Knackered battery!!

[Waynester]

Had the alternator relaced, but after it was at str8six the battery flatened. I have had it on the trickle for the last week and it started ok, but after a run & stopping it it only just re/starts!

The guage in the car shows it charging on the 11..12 volts area...knackered battery??

Edited by Waynester on Sunday 23 May 14:36

[grahamw48]

Check all your earths before chucking it out...and hydrometer (?) test.

[jmorgan]

Handy with a volt meter?


Not saying you need one at this point but noticed halfords have started selling Bochshshse Silver range batteries.

[Waynester]

Had a quick look at the wires, nothing loose that i can see?

Doesn't mean there isn't one though...

[jmorgan]

I always like to meter things out first. Sound duff but its expensive to replace and find there is a high resitamce on the battery to starter motor lead for example. Meter saved me buying a battery.

[pwd95]

Can you check the water in the battery Wayne? Mine was doing this before xmas untill I topped up the battery water.

[Waynester]

pwd95 said:

Can you check the water in the battery Wayne? Mine was doing this before xmas untill I topped up the battery water.

Now that sounds simple enough...i'll take a look

[adam quantrill]

Make sure it's distilled though...

Yeah if the connections are poor then it won't charge very well, check the earth all the way back to the alternator from battery '-'.

[honestjohntoo]

Waynester said:

the battery flattened....had it on the trickle for the last week ... started ok, but after a run & stopping it it only just re-starts!

The guage in the car shows it charging on the 11..12 volts area...knackered battery??

Using an accurate voltmeter, the voltage after charging should be 12.65 volts and during charging on a normal day/temperature, between 14.4 ans 14.8 volts.

I fear you are gonna find your battery meets neither condition and because it wont hold a charge even for a short time, its toast.

You can add distilled water, measure the specific gravity or agonise over it, I dont think it will recover.

If you wanna do another test, charge it up, connect a 60 watt (approx) headlamp bulb across the terminals and see what happens.

For a typical 70 amp/hour battery in good condition, the 5 amp load will take something shy of 14 hours to flatten the battery.

As described, you may not even get 30 minutes from yours.

If you fancy a bit of reading to clarify all you need or want to know, go to the PDF available here

Only the Rich can Afford Cheap Car Batteries