The (original) battery on my 9 yr old Mondeo diesel (171k miles) has recent ly failed. No complaints over longevity but the way in which the battery fa iled has left me puzzled.
The car, having started fine every morning (with one exception -see below), failed to turn over at all one morning last week. The dials had a hissy fi t and there was much clicking from behind the dashboard. Measuring the batt ery showed 9.5V. I put the charger on it and left it for an hour. Voltage b ack up to 12V (still below fully charged but enough to start the car I thou ght) but again the same symptoms on trying to start it. Breakdown man calle d and he got it stared by jumping from his lorry. He diagnosed a dead batte ry and I went and did a click and collect for a Bosch from the local ECP sh op and was on my way in 45 mins.
Now, 2 months ago the car struggled to start. Assumed it was just the batte ry on the way out so drove around for 15 mins before parking up and doing s ome shopping. Came back to the car and it would barely turn over and after a couple of attempts gave up and I called the AA. He ran a battery check, p ronounced the battery fit and well and after whacking the starter motor a f ew times we got the car started.I also recently came back from a 3 week hol iday and the car started fine first turn.
Like I said - I can't complain about having to change the battery which has managed in excess of 6000 starts, but I was surprised that I didn't get an y notice of its impending end of life by say more laboured starting or othe r symptoms. It just fell off a cliff. Is this normal for the silver calcium sealed types?