I do start mine up every few days and do a couple of laps of the car park. 10mph seems fast now.
I was going to start a Thread about a flat battery, but I see that I’m not the only one in a similar position
My car is a 2005 Ford Fiesta Flame; generally in good condition, low mileage, only about 29,000 miles. I like it; it does all I want, and I plan on keeping it for the forseeable future
I’ve had it about 5 years, with the same battery that it came with, so that’s obviously at least 5 years old
It started every time until this last winter, about early March
A combination of a long bout of flu and the bad weather meant I had hardly driven it, just to the supermarket
One morning it wouldn’t start
My local garage is a friendly independent one, only a street away so we pushed it round. They recharged the battery, checked it, and there were no problems till yesterday
Thanks to the lockdown and my self isolation I hadn’t driven it for 6 days, but then got a flat battery again
And my garage is closed, as part of the lockdown
I could get a push start or help from my neighbours - I have jump leads - and try to nurse it for a while longer, and in normal circumstances with longer and regular journeys that would be enough.
But it’s obvious that the battery is on it’s way out, and i wouldn’t like to be stuck again
So I could shop around, get the car started somehow, and drive round to a supplier
Typical prices for a battery are about £70 or £80
However I’ve seen that The AA have a scheme called ‘Battery Assist’; you don’t have to be a member
They will come round to your house; check the battery; and replace it if necessary - which in my case it probably would be; and check the system
Price for that is about £130 to £150, depending on the battery
So I’m thinking - Why not just get it done?
Any comments?
Perhaps you should have had a new battery fitted in the first place Zulu, especially if you don’t know it’s history; Chances are that it was the original battery and it has lasted well.
A good guide to identifying a deceased battery; If you can remove the plastic covers on the top that gives access to the cells full of acid and distilled water, shine a torch down each, and the cell that has failed will be cloudy, discoloured and brown looking. The rest of the cells will contain crystal clear fluid…
It only takes one cell to fail and it will short out the rest, resulting in a steady discharge over time.
If you can afford it, use the AA - job done within minutes and you’ll have peace of mind for the rest of the lockdown.
You may be charged extra for battery disposal.
OGF - When I bought the car it was in excellent condition, low mileage, and a service history, and it started and ran well till this recent problem
That’s why I stayed with the same battery
But it obviously needs replacing; I’ll probably go with the AA Battery Assist unless I hear otherwise
That’s absolutely right, the old DC generators with electro-mechanical regulators could not charge at idle - sometimes the electrical indicator light used to flicker showing that the engine was only just providing barely .enough energy to run itself.
With modern alternators the voltage regulator will merely raise the field current to increase the output voltage. If you have a volt meter attached to the battery terminals you can watch this happen.
Before you start the engine a good battery will read say 12.5v (depends on load when ignition is turned on), when the starter motor operated the voltage will drop to say 10volts for a very short time. With the engine idling you will see the battery voltage rise to about 14 volts as the regulator winds the output of the alternator up. You might be able to hear the engine note change with the extra load.
Anything over 13.8v will charge the battery to the point of gassing slightly, I think when the engine is driving the car (say 2000revs or more) the output of the alternator will be limited to about 14.4v and smart alternators are likely to stop charging the battery when it is near full (as I understand it)
Those figures are from memory and approximate but won’t be too far out - they might vary by a decimal point or so.
Yep good choice Zulu, my daughters battery failed to start her car as it had been stood a couple of weeks. It was ten years old so I decided to fit her a new one. I purchased one from the local garage who does all our testing and servicing. He asked me if he would like him to fit it; I said no thanks as I have fitted more batteries than he had hot dinners…
He said just ring if you need help…
I couldn’t get the old battery off! It was surrounded by electronic stuff…
So I cut a large slice of humble pie and the garage bloke came out and fitted it for us…
So yes! A good choice to get the AA out to fit a new one Zulu…
How things have changed under the bonnet since my days of wielding a spanner…
Very interesting Bruce, I’ve coppied it down for future reference.
I did realise that the greater the load the less the voltage, but I didn’t know the exact figures…
Thanks…
When the AA restarted my car recently their mechanic checked the battery and declared it good to go, adding that it would have cost £270 for a replacement since the advent of stop-start systems has meant a massive increase in power requirement from batteries, which have been substantially upgraded to cope with thousands of starts a year … :shock:
Blimey - no more the £49.99 battery …
False economy in my opinion Omah…Might be good for the planet, but shocking on the pocket…
Unless I’m traversing a town my stop-start is turned off - there are few hold-ups on my usual routes … 
Yes, I know we’re rambling a bit here, but…
I didn’t learn to drive till I was 34, and my first car was a Mk 2 Escort.
That was simple, all manual, rear wheel drive, no electronics, you get the idea; I learned a lot on that, and became quite keen on car mechanics
Then I got a Mk 3 Escort, and that was still simple too
After that cars became progressively more complicated and electronic, with packed engine bays, and less easy to work on
Now that I’ve retired and downsized to a flat I no longer have a garage or even a drive
Plus I’m getting too fat & old to lie on my back changing gearboxes, so all that means I just take my car to a garage for any work
But sometimes I miss a bit of knuckle grazing, and i wouldn’t mind finding someone doing up an old tractor or something
I thought most car batteries these days were sealed lead acid so you don’t have access to the cells to inspect them.
All the batteries on my vehicles up to now have had lift of panels to check the electrolyte levels Besoeker, even my latest motor; A ten year old Nissan Qashkai.
I’ve spent some hours removing engines out of Mini’s Zulu, loved it!
I learnt to drive at seventeen in 1967 and had around four Mini’s, I couldn’t afford to run them if I would have had to take them to a garage for any work to be done. Fortunately I was apprenticed as a Mechanical Engineer, and although I was training to be a machinist and toolmaker the love of engines came second nature to me.
Like you though, engines became unrecognisable and priorities change, and so do earnings, and it was so much easier to drop it round at the local garage for jobs to be done. I can’t imagine now, sitting in the howling wind and cold servicing the brakes, or laid underneath replacing an exhaust…
But they were good times Zulu, and all part of the university of life…
I have never owned a car with a stop/start system but I think if I did it would be the first thing I disabled.
Let’s face it a car can idle all day for the cost of a burger especially the tiny engines they use in Europe.
You can’t disable it Bruce, it can be switched off, but it comes on again every time you restart the car
I have a VW Golf 1.6 TDi Blue Motion and over six years of ownership from new, have found what seems to be a ‘halfway point’ of using the stop/start. Driving this way still returns 61 miles per gallon average.
Stop/start only operates when the car is put in neutral so by reading the traffic and road conditions it’s possible, for instance, to slow down if approaching traffic lights that are about to turn to green so the stop/start doesn’t have to operate, the same with any stop that you can see is only going to be short-lived. With really long-lasting traffic jams, say at road works, the stop/start can be allowed to come into operation as that is when a worthwhile amount of fuel can be saved.
The clutch can also be ‘dipped’ to prevent the stop/start from operating on a really short stop. Just ensure you don’t ‘ride’ the clutch though, replacement clutches are even more costly than the very expensive batteries on these cars.
Clutch? who uses a clutch these days? Too much traffic on the road to have a manual.
As I say I have never owned a stop/Start car and probably won’t as I think my Dmax will see me out but I have read there are ways of disabling it - one was by fooling it into thinking you’re towing (don’t know much about this though.)
I’ve always had manual cars so am one who uses a clutch. A dislike of automatics, from many years’ ago, was dispelled when recently I drove a courtesy car that was an automatic. So very different to the old automatics, the changes in gear could hardly be noticed.
I’ve not been to Australia, one of my big regrets in life, but somehow I think you might have a shock at the higher traffic levels in London, it’s often quicker to walk!