Car battery oops

Chances are it will be fine. Bear in mind it's a silver technology battery, so charges at a slightly higher voltage; your charger won't have harmed it.

I changed the battery on my Focus after nine years. It was still starting the car reliably even if it sat for a week in the winter. I was getting the dashboard reboot symptom at start up, and the new battery fixed that.

Sadly, after 10 years of painless, enjoyable ownership, I've killed the Focus by managing to run in to the back of a LR Disco; those things are strong!

Naturally, I've replaced it with another Focus...

Chris

I replaced the battery in my 7 Yr Old. focus ( tdci ) because it did not start one morning.. Not sure if it really needed replacing but it would have been a PITA to have it fail one morning ! I've kept it as a camping battery though since it still holds a reasonably charge. I must remember to charge it more regularly though since leaving them laying around unused will kill them pretty quickly

If charged it at a higher voltage it might actually be good for it, since it removes the sulphation doesn't it ? Probably the voltage does not get up to 15v until it's been on charge for a long time .

I've made a nice little cigarette socket charging cable for my impending camping trip.. two brake light bulbs in parallel, and the jump leads in case it gets really drained. Good enought for mobile phone charging any way I hope.

;-)

Well after 12 hours when I checked it this morning it was still showing an abnormally high 12.9v so clearly some surface charge still present and tonight after 24 hours it had only dropped to 12.88v so same story. I connected a bulb across it for a while to really get rid of any last traces of surface charge and got a final reading of 12.65v which is c*ck on for a good battery. I'll check it again in a day or two. If anything the extended charge has therefore rejuvenated it quite a bit. Maybe removed some sulphation. I've certainly never seen such high voltage readings after charging it for the normal 24 hours and the surface charge has always dissipated on its own much quicker. Theoretically after 12 hours it should have gone. I was always afraid my crappy old charger would fry it if I left it on too long but clearly not. I'm sure it's boiled cheapo top up type batteries before when I've left it on too long.

For damn sure it owes me nothing now and if it lasts another year or two so much the better.

It's odd though when you read these battery FAQs they reckon very few batteries go much longer than 4 years. That might be true for cheap replacements but both the OE batteries I've had in the two newish cars I've owned have lasted at least 7 or 8 years. I guess you get what you pay for. Every cheap top up type replacement has failed within about 3 years. When I replace it I might bite the bullet and go Ford OE or at least the direct purchase equivalent.

If anyone has any recommendations? I've already looked at what you can buy online. I'd quite like to know who actually made this OE battery and just go back to them. 2001 Focus if that helps.

Are good batteries like women? Abuse them and they just keep coming back for more. (ducks and covers)

Self discharge on a lead acid is extremely low. A top up every 6 months will be fine.

Modern 'sealed' batteries condense back most of what 'boils off'. That's why they don't need topping up.

Seems to be the luck of the draw. The original on my BMW - well I think it was original - failed just outside the (car) three year warranty with absolutely no warning. Started the car ok first thing - went to the shops

- and battery totally dead when I returned about a half hour later. Due to the slightly odd shape the only replacement I could find locally was a Bosch which appeared identical to the original except for name. And it's still fine at over 8 years old.

At one time Unipart used to offer replacement batteries with a lifetime guarantee, so they may still be a good bet.

D A Stocks

I was going to visit an old friend the other day and thought I'd give the Ferrari a blast, I had not used it for two months and the battery was flat so I gave it an overnight charge, went out in it the next morning, stopped for bits on the way, no problem, left it for about 5 hours outside my friends house and the battery had died, not even enough for a slight turnover. No jump leads, no battery charger, I did not fancy getting him to give it a tow or a push as he is a bit old. So I phoned the RAC, they came round, 'it is just a dead battery, a jump start is all I need', I said, so he got out his tester and said 'the battery has had it' a quick jump start and away it went, 'it may not get you home' he said. I said I am certain it will be OK. Then he started on about how he had twenty five years experience in the trade and he thought it wouldn't get me back and he was going to put it on the report, etc. etc. I didn't point out that I had been in the trade since the age of six, and therefore have 46 years of experience, and probably an enormous amount of experience more than him of driving cars with faults. I gave him a wave and drove home. Got a refund on the battery from Costco and bought a new silver calcium thing with a five year guarantee. The battery which had died was a Bosch, but I had killed it by allowing it to go dead flat more than once.

Batteries are like women, keep them comfortable, dry, topped up and used regularly and they are fine, abuse them and they fail.

Lifetime of the battery? Pretty impressive, that...

it was for as long as you own the vehicle, rather like the kwik fit brake replacement.

Actually, I had one of those. In my case it was uaranteed for as long as I could find the receipt.

Hopefully the battery he took off and replaced on his Ford is a silver calcium.

If you're not going to use the car so the battery goes flat - fit one of those battery disconnect devices and unscrew it a turn or so when leaving the car. Saves the cost of a new battery. Very handy for working on electrics too.

somewhere I have one of those plastic key battery disconnects like they use on racing cars, I'll hunt that out. It will need to be easy to access or I won't bother using it, so maybe under the dash somewhere.

That could involve some pretty hairy wiring?

The type that fits on the battery was what I'm thinking of. Cost about a tenner. And surely less hassle when you leave the car than having to replace the battery?

I have the answer in my hands, a float type multi stage charger with a fly lead intended to live on the battery, I can have that tucked in the grille and just connect it up without even opening the lid.

Machine mart sell a charger with removable flyleads about £40.00

Thank you for that, but I actually meant I had already bought it, it is like the aldi ones only dearer, called a c-tek, about 30 quid in costco, the flylead even has a little rubber cap so the road dirt won't get in. Perfect for my needs.

The only I have against them is that the flyleads aren't fused. On that subject does anyone know where you can get the battery terminals with built in fuse carrier slots?

Look out for the Lidl ones that come round every so often. SMPS with an output of about 5 amps which switch over to float when the battery is charged. About 12 quid. Just about small enough to fit in a pocket although not a wall wart type. Amazing value.