent two weeks, locked and alarmed, in a holding compound before eventually being repatriated back to the UK. Many people would think the battery would have been on its knees, but when it got back to Str8Six and the coil was diagnosed and replaced, the car started without hesitation and without charging.
There's a lot of nonsense talked about it being normal for a battery to go flat in two weeks. It isn't normal. If that's what is happening to your car, then you either have a battery that desperately needs replacing or you have some source of drain on the battery over and above what's normal.
Edited to add: If your battery has been on the car for more than five years and now it has been deeply discharged, you should indeed replace it, as you mention.
Edited by Dr Mike Oxgreen on Sunday 1st February 18:20
mickh32 said:
I have the same problem and I will bite the bullet and just buy a new battery, if I still have problems then I will deal with it accordingly. Could some one suggest a good battery, cost is not so much an issue but quality is.
If you really want the best, & money genuinely isn't an object then buy an Odyssey PC1500.
But you will pay about £250 for one, saying that you did say this:
mickh32 said:
cost is not so much an issue but quality is
Buy something AGM and designed for the latest stop- start technology cars.
Make sure it has at least 550 cold cranking amps and is from a known manufacturer that makes quality batteries.
If it ticks all those boxes and you don't let it suffer too many full discharges it should last 7 years.
If the battery is ever fully discharged whatever you do don't jump start the car and let the alternator charge the battery up, as it'll will likely kill it.
Use a decent battery charger and bring it back to full charge slooooowly!
Make sure it has at least 550 cold cranking amps and is from a known manufacturer that makes quality batteries.
If it ticks all those boxes and you don't let it suffer too many full discharges it should last 7 years.
If the battery is ever fully discharged whatever you do don't jump start the car and let the alternator charge the battery up, as it'll will likely kill it.
Use a decent battery charger and bring it back to full charge slooooowly!
Alexdaredevils said:
Turn it back on again?
Alex Not quite that simple, the charger is plugged into the cigarette lighter and in my panic when the car wouldn't unlock I pulled the cable slightly and that was enough to pull the socket up enough to stop contact!
All's well now, left the battery conditioner on for 24hrs and car started okay, but still going to change the battery this week.
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