New Battery?

Nazbit

Nazbit

Nazbit

Soldato
Joined
11 Dec 2004
Posts
3,871
Hi,

I have a 2011 Ford Focus with keyless start. It's starting but seems to be getting more difficult.

Voltage with the engine running is 14.5v which means that the alternator is working doesn't it?

So at this point it's either the starter motor or the battery?

After 2 x 35 mile trips on Saturday the voltage was 12.3v.

Today after 48 hours of being parked the voltage has dropped to 9.2v.

So I need a new battery don't I? Is my logic good? Anything else I need to test before buying one?

Access doesn't look great, its 3/4s under the scuttle pannel.

Thanks
 
Alt sounds fine. It could be a bad battery or possibly a battery drain if a system in the car is not sleeping and drawing to much power with ignition switched off. Do you have any aftermarket accessories fitted, dash cam or anything?
 
Modern car "Check"

5 year old battery (I am guessing this, is it a Ford one? (People hardly ever get an OEM replacement battery unless it is a warranty replacement)) "Check"

YES, you need a new battery! :p

(If it really has dropped to 9v on occasion I am astonished that it starts at all, be aware, especially with automatic (Push button) starting systems, a bad battery can kill an otherwise OK starter motor pretty quickly. Get a new one now!)
 
I do have a brodit cradle which charges my Phone and TomTom from the cigarette lighter in the arm rest.

I guess unplug it, recharge the battery and see if it still drops down?

Car is 5 years old now on the original battery, what is the expected lifespan?

Edit.....beaten on the 5 year thing but yes it's original.

I didn't try starting it today after the 9.2v reading because I only intended to travel about 10 mins to the post office and I knew that even if it did start at home it wouldn't start again at the post office.
 
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At 5 years old the battery will be past it's prime but it is not uncommon for them to last a fair bit longer but it is a good idea to replace it. I would still unplug your TomTom though as it could well be putting a drain on the battery as 12.3 to 9.2 volts in 48 hours seems like a lot IMO.
 
Nazbit said:
I do have a brodit cradle which charges my Phone and TomTom from the cigarette lighter in the arm rest.

I guess unplug it, recharge the battery and see if it still drops down?

Car is 5 years old now on the original battery, what is the expected lifespan?

Edit.....beaten on the 5 year thing but yes it's original.

I didn't try starting it today after the 9.2v reading because I only intended to travel about 10 mins to the post office and I knew that even if it did start at home it wouldn't start again at the post office.
Click to expand...

Modern cars are very hard on batteries. I would regard anything more than three years as a bonus. At five years it really doesn't owe you anything any more and even if the problem ultimately lies elsewhere I would not regard a battery replacement as a bad option.

Batteries are one of those things that you actually want to replace before you actually have to! Waiting until you do have to is likely to leave you in the **** at the worst possible time! (And, as I suggested earlier, delaying a dying battery replacement can actually cause additional expensive damage elsewhere)
 
That sort of drop in voltage means you effectively have a 80% discharge or there abouts. Suggest unplugging the ground from the battery to see what drop you get overnight. Should not drop much at all. If it does drop when you have it plugged then something is draining it. Ideally you want a drop test done on it. Take to Halfords they will do it for free. Chances are you've dropped a cell in the battery so you probably need a new battery.
 
Ok thanks.

If I unplug the ground from the battery to test the draw won't my alarm go off? Even if I don't set it?

The online registration checkers come up with two possible battery form factors for my car so I'll go out and check the fitting code in the morning.
 
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Where is the battery code on this please?



Online tools say I need an 065 or 075 fitment but I can't see those codes anywhere.

Thanks
 
http://www.puretyre.co.uk/car-battery-specification-chart/

065 and 075 batteries are the same physical dimension, with the amps and CCAs being different. Yours is a 60Ah battery which means it should be 075 spec. Make sure you get a silver calcium battery if you get anything other than a non-Ford battery though. I made the mistake of not doing so with the other half's S-Max and it kept going flat every couple of days so ended up getting an original Ford battery in the end.

My other car, a 2009 Fiesta with almost 140k on it, only just recently started to take a bit of effort to start up. I got a Bosch S4 battery (which is silver calcium) for that and it's been fine ever since. Just go on Euro Car Parts, bang your reg in and see what options you've got - like I say the Bosch S4 batteries should be fine.
 
Get you battery tested for free. There are loads of places that does it. If the battery comes back OK then you probably have something inside draining the battery. You'd have to do a parasitic draw test to find out.
 
Get a decent battery charger first. Lots of people are quick to claim batteries fail early and just change them. Modern cars are very hard on batteries and alternators aren't great chargers, they just try and keep it topped up bit aren't very good at putting a good charge back into the battery.
I put my 5 series on charge once a year and invariably it takes over 4 hours for the charger to top it up, while the forums are littered with people replacing their batteries at the dealer's.
When replacing the alternator on my wife's seat the Bosch alt even come with a warning to make sure the battery is fully charged or premature alternator failure is likely.
 
Hi,

Thanks for the replies. I had the battery tested and it came back with a bad cell. I also had the car tested for the load it was draining and it was normal.

Got a new Bosch silver calcium battery with a 4 year warranty.

Thanks
 
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