C4 killing batteries

[Marshy]

Hi all. And thankyou for letting me join your forum.
I'm having an issue with my c4 Picasso. It kills batteries every 2 months. If I leave it for 2 days it kills the battery. Once it's dead it won't then recharge again. It's totally knackered.
Any help would be appreciated.
Regards.
Phil.

[xantia_v6]

Have you had the vehicle charging system tested?

When you say that the battery won't recharge, is that with the battery in the car or connected to an external charger?

[Marshy]

Hi thankyou for your reply. Initially I tried to recharge connected in the car, it worked once but then when it went flat again it wouldn't recharge so I took it out of the car.. It then wouldn't charge "charge fail" on my charger unit..I took it back where I bought it and they said it was knackered.

[ozvtr]

Lead acid batteries used in cars do not like being fully discharged and that will eventually damage the battery. HOWEVER the failure mode is a reduced life span! An average life span is 4 years. Constantly "flattening" the battery will reduce its' life span down to 2 or three years, not 2 months! BUT, I am assuming this is a brand new battery and it was good??
A "good" battery that has been flattened will not charge on an "automatic" charger. Auto chargers require the battery to have a minimum potential (volts) before they will start to charge. You need an old school charger or a "jump" from a charged battery to get the terminal voltage up so the auto charger will work.
It does not take much to start a modern engine in good condition. Meaning that even a battery in poor condition will start the car. However some other symptoms of a bad battery may crop up!!

I am making a number of assumptions here so I might be wrong. I am assuming that the batteries are actually good for a start (I mean; to begin with).
If you can run the car for 2 months then the charging/power system is working (in some form or another). If the alternator was not working the battery would not last very many trips before going flat, let alone 2 months. Yes, the alternator might be working but putting out low volts, but the lights would be dim and the cars' electronics would eventually begin to complain! Those symptoms have not been mentioned. And a battery with a poor charge might be enough to start the car, but go flat "in a few days" if not fully recharged by the alternator.

Do your trips consist of short distances in the dark and/or rain? Or just short distances?

My thoughts are that the battery is not being fully recharged by the charging circuit because the trips are too short. Again an assumption based on what's been presented (so far).

I'm sorry, but the only way I can see a brand new battery being "knackered" is by shorting it out and have it explode!! And it sounds to me like that is NOT the case here. Or it was bad in the first place.

I will not say anything about the guys at the battery shop (or where ever you got the battery), I do not know their level of competency. But IMHO, short of the battery being faulty, they should have been able to recover it and load test it. And if it was faulty they should have said so.
Hmm, reminds me of Monty Pythons' "parrot sketch". "This is an ex-battery".

In the 40 years that I have been maintaining my cars, I've had 2 brand new batteries with dead cells. While that's a small number, my point is; brand new batteries CAN be faulty.

[xantia_v6]

You need to measure the battery voltage with the engine running, to know that the battery is being charged properly. If it is below 14V the charging system is questionable, if it is below 13.8V then the battery has no chance of being charged.

[wheeler]

Are you using Euro car Parts 'Lion' brand batteries by any chance?
If so there is every chance its the batteries thats the problem, their own brand Lion batteries are notoriously well known for their 'less than average' lifespan.

[Marshy]

Hi all thankyou for the replies.
I have fitted a test unit into the cigarette lighter socket. When running the voltage is 14.4v... And lights are dimming and raising when increasing the throttle..I have now had 5 batteries from the same supplier. I've been lucky enough to swap them under warranty as I see different people.. They keep saying the same thing.. If it happens again then the problem lies somewhere else.
I did long trips on these batteries.. Maybe 200 Kms...I have tried to recharge the battery for 3 continuous days with my AA charger but it comes to with "fail".. When I return the battery to the suppliers for an exchange it comes up with "bad battery" on the tester,.
I'm at my wits end really. The main dealers want a lot of money to diagnose.
Regards.

[wheeler]

What brand battery are you using ?
Is it the correct battery for your car?? If the car has stop/start technology it will need an EFB or AGM battery. If you fit a regular flooded battery to a car that need an EFB or AGM they dont tend to last long.
What is the CCA spec of the battery you have?

[Marshy]

The battery is a 100EFB 12v 65ah 650EN.
That's all I can see on the battery.

[wheeler]

You don’t say what engine you have but if its a Diesel i would think that battery is way too small. I would expect it to be a 096 EFB/AGM which would be at least 720 cca.
The battery rating may be on your tyre pressure sticker at the bottom.

[Paul-R]

And you still haven't said where you bought the battery from.

[Gibbo2286]

And you still haven't said where you bought the battery from.

From an extremely peed off dealer I'd guess.

[bobins]

I've had these symptoms with a car that had a duff diode in the alternator. That'd cause a flattening over a couple of days, but otherwise the alternator would charge fine.

[Marshy]

I've been buying this battery from a company called DSR batteries near to where I live. If it helps with diagnosing the car won't jump start with another vehicle. I had to get a friend to bring his big boy jump start kit over and it started then...if I give it a good run it might be ok for another couple of days. Is I don't start it early next day I risk it dying again by the afternoon.

[moizeau]

Take the battery off the car and fully charge it. Keep it off the car for 2 days checking and noting the voltage every few hours at regular intervals. If after 2 days the voltage is still above 12.5v the battery is fine. Recharge it fully again then put it back in the car. (follow the BSI reset procedure). Without starting the car at all carry out the voltage checks as before and see if there is a noticeable difference in voltage drop. These 2 tests will confirm the battery's general health and parasitic drain from the car.