Car Battery Failure

polygonum · 2013-06-17T18:39:39+00:00

About two weeks ago car was in a paintshop for a week due to very minor accident damage. Last Tuesday it was in for MoT. Last Thursday the car would not start ? had been perfectly fine at last use on Wednesday. Battery appeared to have failed ? I got a moment or two of ignition light, then that would not light up and door locks would not work. Lidl charger wouldn?t even look at it. Not then, nor several hours later. Called RAC, man came, jump start, seems OK (i.e. nothing whatsoever wrong with the car itself). Made some measurements on the battery and his special meter displayed ?REPLACE BATTERY?. But, rather surprisingly, it was charging and would restart the engine. RAC man made various notes on his callout form ? e.g. meter suggested capacity was down from 510 to 198 cold cranking current, charging was down less than 10 A after ten minutes, etc. Called battery supplier (where I bought the current battery) as it has a lifetime warranty. OK- bring it in they said. So I did. When I got there they explained that the battery had to be cold. For now, I thought, OK ? I will pay for replacement, go home, swap them over and take old battery back for refund. Paid, took battery home, bought 3/8? extension bar for the socket set from Axminster (yes ? nothing I had would handle the precise position of the battery retainer), and swapped over. Today I take the old battery, nice and cold, to supplier who tests it with his special meter thingy. ?Sorry, it?s fine. Perfectly OK.? Me, by then wondering what would happen, pointed at RAC man?s details. Man behind counter read then retried his meter ? this time it failed immediately. ?Won?t even load? or something like that. I got full refund - so am happy. (Old battery was about 3 years, 9 months old. So fairly pleased at that.) The battery appears to me to be a perfectly ordinary Yuasa 065. Any suggestions for what the hell the battery was doing? If it had been pancaked and then refused to work at all, I would...

Jun 17, 2013 21 Replies

Rate this thread:

Adrian 13 years ago

Ah, but the 20% was apparently off their name...

Vote

Grimly Curmudgeon 13 years ago

E couldn't hold a candle to that.

Vote

Join the Discussion

Have something to add? Share your thoughts — no account required.

Didn't find your answer?

Ask the community — no account required