Boiling battery
Discussion
What is up forum!
Nice place you got here, you come here often?
Newbie with a very newbie post, maybe/hopefully? the first of many.
Always been interested in mechanics and DIY, nver really had the finacnces to do it, but heres to a good job and a long career!
Caution, i will ask very basic questions lol, though i was decent at physics, haven't done any in 5 years.
Took my car to a mechanic with a starting problem, after quoting me £35 for a diagnosis, and a call back, they decided not to call me back and to just 'fix' the car at £40 an hour, took them 3 hours apparently to fix something which was very vague, something about battery posts and a fuse? I mean im no mechanic but i can diagnose and fix about 2/3 humans in that time lol. Anyways, negotiated down to £80 pre VAt but it left a bit of a sour taste, maybe they were being genuine who knows.
In any case at the end the mechanic i buy one of their £80 batteries because mine was going to do soon, he took the caps off the cells, connected the positive and negative terminals with what looked like an ampmeter that looked like giant calipers. two of the cells started boiling. In the process of looking fro new batteries, the battery has never failed me in the one year ive owned it (K12 1.2 petrol Nissan Micra on around 50k miles) does this sound like a genuine issue or a bit more sales patter?
Appreciate any help team!
Dr.BM
Nice place you got here, you come here often?
Newbie with a very newbie post, maybe/hopefully? the first of many.
Always been interested in mechanics and DIY, nver really had the finacnces to do it, but heres to a good job and a long career!
Caution, i will ask very basic questions lol, though i was decent at physics, haven't done any in 5 years.
Took my car to a mechanic with a starting problem, after quoting me £35 for a diagnosis, and a call back, they decided not to call me back and to just 'fix' the car at £40 an hour, took them 3 hours apparently to fix something which was very vague, something about battery posts and a fuse? I mean im no mechanic but i can diagnose and fix about 2/3 humans in that time lol. Anyways, negotiated down to £80 pre VAt but it left a bit of a sour taste, maybe they were being genuine who knows.
In any case at the end the mechanic i buy one of their £80 batteries because mine was going to do soon, he took the caps off the cells, connected the positive and negative terminals with what looked like an ampmeter that looked like giant calipers. two of the cells started boiling. In the process of looking fro new batteries, the battery has never failed me in the one year ive owned it (K12 1.2 petrol Nissan Micra on around 50k miles) does this sound like a genuine issue or a bit more sales patter?
Appreciate any help team!
Dr.BM
bearman68 said:
Sounds like your mechanic at least tested the battery, and decided it was dead.
Without hard evidence of what was done and why, it seems hard to condemn your mech. But who's to say. It takes a while for me to fix cars. (But I'm only a humble car mechanic, and not a super doctor)
Haha, im a generally very trusting guy. But if you spend three hours on a car surely you have something specific to say lol.Without hard evidence of what was done and why, it seems hard to condemn your mech. But who's to say. It takes a while for me to fix cars. (But I'm only a humble car mechanic, and not a super doctor)
Im sure he did test it, tested it in front of me, ive been running on the same battery since then about 2 weeks or so, motorway, inner city, no issues since. so it may be dying but probably not completely dead yet. Im giving him the benefit of the doubt, but rather than trust implicitly i thought id cover my bases.
Do you think the test he did suggests it does need replacement?
and dont worry lol, im no super doc either, AE doc, jack of all trades master of nothing
DrBlackman said:
Do you think the test he did suggests it does need replacement?
What were the results? I can't tell from a description. It's hard to tell what happened from your post - what was wrong with the car in the 1st place? Hard to start could mean anything - It's a bit like "'flu like symptoms" - could be anything from a sneeze to Ebola
fair game 
the results of the test he did in front of me was just that two of the cells boiled when the posts were connected. The battery still charged fine with one of the external charger type things and it's been ok since. Hasn't failed to start or dimmed lights or anything since I got it back.
Originally what happened was I was about to drive back to my hometown about 60 miles away, started normally and about 10 meters out of the drive the car just suddenly shut off mid driving. Engine stopped, internal electrics shut down (headlights still worked at full brightness) and it wouldn't start again. No cranking, no start motor sound, nothing. I tried to bump start it, no dice. So I just pushed it back into the drive. it wouldn't lock via the key buttons either. Any time the key was inserted the immobiliser light would flash on (a key inside of a car red light on the dash)
A friend gave me a battery which I swapped, I tried to check all the fuses I knew about, nothing worked for me. Someone suggested a car loc smith but they said it didn't sound like a key issue.
Took it to the gents at the local mechanic and the story is as above, took them a few hours, they weren't clear about what it needed fixing though I asked, briefly mentioned something about a fuse and battery connections. When he tried to start it so I could drive out it didn't start which is when he got the callipers and connected the terminals, showed me the boiling cells and said that it would need a new battery. Then he charged it and it been fine ever since.
Hope you don't take offence to my distrust of this guy lol, it was just the oddness of not letting me know what needed doing before fixing it, not being clear about what he had done, charging £40 an hour plus VAT for the hours labour even though the first guy from the same garage said £35. Just all didn't seem right.
the results of the test he did in front of me was just that two of the cells boiled when the posts were connected. The battery still charged fine with one of the external charger type things and it's been ok since. Hasn't failed to start or dimmed lights or anything since I got it back.
Originally what happened was I was about to drive back to my hometown about 60 miles away, started normally and about 10 meters out of the drive the car just suddenly shut off mid driving. Engine stopped, internal electrics shut down (headlights still worked at full brightness) and it wouldn't start again. No cranking, no start motor sound, nothing. I tried to bump start it, no dice. So I just pushed it back into the drive. it wouldn't lock via the key buttons either. Any time the key was inserted the immobiliser light would flash on (a key inside of a car red light on the dash)
A friend gave me a battery which I swapped, I tried to check all the fuses I knew about, nothing worked for me. Someone suggested a car loc smith but they said it didn't sound like a key issue.
Took it to the gents at the local mechanic and the story is as above, took them a few hours, they weren't clear about what it needed fixing though I asked, briefly mentioned something about a fuse and battery connections. When he tried to start it so I could drive out it didn't start which is when he got the callipers and connected the terminals, showed me the boiling cells and said that it would need a new battery. Then he charged it and it been fine ever since.
Hope you don't take offence to my distrust of this guy lol, it was just the oddness of not letting me know what needed doing before fixing it, not being clear about what he had done, charging £40 an hour plus VAT for the hours labour even though the first guy from the same garage said £35. Just all didn't seem right.
From your description, I would suspect a main fuse has gone, or a connection between the battery and the engine ECU has failed in some way. Clearly they have spent some time looking for this, and eventually found the culprit. They've prob spent a few (3) hours looking for it, because they don't know what they are looking for, and are embarrassed to say - or after cleaning and fixing connections, it's started again, but they don't know why.
When you've gone to drive it out, the battery has failed - in fact it might even be the battery at fault in the first instance.
But I suspect they don't really know what's gone on - which is why they are evasive about what they did.
There's few of us in the trade that are out and out rouges, but many traditionally decent mechanics suffer from electricitus - an inability to understand and communicate effectively about electrical issues. That's why we've managed to build a business working exclusively on electrical systems, and work for loads of trade customers.
But I'm speculating, and of course none of this might be true at all.
When you've gone to drive it out, the battery has failed - in fact it might even be the battery at fault in the first instance.
But I suspect they don't really know what's gone on - which is why they are evasive about what they did.
There's few of us in the trade that are out and out rouges, but many traditionally decent mechanics suffer from electricitus - an inability to understand and communicate effectively about electrical issues. That's why we've managed to build a business working exclusively on electrical systems, and work for loads of trade customers.
But I'm speculating, and of course none of this might be true at all.
The test that was carried out on the battery was a load test, a good battery tester does have an ammeter to show what discharge is being applied to the battery during testing and the load can be adjusted. The load test involves applying a discharge of 3 x the battery amp/hour rating for 15 seconds and the battery voltage must hold to 9.6 volts or more during the test
If during a load test one cell or more start bubbling away merrily the battery is definitely faulty and the fault will also show on the tester voltage reading
In answer to your question.....The technician that tested your battery did not attempt to rip you off
If during a load test one cell or more start bubbling away merrily the battery is definitely faulty and the fault will also show on the tester voltage reading
In answer to your question.....The technician that tested your battery did not attempt to rip you off
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