Battery Not Holding It's Charge

[greg_68]

I used to work for halfords - all the batteries arrive in the shop charged for them to sell. You wont get a FLAT battery from them. MAybe a little discharged - but certainly not flat. And they are all tested for faults before they go on the shelf by the factories.

 

j_m

 

The battery I got from Halfords was completely dead when I got it home it didn't even have the power to illuminate the instrument panel.

[Guest j_mchattie]

*Eating Hat*

[soptom]

I used to work for halfords - all the batteries arrive in the shop charged for them to sell. You wont get a FLAT battery from them. MAybe a little discharged - but certainly not flat. And they are all tested for faults before they go on the shelf by the factories.

 

j_m

 

The battery I got from Halfords was completely dead when I got it home it didn't even have the power to illuminate the instrument panel.

Everything indicates you were just unlucky in that the first battery you bought was faulty. Chances are you will be okay now, not every fault is doom and gloom, some people aren't happy unless they can ruin your day by suggesting your blown fuse is a new loom job.

[Guest vr6galaxy]

Damn :lol: we forgot to suggest that you may need a new loom! and while your at it have you checked the fuses?

 

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/insane.in.da.membrane/brickwall.gif

[johnb80]

Slipping fan belt? why do we still call them fan belts?

 

Regards - JB

[Andrew T]

MM - That wasn't for you! Your advice has been helpful to me in the past.

 

It was the

Jump Start It

And why, pray, did that annoy you ?. The person who started the thread asked how he could charge his calcium battery without a special to type charger. I offered him a simple and cheap way.

Seems like there is only one person here who is not reading the threads properly !

[Guest j_mchattie]

Because he has told us that running the vehicle is discharging the battery over time?

[Masked Marauder]

Back on topic please chaps!

 

Getting a bit of a spark when connecting a battery onto a modern car is quite normal though, there is a lot of kit that stays on with a small drain, alarms, radios, ecu etc.

 

But a big fat spark is not good......

 

Halfords batteries are not the best in the world anyway, I prefer one with a charge indicator built in. Vauxhall batteries are excellent if somewhat expensive.

[greg_68]

Just a quick update for any future reference, it seems to have been the battery as this one has been on for 3 weeks and still seems ok.

 

Now i have to take my original battery back and see if they will refund me.

 

Cheers for all the advice.

[Gadgetoid]

Out of curiosity:

Are the Ford Calcium type batteries only found in the petrol Galaxies. I thought they had to have a special alternator to charge them. I figured that the TDi's would probably come with bog standard VW alternators and standard batteries.

Certainly the battery in my 2002 TDi is not marked as a calcium battery - but that might not mean much :lol:

[Guest vr6galaxy]

All Galaxy's from 99 onwards are fitted with Ca battery's, the majority of Fords had them fitted from 98/99 onwards

[Ru88ell]

Hi Folks

I have an 04 Galaxy Ghia. My problem is one that I get a flat battery when I have have left the tailgate open for about 20 minutes. I never had these problems with other cars.

 

Would you start with a new battery, or do you think that there could be another problem?

Rgds

Russell

[jkspoff]

Get a massive (with spare energy) Numax battery, I bought one that fills the whole of the battery space ! It looks like enough to power a small town, but it has more than enough energy in it to cope with the coldest of mornings and lots of abuse. Guaranteed for 3 years too. The Numax car battery came out as the best budget car battery in AutoExpress magazines 29th October - 4th November 2003 edition. You're better off getting one thats got a larger capacity than actually required. The Numax are the conventional type and the Vartas are the Calcium type, both are ok for the Galaxy, providing they have a high enough Ah.

 

Premium Car Battery

Voltage - 12V

Capacity - 88Ah

CCA(SAE) - 750A

 

Dimensions(mm)

354 x 175 x 190

 

3 years guarantee

 

Original equipment specification

 

Increased capacity for higher cold start performance

 

Maintenance Free

 

Quality assured ISO 9002 accredited

 

Recommended for petrol, diesel and LPG powered cars

and light commercial vehicles

[sepulchrave]

...I've got a battery as well, got some tyres 'n' all, does anyone have any opinions as to what car I should get to go with them? :lol:

[Guest seacam]

Get a massive (with spare energy) Numax battery, I bought one that fills the whole of the battery space ! It looks like enough to power a small town, but it has more than enough energy in it to cope with the coldest of mornings and lots of abuse. Guaranteed for 3 years too. The Numax car battery came out as the best budget car battery in AutoExpress magazines 29th October - 4th November 2003 edition. You're better off getting one thats got a larger capacity than actually required. The Numax are the conventional type and the Vartas are the Calcium type, both are ok for the Galaxy, providing they have a high enough Ah.

 

Premium Car Battery

Voltage - 12V

Capacity - 88Ah

CCA(SAE) - 750A

 

Dimensions(mm)

354 x 175 x 190

 

3 years guarantee

 

Original equipment specification

 

Increased capacity for higher cold start performance

 

Maintenance Free

 

Quality assured ISO 9002 accredited

 

Recommended for petrol, diesel and LPG powered cars

and light commercial vehicles

 

How much did it cost you?

[jkspoff]

I think it was about

[Guest seacam]

I think it was about

[Smilge]

I've just been reading through the various posts on how various people diagnose battery faults. From my own experience I check a battery using the following methods. Some people may disagree and have a lot more experience than I have but I think we can pool information and get a moderator to pin an agreed 'checklist' on how to check your battery, espiecally before the winter months.

 

Here are my suggestions:

 

1. If you have problems with starting due to a discharged battery, to get going you will need a 'jump' start. To bump start a car (push and engage a gear with ignition turned on) is a NO NO as the Catalytic converter will be damaged by neat fuel entering.

 

2. Measuring the voltage with nothing switched on should indicate no less than 11.8V if the battery is ok.

 

3. Once the engine is running, the voltage should be around 13.8V indicating that the alternator is charging the battery. If the indication shows less than 13V I would suspect the alternator is at fault. This is usually confirmed by a dim charging lamp indication on the instrument panel. ( I have had problems where the charging voltage is around 12V with no indication). If this the case, there are plenty of companies who can change either the diode pack or the brushes at a fraction of the cost of a reconditioned or new alternator.

 

4. Even though the voltage readings are OK the battery may still be U/S. You will need to load test the battery by switching everything on. If you can remove the caps for each battery cell, you can look for air bubbles that appear as the cells discharge. If you see no bubbles after a couple of minutes from 1 or more cells, those cells are U/S. (I had a problem where the car would start one week and the following week, dead as a dodo. This turned out to be a couple of dead cells that were internally 'shorted')

 

5. Do not try and charge a dead battery using the cars charging circuit - use a proper battery charger with the battery removed from the car ensuring adequate ventilation.

 

6. When jump starting a car always connect the 'positive to positive' leads first and connect the negative lead from 'chassis to chassis' NOT 'negative to negative' as this may damage the ECU.

 

I hope you find this useful and people may like to add info to my comments .... feel free

 

Happy and safe winter motoring

 

Chris

[strouf]

To bump start a car (push and engage a gear with ignition turned on) is a NO NO as the Catalytic converter will be damaged by neat fuel entering.

 

 

Supposing the reason for the car not starting is a dead battery,why bump starting it would make any difference than turning the engine with the starter motor? In both cases the engine will turn for a couple of secs and then start. Am I missing something here ?

[Smilge]

To bump start a car (push and engage a gear with ignition turned on) is a NO NO as the Catalytic converter will be damaged by neat fuel entering.

 

 

Supposing the reason for the car not starting is a dead battery,why bump starting it would make any difference than turning the engine with the starter motor? In both cases the engine will turn for a couple of secs and then start. Am I missing something here ?

 

See what you're saying, but very rare for a car to start first push. By using the battery to turn the engine drains what little life is left in it whereas with a donor battery, you hopefully won't drain that to the same extent as the dead one ..... agreed?

[NikpV]

See what you're saying, but very rare for a car to start first push

 

whilst I agree in general ;) - I have to say that our tdi always starts straight away - difficult to describe but it catches as soon as the key is turned ;) , the only time it didn't was when the battery had been run flat by te dvd player being left on overnight- then it was just 'click'. Connected to our escort with leads and it started as tye key was turned :D

[Smilge]

See what you're saying, but very rare for a car to start first push

 

whilst I agree in general ;) - I have to say that our tdi always starts straight away - difficult to describe but it catches as soon as the key is turned ;) , the only time it didn't was when the battery had been run flat by te dvd player being left on overnight- then it was just 'click'. Connected to our escort with leads and it started as tye key was turned :D

 

I was talking about physically pushing the car to get it started ...I dont think a high compression diesel would bump start antway mate so you're right with just a click :D

[NikpV]

See what you're saying, but very rare for a car to start first push

 

whilst I agree in general ;) - I have to say that our tdi always starts straight away - difficult to describe but it catches as soon as the key is turned ;) , the only time it didn't was when the battery had been run flat by te dvd player being left on overnight- then it was just 'click'. Connected to our escort with leads and it started as tye key was turned :D

 

I was talking about physically pushing the car to get it started ...I dont think a high compression diesel would bump start antway mate so you're right with just a click :D

 

 

oops sorry misinterpreted what you were saying - my bad :D

[Ru88ell]

Folks

 

I did as someone suggested and got a big mother of a 100AH battery. Between ordering it and the arrival the car failed to start when my wife was using it. She called the RAC, and the man said that the problem battery had a failed cell. Since fitting the new battery the car feel completely different - faster, more responsive. Why so?

[seatkid]

When the battery was disconnected during the change, the ECU adaptive parameters were reset, leading to the "perceived" change. It will take a day or so to retrain.....