Is my battery coming to the end of its life?

[stani540]

to be honest i dont think you can beat the halfords 4 year guarantee, so think i will go with them as i dont plan on keeping the car 4 more years

[stani540]

right had it on the motor way on friday night after jump starting it, got to meadowhall and was there for an hour, came out and started first time perfect, got to my ates hous and tested the battery and all was good showing 12.5 volts on the multimater, so the alternator is obviously charging it.

i went to start it tonight and flat again, i took the fuse out of my amp so rules that out, so question is:

1) can my battery just loose charge ( ie not hold it)

2) something is draining the battery

3) possible faulty ground cable??


what do you recon, its really got my puzzled!

[Tim_GTi]

Can't you get teh battery tested? to see if it's charging corretly or not?

[stani540]

thing is im sure its charging fine as when i tested it with multimeter (car turned off) after the drive it was full of juice, about 12.5 v so really dont know whats draining it or whether its just draining itself

[Tim_GTi]

Yeh but you can get the actual battery tested can't you?

[alexperkins]

Test the voltage on the battery when the car is running, as it should be at about 14.35 - 14.7V if the alternator is working properly

[wullvfr]

my mother had the same problem with her car of late,

she called ma saying it would not start and when i arrived the battery was showing 12.2!!!this should be enough to start the car,but when i tried it struggled to turn over as if the battery was dead.

i jumped it and the battery was showing over 14 volts(good charge)so i knew this was not the fault.i went for a run and later on the battery was showing 12.7 volts.

next day same thing happened,so i charged the battery up over night until it was fully charged.it also appeared to hold a charge but once again the following day it would not start.

this time it showed 12.4 volts so i went got a battery which had 11.9 volts(enough to crank the engine)and it started no problem at all.

her battery was well and truly gubbed,it appeared to have a good charge and be able to hold a charge but when the voltage got down below 12.5 volts in was not able to start the car,i believe the power getting drawn for starting the car was too much for it.


william