My FD won\'t start! ... :-(

[Andy T]

The closest and best battery specialists to you would either be Manbat or Bristol Batteries.

What you need is a 60 or 70Amp Hour unit.

Price will depend on brand and length of Guarantee normally they come in 2,3 or 4 year lengths.

If you decide to go to Manbat speak to a guy called Lee and tell him that you are a friend of Andrew from Batec and I told you to go there and he should sort you out with a good price.

[Andy T]

Originally posted by scooby_si
any recommendations/specifications for battery buying for a FD?
I looked at getting an optima yellow top for my scoob when i went a bit OTT with ICE but the little buggers wouldn\'t fit cause the terminals were on the opposite side & leads woodn\'t stretch that far, oh well saved me a fair few quid getting a cheaper un but wood like a pointer [read help the ignorant retard out] on wot to get for FD
Si

The optimas now come in reverse layouts but only for the red top ones by special order.

UK part number 068 (70Amp hour) or 005L (60Amp Hour) should be fine for normal use.

Just a few general pointers..... the calcium/calcium units last longer and give better cranking amps but when they get badly discharged they can be a bugger to recharge often needing a lot more that a standard charger to do it.

As for anything else..... just depend on guarantee and brand really.

[mraraju]

Nick

That battery is a goodun.

It is only suppose to hold 12.75 volts which is 100% charged. Your batt is approx 70% charged which is good. However cranking it too often without charging it is bad that is what will kill a battery,

Thanks

RAju

[Andy T]

Originally posted by mraraju
Nick

That battery is a goodun.

It is only suppose to hold 12.75 volts which is 100% charged. Your batt is approx 70% charged which is good. However cranking it too often without charging it is bad that is what will kill a battery,

Thanks

RAju

Raju,

I disagree..... a battery in good condition should after charging hold its voltage at a minimum of 12.4 to 12.5 for a number of weeks to months if not connected to the car. If it has been charged properly and then after a period of a day drops to 12.38 then is is either on the way out or the charger has not manage to fully charge it due to things such as sulphation etc...


Andrew

[nikp]

Hi chaps! Here\'s an update:

On saturday I bought a new battery. As soon as I connected the battery up and tried to start it, I could hear her trying to fire, which was straight away evidence that I was making progress, cos I barely got any firing with the previous battery!

After about 10-15 minutes of trying (and jumping it off the calibra, just so I didn\'t flatten the brand new battery!) it finally started....and stalled straight away again!! "NOOOOOOOOoooooooooo" was my initial reaction! :mad:  Connected having more goes for a couple more minutes and it finally started (again!) with a prompy stamp on the accelerator pedal to keep the revs up!! Woohoo!!  Much to my delight, and after a week of trying, the engine lives!!

Oh, and the information on flooded engines that state there\'ll be a lot of smoke certainly isn\'t wrong!! And it stunk of petrol to boot!!

And lastly all it took was the method as described by the manual and Martiny

Thanks all for your help! It has been very much appreciated!

[Martiny]

OK!!!!!!!!! Wow!  Great news, at last. I love a happy ending.

What Manual? Do you have an english owners manual?

There is some speculation about how to prevent flooding. Obviously, it can be impractical to fully warm up the engine every time you start it.   Mine is only getting moved in and out the garage at the mo, I m working on the spoiler and the rear bumper is coming off soon fro a respray. So, mine has flooded once or twice recently.

One thought is go for "Hotter" sparkplugs. The hotter they are, the less likely they are to "foul" - get contaminated, or wet, and then wont fire.

Standard plug is an NGK BU9EQP all round for the UK cars ( But I think this is a misprint by Mazda UK).

NGK US say a 9 for Trailing and a 7 for Leading:

http://www.ngksparkplugs.com/apps/car_truck_suv/results.asp

Mazda Factory Manual for the US says: 9 Trailing - 7 Leading, or
8 Trailing - 6 Leading.

I am going to try - 9 Trailing, 8 Leading.

Also see:
http://www.mazdarotaryclub.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=264&highlight=%2Aplug%2A

txs

[nikp]

I found a site that has the US manual, and downloaded it in pdf format. Not that useful, but occassionally helpful!