Battery problem on Mk1 - Any ideas?

[CY88]

I put a new battery in my Mk1 eunos last year, but it has been laid up for the winter.

Went to start it yesterday and there was nothing, no lights, no click, completely dead. SO i attached the battery to the charger and hey presto, the meter says its charged? Tried it again on the car and nothing. (Thoughtlessly parked the back fo the car right against the wall, so access to the boot is proving a pig too).

Question: Can a dud battery show as fully charged? Wouldn't there be some sort of reading on the dashboard lights?

Alternatively, if its not the battery, what could feasibly have happened in the solitude of the garage to bring about these symptoms?

Cheers in advance.

[MX7]

I'd check the earth strap on the car first. Having said that, I'd be surprised if a battery left over the winter was still charged.

[DozyGit]

CY88 said:

I put a new battery in my Mk1 eunos last year, but it has been laid up for the winter.

Went to start it yesterday and there was nothing, no lights, no click, completely dead. SO i attached the battery to the charger and hey presto, the meter says its charged?

If the battery was not fully charged and you had an immobiliser/alarm it would have drained it in a month or 2 and your battery has lost capacity. So when you connect it to charge, it charges very quickly. Imagine 99.9% of your fuel tank is filled with concrete and you fill it at the pump, it will fill in a second and your fuel gauge will show full, but you can only drive for a second.

The only way to check it simply is to use a battery pack jump starter (I got one for £25 or so). If not use another car to jump start it. Failing that you can use a discharge tester to check the capacity of the battery.

In the future, put the battery on trickle charge, you can get "electronic" trickle chargers from ebay , Aldi etc

[CY88]

Cheers for that. Discharge tester said battery was knackered.