C5 X7 battery

[c5rich]

Hi all,
After returning from a 7 day holiday the battery was flat in my 2008 C5 X7 tourer, so after mountaineering over the rear seats into the book to get access to the battery I decided to buy a new one as the original one was 10 years old. 150 pounds later, battery fitted and car started following the procedure found on here... car used 2/3 times a week then left for 4 days, only to find the battery flat again... I took out the battery and charged it all day and night, put back in the car and went for a 50 odd mile drive, parked up the car saturday morning - this morning battery flat as a pancake... duff battery or something wrong with the car??

[GiveMeABreak]

My first thoughts would be that the alternator might be duff and not charging the battery. There is a slight drain on the system for things like the alarm monitoring and the Tyre Pressure Monitoring that periodically takes a check when the car is stationary, plus the A.C flap motors resetting etc., but not enough that will be causing this sort of drain - so I suspect that in these conditions, with the heaters on, lights and the starting, that if the battery is not charging, then it will soon drain in no time.

Best to get a metre on the battery and see if it is getting charged when running.

[c5rich]

Hi Marc, I will give that a go - I don't have a meter but can get on off the internet, any pointers ?

[GiveMeABreak]

I'd go for a multimeter - they can be had quite cheaply - this one's £12 delivered (on orders over£20 unless you have Prime) with 9V battery included and a few different probes.:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Multimeter-Neo ... multimeter

Rather than repeating - this vid will go through the process for you - as you'll need to be able to test the alternator by checking the battery at standstill and then at load with the engine running to see if it is being charged - everything is explained including the voltages you should be getting through the tests.

At least you'll know of your battery is duff or your alternator is not charging it.

[c5rich]

cheers Marc, I will let you know the outcome

[c5rich]

Well the multi-meter arrived from Amazon, as per the link above. Followed the video to get the different readings...

Although the battery had been on charge for 3/4 days while waiting for the multi-meter to arrive, impossible to start the car. Jumped started the car, with engine running the meter showed 14.39 / 14.44 volts and with the lights, fan, radio, heated seats etc on showed 14.23 / 14.34 - so I guess the alternator is fine.

Left the car running for 20 minutes, engine off, meter shows 12.62 / 12.7... however when I tried to start the car again it turned over only twice and during this the meter showed 9.2, according to the video this is a likely sign the battery is knackered ??

[EDC5]

Yes, I'd say it's looking that way unfortunately.

[c5rich]

It is still under warranty as I only bought it in September....

[GiveMeABreak]

Unfortunately, it turns out these batteries can be sitting on the shelf for years before they are sold.

[Hell Razor5543]

Years ago, when I worked for a different EPoS services company, one of the items they carried were Uninterruptable Power Supplies. These normally had a lead/acid battery. When one of these was repaired by the workshop it would be put on charge for 24 hours, and the box would then have a date stamp. Every month the warehouse team would check the UPS section, and any UPS over 3 months old would go through the charge loop again. That way the batteries were preserved for longer.

[bobins]

It is still under warranty as I only bought it in September....

It's not a Lion brand battery by any chance, is it ?

[c5rich]

It is still under warranty as I only bought it in September....

It's not a Lion brand battery by any chance, is it ?

No, a Varta one

[wurlycorner]

Years ago, when I worked for a different EPoS services company, one of the items they carried were Uninterruptable Power Supplies. These normally had a lead/acid battery. When one of these was repaired by the workshop it would be put on charge for 24 hours, and the box would then have a date stamp. Every month the warehouse team would check the UPS section, and any UPS over 3 months old would go through the charge loop again. That way the batteries were preserved for longer.

That's exactly how automotive batteries are meant to be dealt with while stored.
Halfords batteries used to have a "Charged week xx" sticker applied to them every time they were charged in store, to help with the stock management (no idea if they still do - not looked at a battery in Halfords for yonks!)

[Bandit12]

Sorry to hear you have fallen foul of a duff battery mate. I've had same issue this week but on my motorbike. Bought new yuasa from Halfords last July. Didn't ride in the snow but tried to start bike after a week of standing n it was dead! No lights, nothing so took dead battery back to shop n they insisted on checking it. 4.7 volts on a 7 month old 12v! Luckily Halfords emailed me receipt at time of purchase so swapped it. Still miffed it died tho. Hope you get a replacement under warranty

[GiveMeABreak]

A YUASA? That’s interesting as they seem to be quite reliable. Maybe it had been sitting too long and not maintained prior to sale?