Flat Battery

[purplemadboy]

Hi . I know its a dumb ass question but my car has not moved in two weeks ,should the battery hold its charge longer than that?My other problem is that the car is nose first into my garage thus I cant jump start it,even if I could get jump leads to the battery I can only see one terminal,how doI get to the other terminal to attach a battery charger?

[bj2004]

connect the battery charger to the wires of the rear power socket black one from charger to earth red wire from charger to centre cable of power socket

[purplemadboy]

I bought a Ring CarStarter and had it charging all day ( i know it says 8 hrs but i had it on for 4hrs)after charging the car battery with it, the still didnt turn over.

What the symptoms are ,the dash goes blank and all the relays click when you try and start the car.The strange thing is all the courtesy lights work!

Do I have a flatish battery or is there another fault?

[purplemadboy]

Update got Green Flag out,guy started the car with a jump from his big lorry with flashing lights ...he is my hero :rolleyes: ps he said those recharge kits that work through the cigar lighter are not worth a monkeys!

[RADIOTWO]

I bought a Ring CarStarter and had it charging all day ( i know it says 8 hrs but i had it on for 4hrs)after charging the car battery with it, the still didnt turn over.

What the symptoms are ,the dash goes blank and all the relays click when you try and start the car.The strange thing is all the courtesy lights work!

Do I have a flatish battery or is there another fault?

 

I assume these are the things you plug into the cig lighter socket, if so arn't the sockets controlled by the ignition switch ?

 

Radiotwo

[Mirez]

I bought a Ring CarStarter and had it charging all day ( i know it says 8 hrs but i had it on for 4hrs)after charging the car battery with it, the still didnt turn over.

What the symptoms are ,the dash goes blank and all the relays click when you try and start the car.The strange thing is all the courtesy lights work!

Do I have a flatish battery or is there another fault?

 

I assume these are the things you plug into the cig lighter socket, if so arn't the sockets controlled by the ignition switch ?

 

Radiotwo

 

Yes, they are useless on any car that shuts off power to them when you turn off the ignition or (as in the case of the galaxy) after a predetermined time.

[RADIOTWO]

I bought a Ring CarStarter and had it charging all day ( i know it says 8 hrs but i had it on for 4hrs)after charging the car battery with it, the still didnt turn over.

What the symptoms are ,the dash goes blank and all the relays click when you try and start the car.The strange thing is all the courtesy lights work!

Do I have a flatish battery or is there another fault?

 

I assume these are the things you plug into the cig lighter socket, if so arn't the sockets controlled by the ignition switch ?

 

Radiotwo

[Jaanus]

I have the same problem. 2 weeks and the battery is flat. There are the reasons, I will explain shortly.

 

*) The battery is 52 Ah (quite small). That means that this car need daily driving.

*) The daily consumption of the car is 1 Ah. Thought it seems small, you have to take into consideration that the alternator will never charge battery to 100%. Even more, during cold weather there is a lot of electrical load on the battery and also battery is not able to take charge quickly.

*) The problem appears mostly when you drive short trips in cold weather using a lot of electrical gadgets (windshield heater, seat heaters, fan, lights etc). The battery usually has a charge of perhaps 40..50% of full battery. That means that during 2 weaks it will be as good as dead (in cold weather the CCA and Ah available will drop drastically).

*) That means that you should use battery maintainer/float charger for longer stay. I bought Telwin T-Charge 12, intelligent charger. Perhaps in UK you are able to purchase CTEK products - these are the same, they are good. The good thing is that they are fully automatic, that means they will not destroy you battery if left on.

*) On MKIII I use the auxiliary power port in the cargo area (sorry for my English). That is the power socket similar to cigarette adapter, BUT that socket stays on even when the car is locked. You can use small current on that (the fuse is 15A). But the modern intelligent chargers give perhaps most 4..8 A, so it should be fine.

 

I use the car in Estonia and this winter here was -30 C degrees couple of days, -20 C is usual. With the charger once a week everything works smoothly. The 52Ah is standard battery for 2.0 petrol engine also in Scandinavia/Baltics.

 

Otherwise, it is good to have your battery load tested just in case.

[purplemadboy]

Update.....The car sat for a couple of days and you guessed it battery dead again, so this time I charged the battery with my mains charger for half an hour and then the wife and I went away for the weekend, drove the car for 150miles in the round trip,put the car back the garage when we got home (sunday) tryed to start the car on wednesday and the battery was dead.

Car is booked into the dealers for monday morning...will let you know what they say when I get it back.Or if you have anything I should ask them please let me know.

[Jaanus]

Update.....The car sat for a couple of days and you guessed it battery dead again, so this time I charged the battery with my mains charger for half an hour and then the wife and I went away for the weekend, drove the car for 150miles in the round trip,put the car back the garage when we got home (sunday) tryed to start the car on wednesday and the battery was dead.

Car is booked into the dealers for monday morning...will let you know what they say when I get it back.Or if you have anything I should ask them please let me know.

Half an hour charging in cold will give perhaps 4 Ah. Good enough to start the car, the surface charge is almost 13 V perhaps. But if the battery was empty then it stays empty even with 150 miles driving.

 

The main issue is: was it cold? In temperatures the cold air will enter the engine bay and will cool the battery. The "smart-charge" system checks the engine temperature and will lower the system voltage when engine warm. However, it is not good enough to charge the cold battery. It will take a lot of time to warm up the battery until it will start accepting charge fast enough. The good old lead-acid battery depends SO much of the temperature.

 

Been there, done that...

 

But it is worth checking the standby current (the amount the car draws from battery when standby). By the way: was the car locked? When locked, the computers are in sleep mode. When not locked, the computers draw more energy.

 

And there is always the possibility that the battery is dead.

[purplemadboy]

Hi Januus ,couple of good points you made..it wasnt too cold -5 but the car was not locked as it was in my garage..going to the dealers with it tomorrow and see what they think.

[Tin Tin]

Newbie question so not sure if this is in the right section. I've got a 2002 1.9 diesel ghia.

 

The battery was flat after standing in the cold for a few days so I got a jump start. Since then its been starting ok but does seem to struggle a little when its really cold. I'm going on holiday soon and the car will be standing for a week. Is it worth charging the battery up or replace it.

 

Are there any top tips for taking the battery off and putting it back on as I don't want to damage the electronics by doing it incorrectly.

[Jaanus]

Newbie question so not sure if this is in the right section. I've got a 2002 1.9 diesel ghia.

 

The battery was flat after standing in the cold for a few days so I got a jump start. Since then its been starting ok but does seem to struggle a little when its really cold. I'm going on holiday soon and the car will be standing for a week. Is it worth charging the battery up or replace it.

 

Are there any top tips for taking the battery off and putting it back on as I don't want to damage the electronics by doing it incorrectly.

 

do not disconnect battery, give it full charge.

if possible, buy a maintenance charger and leave it connected.

 

for charging use only "smart" chargers that will not give more than 15V out. like CTEK (google for those).

charging current should not be above 1/10 of the Ah-s of your battery. 8A if the battery is 80Ah.

 

when back from holiday, let the dealer (if under warranty) do the battery load test. that will give you an idea if you need a new battery.

if car is not under warranty, have a load test done in a shop that sells batteries.

You will definitely need Silver-Calcium battery (usual batteries will be cooked by the Ford Smart-Charge system quite quickly).

 

BTW - disconnecting the battery will not damage the electronics if no sparks BUT you will loose all the settings. most probably the should NOT be in the ignition lock (worth checking from dealer).

 

most probably your battery is just in "winter condition". that means, it is half-empty.

[purplemadboy]

Ok guys turns out that the battery was knackerd

[Richard44]

Hi

 

I'm having similar problems with my 2.2TDCI the car is used every day and still struggles to turn over at times.

It's just coming up to a year old; it's going into a dealer on Friday I'll let you know how I get on

 

Richard