is my battery starting to die?

tommytinkle · 25 Oct 2010 at 18:57

Hey,

My car has been more difficult to start lately, and today when I went to start, turned over even more slowly than usual.

Battery voltage at rest after a 10 mile drive was 12.57 however, putting the headlights on for 20 seconds saw the voltage drop down to 11.97 and it kept falling ( I stopped at this point).

The voltage with all accessories on when running is 14.2 at around 1500rpm or 14 with the car at idle.

Has the battery dropped a cell do you think?

Thanks for any help.

Scania · 25 Oct 2010 at 19:08

tommytinkle said:
Has the battery dropped a cell do you think?

Almost certainly, assuming some bad earth has not developed somewhere.....

Clarkey · 25 Oct 2010 at 19:10

Yep, change it asap or you'll end up stranded pretty soon.

tommytinkle · 25 Oct 2010 at 19:14

Hey,

Thanks for the replies, I thought this may be the case but wanted some other opinions. I have a bosch silver at a friends house which I'll swap it out for (assuming that battery is still ok!)

Thanks again.

Scania · 25 Oct 2010 at 20:18

tommytinkle said:
Hey,

Thanks for the replies, I thought this may be the case but wanted some other opinions. I have a bosch silver at a friends house which I'll swap it out for (assuming that battery is still ok!)

Thanks again.

Make sure you charge it up first.

tommytinkle · 25 Oct 2010 at 20:32

R420LA6X2/4MNA said:
Make sure you charge it up first.

Charge it up? It was stored fully charged, do they lose it over time? What are the consequences of not doing so?

Thanks for the information.

Scania · 25 Oct 2010 at 20:57

tommytinkle said:
Charge it up? It was stored fully charged, do they lose it over time? What are the consequences of not doing so?

Yes, over time a battery can loose charge, usually quite a while for a good new one though, as for concequence, imo,in most cases - read my own experience - not a lot, however, afaik, most vehicle electrical systems will maintain a batterys state of charge, but not be that good at charging up a low battery.

Well, that it what I was told by a fitter whilst discussing batterys etc whilst he was changing a flat battery on my truck the other day - the new battery he fitted to my vehicle was connected to a trickle charger in his van that kept his spares @ 100%. Possibly excessive? I don't know.....

Shame the idiot did not change the other battery that was equally knackered, never mind....

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18196900

tommytinkle said:
Thanks for the information.

Your welcome.

And the beauty of this place, if I'm wrong, somebody will let us know soon enough!