Ian Foster Posted July 15, 2022 Report Share Posted July 15, 2022 So I am travelling to my annual MOT and am running early, so I pulled into a layby to wait 20 mins or so. It's quite warm in Dorset today, so I had been using the electric fan a bit in traffic. Nothing unusual there. I went to restart and the ignition and oil light came on as normal, but it wasn't interested in starting. Turn ignition off and back on and ign/oil lights are dimmer. No start (obviously). Bonnet up, nothing obviously amiss. Luckily at that point a chap returned to his car parked in front of me, took an immediate interest and offered a jump start with a nice set of leads. That worked just fine and got me to my MOT, but with the volt meter running near 15V. At the MOT garage the multimeter came out and it was fairly clear the battery had failed. After the static part of the test the car was restarted with a jump pack to get on the brake rollers and then again when I was ready to leave (with my new MOT). I the drove 25 miles to my usual nearby tyre and battery emporium and a test showed only 10.5 volts and under load test only 42 (thingies) when it should have been 500 (probably a cranking test). I have had batteries fail before, usually in cold conditions, but never like this. Anyway all's well that ends well and apart from being a bit poorer, I'm happy the failure occurred when and in the manner it did. We're off to the Sherborne Castle show on Sunday, so I feel I have dodged a bullet. Ian 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter Truman Posted July 15, 2022 Report Share Posted July 15, 2022 Wife’s Jag always did that battery went on a hot day by losing a cell & we were definitely lighter in the pocket after it’s replacement. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete Lewis Posted July 15, 2022 Report Share Posted July 15, 2022 had this a few times over the years when moonlighting ?? drive car in fix everything ,, and its dead as a dodo takes some explaining some think your swinging the lead , not as bad as a fractured crackshaft , it drove in and died , and one guy reved the nuts off his chrysler 2litre to clear a slow running jet and blew the rods out the sides but you serviced it last week and now it wont start major catastrophies out the blue are quite common Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NonMember Posted July 15, 2022 Report Share Posted July 15, 2022 1 hour ago, Ian Foster said: have had batteries fail before, usually in cold conditions, but never like this. I'd never had a battery go like that until I bought my Mundano. We drove to Oxfordshire (my younger brother's place) at Christmas, went to a pub for lunch, drove back to his house, all fine. Went to drive home an hour later, battery completely dead. No warning at all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris A Posted July 15, 2022 Report Share Posted July 15, 2022 Back in the mid 90's I went to work, mid summer, went to start the car at lunch time nothing. The heat finished it off! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DanMi Posted July 15, 2022 Report Share Posted July 15, 2022 I have had them fail with no warning before, but usually I notice slow cranking etc. first Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Badwolf Posted July 16, 2022 Report Share Posted July 16, 2022 Interesting thoughts. It was a very warm day when my battery died last week. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian Foster Posted July 16, 2022 Author Report Share Posted July 16, 2022 12 hours ago, DanMi said: I have had them fail with no warning before, but usually I notice slow cranking etc. first In retrospect, the electric fuel pump took longer to prime yesterday, which I put down to more evaporation from the float bowls due to the warm weather. Cranking was not unusually slow. Only when the new battery was fitted did I really notice a difference. Should be OK for a few years now....until the next time. Ian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wagger Posted July 16, 2022 Report Share Posted July 16, 2022 I know that it appears unbelievable, but my son has an laptop sized lithium battery with leads that will, actually, jump start his diesel safari sized defender. I said 'No way' but it did. Dunno how much it cost as it was supplied by his employer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trigolf Posted July 16, 2022 Report Share Posted July 16, 2022 How many years had your old battery done Ian? I replaced mine recently- it was at least 9 yrs old. I think infrequent use of most Classics now doesn't help, despite using a conditioner. With the price of batts now, I followed the forum advice and went for a slightly smaller but larger than OE batt and expect to replace it earlier. Saved a few quid. After all, I'm not trying to start her covered in frost in Jan! Gav Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian Foster Posted July 16, 2022 Author Report Share Posted July 16, 2022 Gav Invoice says 30 August 2013, so probably quite a good innings! It was an Exide 069 70AH Mileage over that period is circa 12,000 miles, which includes the 2016 and 2018 RBRRs. I generally keep the battery on a CTEK smart charger which is on for a couple of hours a day, via a time switch to make use of my PV energy. Ian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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