Naffed Battery

[Jame5]

I left my car for 3weeks while on holiday. Came back to find the battery is totally flat. I jump started the car. Left it idle for 20mins, drove it 4mins, idle another 10mins and put it away. Come back to it 24hours later and it\'s flat again but enough power to turn the engine over briefly. Do I need a new battery or is the 4miles and idle time I gave the car now good enough for it to recharge?

Cheers
James

[dj_dee99]

I\'d recharge it, then get an electrical tester on it. Although the length of time it takes before the charger indicates it is full will be a good sign. If it shows it\'s fully charged in a short time, ditch it and get a new one.
 
Battery, that is. Not charger, of course! :Giggle
 
At the end of the day, a new battery should be sub £50, so it\'s certainly not the end of the world.

[Ricco_04]

Not sure if its right but the car has to run for aprox 9 mins to regain the charge it lost in starting.

If it\'s one of those batteries that you can undo to refill then get the specific gravity checked if you have the tester & make sure fluids are at the right level.

Alternately charge the bugger up for 24 hours and if it don\'t hold charge get a new one :Giggle

[chrisBoid]

I had a battery discharging issue that was traced to an overactive tracker (after a lot of fuse pulling) which was subsequently upgraded.  Before I discovered that, I bought myself a new battery, a trickle charger and a simple volt/amp meter tester thing and watched the battery charge drain within 7 days.

I still use the trickle charger anyway as weeks can go by without me using the car.

[Jame5]

Sorted. Battery was dead. The motor factors took it off me over night, charged it up then tested it. Ah well, £53 for a new one and the car started straight away so I didn\'t flood it with the failed attempts on a duff battery. Cheers guys.