Does a fully discharged new battery need to be replaced??
Discussion
I had a brand new battery fitted within the last year. I also had a new boot seal fitted at a service a few months later. The new boot seal meant the boot needed a much harder slam than previously and even though it appeared closed it was open with the internal light on.
After the first time this happened the battery totally discharged, only for a day or 2, but lost all its power to the point it wouldn't even open the doors. Ever since then the trickle charger the car is normally kept on flashes indicating a battery fault and whilst in regular use the battery is fine and holds charge well. However, having not used the car for 4 weeks or so and had the trickle charger connected the battery is now flat.
I have tried another battery charger and it also flashes battery fault. I asked the garage that fitted the battery and they said that the warranty would be void because it had been completely discharged and this can affect the battery plates.
So the battery is fine in normal use but as I don't use it as much during winter and it will not maintain itself on a trickle charger do I need to replace a less than year old battery with a new one?
After the first time this happened the battery totally discharged, only for a day or 2, but lost all its power to the point it wouldn't even open the doors. Ever since then the trickle charger the car is normally kept on flashes indicating a battery fault and whilst in regular use the battery is fine and holds charge well. However, having not used the car for 4 weeks or so and had the trickle charger connected the battery is now flat.
I have tried another battery charger and it also flashes battery fault. I asked the garage that fitted the battery and they said that the warranty would be void because it had been completely discharged and this can affect the battery plates.
So the battery is fine in normal use but as I don't use it as much during winter and it will not maintain itself on a trickle charger do I need to replace a less than year old battery with a new one?
What type of battery is it? "Deep discharge" which is what's happened to yours, can permanently damage some types but others such as AGM (absorbent glass matrix) batteries can tolerate a deep discharge several times. That's why I have them in my rarely used bike and XJ12 but the daily has a lead acid battery.
PositronicRay said:
If you can't recover it most batteries have a long warranty.
He already told them it's been discharged totally.Did this to one battery, wouldn't even activate the polarity check on the charger so that wouldn't fire up.
Whacked a couple of jump leads on it from another good one, after lots of sparks, charged up fine and has been the best buttery on my garage queen 911.
It's buggered so give it a crack, it might blow of the crud, or just blow up
That's the thing, it has recharged before from a battery charger. It will hold a charge and was used in fairly active use and was entirely fine. I then haven't used the TVR for 4 weeks and it is unlikely to get used that often over the winter. So i need it to be able to live off a battery conditioner to keep it topped up.
It seems this may not be possible and so I may need to replace it which is a real pain. Thanks.
It seems this may not be possible and so I may need to replace it which is a real pain. Thanks.
GeorgeR said:
From experience modern battery chargers struggle with a fully discharged battery. If you have a spare charged battery, connect the two with jump leads and leave overnight or a few hours. You should then be able to use your battery charger.
This.Once it's cahrged you will get plenty of use out of it, fool the charger into thinking it's connected to a charged battery as that's what the charger needs to kick in
A good charger will also sometimes need tricking into kicking in, chargers differ in how they swith in to charge
Volts, it's all about volts
GeorgeR said:
From experience modern battery chargers struggle with a fully discharged battery. If you have a spare charged battery, connect the two with jump leads and leave overnight or a few hours. You should then be able to use your battery charger.
My charger doesn't like a dead flat battery, but I can jump-start it with a pair of half-flat 9v batteries :1. Connect charger : it flashes the led to say battery short or damaged.
2. Clip the two nine volt batteries together and jump them across the terminals. After about 5 seconds the charger kicks in and I can disconnect the 9v batteries.
Although it's nominally 18 volts, the voltage across the battery never gets above 12 volts.
A fully charged 9v battery will do the trick, but I only had a pair of half-dead ones the first time I tried it.
AW111 said:
GeorgeR said:
From experience modern battery chargers struggle with a fully discharged battery. If you have a spare charged battery, connect the two with jump leads and leave overnight or a few hours. You should then be able to use your battery charger.
My charger doesn't like a dead flat battery, but I can jump-start it with a pair of half-flat 9v batteries :1. Connect charger : it flashes the led to say battery short or damaged.
2. Clip the two nine volt batteries together and jump them across the terminals. After about 5 seconds the charger kicks in and I can disconnect the 9v batteries.
Although it's nominally 18 volts, the voltage across the battery never gets above 12 volts.
A fully charged 9v battery will do the trick, but I only had a pair of half-dead ones the first time I tried it.
InitialDave said:
Yes, jumping it like that then leaving a Ctek attached has rescued a few very dead batteries for me, though not forever. If you properly drain them, they're never quite the same again.
I used to have a pile of dead batteries, from Clio size to heating oil tanker size. The Ctek brought all but one of them back to life, which is actually a bit of a hassle - now I have a load of old batteries that work perfectly, all needing to be kept on a float charge!Gassing Station | Home Mechanics | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff