Is my battery coming to the end of its life?

[stani540]

hoping some of yo guys can shed some light on my battery problem.

what happens is basically i leave the car for the night or a few days and when i go to start it the battery is obviously flat or atleast doesn't have enough power to get the car going.

It happened a while back and i got it going and didn happen again for a while until christmas, i was working on the car, no interior lights on or radio no keys in the ignition even and went to start it and the battery was gone again.

since then i have fitted an amp and it seems to be getting worse it does it everytime i want to go out now, for example tonight got it going and drove to the cinema turned the car off watched a film at came out to find it dead again, however on saturday i went to the cinema also and when came out it started fine but hadn't when i started at home before the trip to the cinema.

My cupra is a 51 plate so going on 8 yrs old so is my 8 yr old battery on the out? or is it my amp system thats draining the power, it powers on and off fine and the rem cable is fine, all i can think it might be is the ground, but i rubbed it down to bare metal before attaching the ground to the locator nut in the spare wheel well so surely it cant be this.

if anybody could help me itd be great this is driving me insane!

cheers

[Tim_GTi]

Could well be your battery mate. Best thing to do is take the fuse out of series from the amp so it's drawing now power at all, and see if it still happens. If it does replace the battery, if it doesn't re-assess the amp wiring. If it does it after a new battery, question the alternator.

[stani540]

i dont think its the amp but i cant help but notice it has got worse since i installed it but i will take the fuse out at the weekend when i do a trip down motorway and see how it holds chrage then

[Tim_GTi]

Yeh it's quite possilbe the amp just tipped it over then.

[stani540]

yeah i think that could be it i suppose it could well be the oriniginal battery in there still!

[Tim_GTi]

Lol yeh, then I'd definitely look at replacing it. Mine did something very similar over a short period of time a few months back. Got a nice Calcium oe now

[stani540]

out of interest where did you get it from???

looking at getting a halfords one as they come with the 3 or 4 year garantee and my mate has a trade card to knock some money off it!

how did you know it wasn the alternator or did you just hope?

[Tim_GTi]

I got mine from Halfords also. With a friendly trade discount. I got £26 off!!

I just assumed. It was the original battery, and I drained it by accident (got a bit carried away with the volume of the stereo when it was parked on my drive) and it never recovered from it, Had exactly the same symptons as yours. Haven't had any problems since!

[stani540]

how much was your halfords one??

because im looking at 100 befor etrade discount for a calcium one

[Tim_GTi]

The one suitable for the GTi was £65 before discount.

Your clearly driving the wrong car mate

[stani540]

ha ha im sure thats what it is Tim

[Tim_GTi]

ha ha im sure thats what it is Tim

Haha. It's crazy the price difference for parts though. A decent exhaust costs an absolute arm and a leg doesn't it?

[stani540]

Id rather not talk about it hahaha

your right my milltek cat back cost something like 360 quid (lucklily i didn pay) put a baffle is loose in it

so at somepoint im getting a blueflame turboback that is costing a fair wedge

sayint hat if id have wanted the milltek turbo downpipe itd have cost like 450 so about 800 900 quids worth of exhasut if you go milltek

so 600 is a bargain really considering the guys at blueflame are going to repair my milltek so i can sell it on!

[charlievwp]

Do you find it's worse with colder days?
Isn't it right that colder weather can affect the battery life?

The Halfords guarantee is really handy - they just replace old for new, no questions as long as you have the receipt....although i've known them to replace one without a receipt also!

[K.I.T.T.]

Sounds like the battery is on the way out mate. Out of interest have you thought of asking the dealers how much an OEM battery costs? This is over 10 years ago, but the original battery in my dad's Mk1 Jetta lasted about 12 years before it packed up. More recently, I went abroad in September for and kept my car (53 plate) in the garage unlocked (ie not turning the imobiliser and alarm on to reduce drain). 5 weeks later, it started within a couple of seconds of turning the key. Same story with my mates 52 reg Polo, but his was locked and immobilised for over 8 weeks and fired straight to life

The MOT testers even commented that my battery was the best (old) one they'd ever seen even holding more charge than some brand new ones. I'd seriously consider an OEM battery if it isn't too expensive...loads of people swear by them, me included

Ash