car battery problem, any advice please?

[Davey44]

Batteries these days aren't cheap, at least not if you're replacing one on a car that has the stop/restart system. Depending on the actual type they can be upwards of £180.00, and in my book that isn't cheap.

Other contributors are right, in that once a car refuses to start it probably isn't any good just replacing the battery unless/until you've checked out all possible problems. For example a boot/hatchback light that doesn't go out when the lid/hatchback is closed. That's proven to be more common than many people think. Answer, lock your wife or the loudest of one of your kids in there and close the lid/hatchback and see what response you get.
Seriously though, when ours has very occasionally refused to start I've left one of the reliable maintenance chargers under the bonnet plugged into a single extension ('throwaround') socket and close the bonnet securely. Given a good 12 hours of charge should be sufficient to get your engine started.

 

[Davey44]

As I foiund out to my cost, even a new battery will die faily quickly unless either a car is used regualrly, or the battery is kept charged. I was forced to lay up a 5-series BMW for several months when my wife fell ill. I was running a company car. The original battery died after a couple of months and I replaced it with a new one from Halfords. I neglected to keep it charged (other priorities at the time) and the car sat unused and unloved for three months. When I did finally get round to selling the car the battery wouldn't hold a charge. So the lesson I learned was, lead-acid batteries need to be kept charged or they die.

Yes SELECTORTONE you're absolutely right. As an apprentice I was put in charge of the battery shop and the old guy who had been doing the job spent a while explaining the chemistry of the lead/acid battery. He warned against leaving any battery, regardless of capacity, off charge for much more than a week. We had what were called 'Service Batteries' which were used to swap with a customer's own when it wouldn't start the vehicle until we'd tested their own. The old service batteries lasted an age, and all because we kept them in tip top condition. Occasionally that meant emptying the acid and recharging them with Sulphuric (acid) at between 12.60 and 12.80 SD - checked with an hydrometer.
These days with many batteries no longer being lead/acid things are different.

 

[Inspector]

FORD = Found On Road Dead

Instead of getting a second battery consider one of the portable booster/air compressor packs. Carry it with you so no matter where you are if you need a boost you have it and you can do the same with a leaking tire or soccer/football. Take it in the house with you when it needs a charge and back out in the morning. Like one of these. https://www.canadiantire.ca/en/pdp/...er-pack-with-air-compressor-0112065p.html#srp

Pete

 

[stevek]

If your not using the car much now because of covid why not see if you can just charge the battery up but then leave it disconected, one terminal off, esp on your driveway, you cannot lock the car but the battery will sit there quite happily for a very long time. Maybe you will lose your radio settings but I cannot think of anything else that would be an issue. If your useing the car, even a small amount, you might want to just check your alternator charging with a multimeter,,should be reading around 13v off tickover. The problem with modern cars is as has been said, Alarms and stuff like that, constantly drawing, and if things are a bit marginal and you get a drop in temp then the battery just doesnt have the power,,its the classic cold weather starting issue.

 

[Cirks]

Still think the trickle charger Optimate/Accumate that a couple of us have suggested is the most sensible option as it’s simple plug in then leave. A lot quicker than disconnecting/reconnecting or swapping batteries. One point to remember is that if you disconnect alarm or battery your insurance in theory will be voided for any break-in if when you took out policy you declared the car is fitted with (factory) alarm.

 

[Rorschach]

If your not using the car much now because of covid why not see if you can just charge the battery up but then leave it disconected, one terminal off, esp on your driveway, you cannot lock the car but the battery will sit there quite happily for a very long time. Maybe you will lose your radio settings but I cannot think of anything else that would be an issue. If your useing the car, even a small amount, you might want to just check your alternator charging with a multimeter,,should be reading around 13v off tickover. The problem with modern cars is as has been said, Alarms and stuff like that, constantly drawing, and if things are a bit marginal and you get a drop in temp then the battery just doesnt have the power,,its the classic cold weather starting issue.

An alternator even at idle should be producing 14v and with the revs up it should be 14.4-5v.

 

[stevek]

Your quite right about the voltage,,,my memory voltage requires checking I think! it was only a few months ago I was testing our car battery and alternator.
btw Ive found ebay battery seller's to be very good, fast delivery and long warranties,,Halfords are way too expensive for me.
Steve.

 

[Rorschach]

Your quite right about the voltage,,,my memory voltage requires checking I think! it was only a few months ago I was testing our car battery and alternator.
btw Ive found ebay battery seller's to be very good, fast delivery and long warranties,,Halfords are way too expensive for me.
Steve.

I suspect if you buying a decent branded battery then an eBay seller is as good as any other retailer. My problem was with cheap batteries as per my "system" I mentioned, in my case it was better to pay a few £'s extra to go to a B&M shop.

 

[OldWood]

If you take a standard lead acid battery and leave it sitting on a shelf without any connections it will remain charged for ages. Its all the gizmos attached to the normal car battery that sucks power out it and then if the voltage gets to a certain low point the battery will die quickly due I think to sulphation.

The stories above of batteries dying all follow that pattern - complex expensive cars all dying quickly and those in inexpensive run-abouts lasting.

I'm not sure what the solution to that is though, short of an intelligent charger. I have a diesel Skoda and the battery died within a year so a new one was fitted free of charge and it took the guy far longer to tell the computer about it than the actual fitting time !

 

[PetePontoValentino]

Interesting. How old is your 3 series? What is the worst problem you have experienced?

My wife has had a 325 ci since 2003 or 2004. I don't like the car but she likes it and it has been reliable. The original battery lasted 13 years - not bad in our climate with the car always parked outside and no plug-in heaters or anything. The replacement battery is still fine. We have had basically no issues with the car.

Of course individual anecdotes are meaningless so this BMW may be an outlier. Certainly I have heard of plenty of other people having less satisfactory experiences.

It's a 2006 330 xd (3l strait 6 with lots of "bits") with 136k km on the clock (about 85km miles) so should be just about run in. a year ago we spent about 2k getting it through it's MOT (they're quite strict in Switzerland) but then a few weeks later 3 diesel injectors failed at the same time so another 2k went out of the window.

It has run fine for close to a year but a brake warning light is now showing. The garage looked and (as is often the case) say the disks need changing and the shock absorbers. The quote is for CHF 7500 (about 6200 sterling) which, for a car that is worth about GBP 2500 is simply not going to happen.

I would do the work myself but I don't have a garage or usable workspace and in winter working on the car in the street doesn't really appeal. I did take a wheel off and can see there is plenty of meat on the disks and a probably a couple of months left on the pads at least.

Based on the size of the bill we have ordered a replacement. We were expecting delivery of a new Defender in March but that's now been pushed to May so pads are ordered and I will need to be creative,

The BMW pads for all 4 corners cost CHF 500, I ordered Ferodo for CHF 200.

It really feels like the Germans are taking the piss!

 

[Chris70]

I'm not sure if this is off-topic, but I can thoroughly recommend the CTEK battery charger:

https://www.ctek.com/storage/28170E...bda89213323dad93/MXS_5.0-manual-low-UK-EN.pdf

 

[Rorschach]

Well that's good timing, just heard from a relative that their car battery has packed up. Not totally surprising given that the farthest they ever drive is about 5 miles and the car has been laid up for almost 3 weeks in all this cold weather. Battery is almost 3 years old so will be getting a new one though will try and make a claim on the warranty, not that I expect to get anywhere.

 

[Hardy]

Three months back our Fiat Panda 4x4 would not start, so out came the RAC who diagnosed dead battery, but got the car started with a booster. I ordered a new one online. The next day out of interest I tried starting the car and it started on the first turn. Perfect and perfect ever since. The new battery is still in the shed and the old one starts first time, even on those days when it was -12!

 

[Rorschach]

Three months back our Fiat Panda 4x4 would not start, so out came the RAC who diagnosed dead battery, but got the car started with a booster. I ordered a new one online. The next day out of interest I tried starting the car and it started on the first turn. Perfect and perfect ever since. The new battery is still in the shed and the old one starts first time, even on those days when it was -12!

If it just got a bit low then sometimes you can revive it quite well and it will last a few months or even a year or so longer but normally once you have a dud start it doesn't last long after that.

Just put the multi meter on the dead battery, 9.2v, definitely a gonner but Euro car parts have promised to give a free replacement which is great news!

 

[Ozi]

I just set my weather app to show me the temperatures you are dealing with. You might hit 0C in a week Monday. We will be hitting -30C around then. Your battery should never have a problem starting your car. Our cars come with block heaters to keep the oil warm enough to allow the engine to turn over but they aren't supposed to be turned on unless the air is -7C or lower (depends on the manufacturer). Aftermarket battery heaters can be bought and installed which helps them cope with the cold but again they are meant for very cold weather. You can buy battery chargers that are permanently mounted under the hood and wired into the car so you only need to plug it in but that would normally be used in in situations where the car isn't used much. They are optional on higher end cars. I'm with the people suggesting a check of the car's charging system and/or a new battery. As for the extension cord it is exposed to the weather and often the outlets are exposed outside, usually GFCI. Good employers have them at every parking stall. If it is raining your car shouldn't have any problem starting.

Pete

I'm going to stop moaning about -2°C

 

[Inspector]

-2ºC is sweatshirt and no jacket weather. When -30ºC I let the dog out and then put on boots, toque and coat. Then watch her to make sure her paws don't start freezing making her limp. If that happens I dash out pick her up and bring her in. They forget about time while being a dog doing all that sniffing around. Takes less than 5 minutes. The cars are better kept in the garage so they are not cold and sluggish either. Odd feeling the steering stiffen up as you drive along when it's that nippy.

Pete

 

[Concizat]

-2ºC is sweatshirt and no jacket weather. When -30ºC I let the dog out and then put on boots, toque and coat. Then watch her to make sure her paws don't start freezing making her limp. If that happens I dash out pick her up and bring her in. They forget about time while being a dog doing all that sniffing around. Takes less than 5 minutes. The cars are better kept in the garage so they are not cold and sluggish either. Odd feeling the steering stiffen up as you drive along when it's that nippy.

Pete

What's a toque ?. I always thought it's some sort of spliff? Maybe it is

 

[Just4Fun]

The cars are better kept in the garage

Perhaps it is because I have never had a garage that I find this very confusing. Maybe I have misunderstood the purpose of a garage, but going just on what I have read on this forum, this leads me to believe that if your garage is occupied by vehicle(s) you must keep a table saw, band saw, planer/thicknesser, work bench etc on your driveway. Is that not inconvenient when you want to drive out?

Our vehicles are kept outside in all weathers. The cars we have kept for the longest (18 years 450 000 km for my wife's current car, for example) have not even had a sump heater. A garage would be nice but is not really necessary. After all the car is almost always parked in the open when away from home so what is the difference? Or should I just admit I am jealous that you have a garage?

 

[Inspector]

A toque is Canadian for a knit watch cap. You guys need to get out more.

When I lived near Vancouver my truck was always outside too but here winter is a little colder and in the summer you want to be able to put it inside if any thunderstorms are in the forecast. The hail can dent them up bad.

Here is how it works. Cars in the garage, tools in the shop, people and dogs in the house. You are not jealous, you are envious. You would be jealous if you caught your tools sleeping in my shop.

Pete