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Dead Battery?

A decent battery should be 12.6-13.2v with the car at rest. With the car running, head lights on full, rear demister on & the heater blower on the voltage should be no lower than 13.5V (ideally the alternator runs at about 13.8-14.2v with no accessories on).

But.....

A multimeter won't tell you the full story. A battery can be 'good' voltage wise, but be unable to provide a decent amount of power when trying to start the car. You need either a hydrometer for a low maintenance battery or a proper battery load tester for a sealed battery.

The poor man way of doing a load test is to pull the fuse from the fuel injection & crank the car for around 5 secs while watching a voltmeter attached to the battery, it shouldn't drop much below 10-11V.

*edit to add, I find an awful lot of good batteries at the local tip. If a battery becomes discharged, especially one that's lived on a car for several years without ever having a charge from the mains, it should be trickled charged for 24 hours. I've had supposedly dead batteries come back to life after a decent maintenance charge from a dedicated charger. The alternator on your car is far inferior in comparison & won't charge a flat battery correctly - it isn't designed to.
 
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Jono8 said:
Thank you for all your help guys. I think the best course of action and the most financially agreeable is to just go and get a new battery today. It could do with one anyway as is an 06 reg and i suspect it still has the orginal.

If it still doesnt work then at least ive ruled out that!

One last question

Exide battery is £55
Bosch is £58

Exide any good or worth the £3 for the Bosch?
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bosch S4 or S5, assuming S4 so has the 4 year warranty at that price? the Exide has 3 year warranty i assume.

bosch every time.

oh if ordering from ECP online they use yodel to deliver...took me a few days to get it as they tried to deliver next day and would only ship to billing address, when online it said at picking stage in warehouse lol. so no one was in at first attempt

had to rearange as it was sent and returned to the yeovil depot, rather than the one 1/2 mile from my house lol.
 
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Hm i was going to go for the Bosch S3 but after some research it seems that the S4 might be better as it says the S3 is only suited to smaller/older cars?
 
No harm in buying a bigger battery than is needed, as long as it's 12V of course! :D. Car will turn over a lot easier with a bigger battery, don't worry about it 'frying' the starter or anything as it only pulls as much current as it needs, the bigger battery can't suddenly blast it like the emperor from Star Wars lol.
 
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MatteH Oxford said:
No harm in buying a bigger battery than is needed, as long as it's 12V of course! :D
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Thing is, i am selling the car soon so im tempted to just get the S3.

Anyone know if the S3 will be fine enough to power everything in an ST? It shows up as compatbile on Eurocar parts so i assume it will be fine.

i suppose its only a tenner for piece of mind with the S4
 
if you are selling, get the s3 if it's rated for your car & the car is standard electrically. I'd only get the bigger one if i was to keep the car, no need to waste money on a car that'll be gone soon - unlikely you'll get it back at sale time.

Another bonus of a bigger battery is if you're running a biggish stereo or other electrical add-ons, it'll have a higher amp hour rating (basically more reserve power in the battery, it'll take longer to discharge over time left stood). The alternator should have a little more output than is needed for the standard battery so will charge it o.k., i used to do this when i had my golf GTI etc. If necessary (BIG system) we used to use a diesel alternator with a higher amp output
 
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No point sticking in an expensive battery if you're about to get rid of the car. It sucks for the new owner, but that's life. It's not like you're deliberately bodging in something out of spec.
 
Yes the car is a completely standard ST 2 ( no extra stereo or other bits e.t.c) so you all think i'll be fine with the S3?
 
Jono8 said:
Yes the car is a completely standard ST 2 ( no extra stereo or other bits e.t.c) so you all think i'll be fine with the S3?
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If it's rated for it...yes! (Seeing as you are selling). As the car is standard, I'd only get the bigger one for some reassurance in being able to start the car easily on very cold days. The S3 should be fine, but as i said, no harm in a bigger battery.

Especially when it's freezing :eek:
 
Jono8 said:
Ok. I just hope Eurocar parts are right!
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should be, if you search by entering your license plate reg then if the part is not compatable, it will flag it up when you add to basket. i tried this with the S4 and S5 battery, whilst it listed the S5 for my model, when added to cart it flagged up as red.
 
ye it should be fine. I checked and the S3 actually has a higher ah and A rating than the Ford one in the car at the moment :).

Going to fit it in an hour or two. Hope it fixes everything!
 
Thanks for all your help this morning guys. New battery is in and she started up first turn of the key without a problem :)
 
You might have a few fault codes in the ECU that will want clearing now.
Better to do that now before prospective new owners moan about it having stored fault codes. ;)
 
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