xantia electics - ABS issue, or not?

[pseud]

A couple of weeks ago the ABS light started flashing on a drive back to Leeds from Manchester - it caused me some concern, but I ploughed on...
Then a week or so latter, I went away for an overnight job and when I came back to the rail station where I left the car, the battery was dead; I jump started the car and recharged the battery overnight...
I suspected a leak through the ABS, but ploughed on...
Then I noticed that the speedo was pinned all the way over to the right, but it corrected itself, so I ploughed on...
Then the battery died again overnight, put the battery on the (Halford's, don't ask) multi-function electronic charger and then left if on 'maintenance' after a day for a couple of days until I needed the car again...
This time when I put it back in the car, it had no charge... But I had my healthy late teenager of a son was with me, so we bump started and ploughed on...
By now, I was wondering if that whizzo charger had stuffed the battery (I'd used it to 'maintain' a battery for a few months previously and it killed it...)
Having bump started the car, I made sure not to turn it off during the morning's run-around, and hoped the alternator would do its job - but, when I absent-mindedly turned it off after at least an hour's running it was as dead as a dodo when I tried to restart it - another jump start, and I ploughed on...
Now, I noticed that the rev-counter was pinned all the way to the right of the dial - and flicking wildly back and forth when I turned the ignition on...
I put the battery back on the whizzo charger overnight - tested it this morning with a voltmeter which showed 10.5v !!! I put it on an old fashioned no-frills charger and it showed 10.5v while it was on charge so figured that charger wasn't working - put it back on the whizzo charger and it went from 'charge' straight to 'repair'...

I thought to pull the fuse on the ABS somewhere during the above nonsense, but couldn't find it listed anywhere - can anyone help with which fuse that might be?

However, I suspect things have moved on from the ABS problem (if there is one) - the battery is 5 years old by now, but a good Bosch one - is all the above just the symptoms of a dying battery? Or, is there something going wrong with the electrics? Before I invest in a new battery, I'd like to have some idea of whether that's the problem - but I'm really completely flummoxed about what's going on. Is anyone able to shed some light?

Thanks, Morgan

[GiveMeABreak]

Morgan, I have literally just binned my Halfrauds 'advanced charger' last month after I 'thought' it had charged my C5 battery on 3 separate occasions, yet the car was sluggish when starting. The third time the charger kept telling me there was a fault in the connections - which there was not - and refused to charge.

I purchased a new smart charger and took the battery off again and left it a full day and overnight - the next morning it was still charging! So I left it until mid-day when it finally went into maintenance mode.

I stuck the battery back on the C5 and sure enough started in a second. It has continued to do so for a month - which tells me that that crapped out expensive Halfrauds so called charger was not actually charging for the last 3 times I used it. So listening to your story, I suspect it may also be not charging.

Battery power is everything - and the tell tale sign was the needle on your instrument panel. When the battery is flat it can make the dials flick up and down erratically or behave oddly - I've seen this on a Xsara - battery died all of a sudden on a friends car after she had no issues all day - but after a meeting it would not start and the dials went mad when trying to start it - battery was shot.

[white exec]

CTEK seem to offer well-built intelligent chargers, which have a good reputation. Have a CTEK MXS 3.8 here, which looks after the XM, always starting first tweak. Higher power versions are available, but the 7-stage 3.8 is quite keenly priced as these things go. Just £5 more (at Amazon) than the Halfords 4amp item.

[xantia_v6]

If your battery has a dead (shorted) cell limiting the voltage to 10V, then you should not drive the car with it, as it will shortly kill the alternator.

[pseud]

If your battery has a dead (shorted) cell limiting the voltage to 10V, then you should not drive the car with it, as it will shortly kill the alternator.

Lets hope it's not already stuffed the alternator...

Thanks everyone - seems it's time for a new battery (and charger...) When I got the Halfords I was looking at the C-Tek...

M.

[harryp]

Hi all, I've been using a Lidl one for over 2 years now swapping between 3 batteries at monthly intervals and it works very well. Having done a bit of research on batteries a few yeaars ago when I had a sailing boat, it takes a while to charge a battery to fully charged and cannot be done quickly as kidding it to take more charge can blow "stuff" off the plates. It's a slowly, slowly catchee monkey job!
The Lidl one works and at £14.......
Regards,
Harry

[Hell Razor5543]

I check the Aldi/Lidl websites regularly, and when anything of interest pops up (such as, this Sunday 14/07, Lidl are doing car care items, including a dash cam) I post it up on the relevant thread. I cannot tell you when the battery charger will come in again, but it does make a regular appearance.

[xantia_v6]

I have had a lidl charger for a couple of years and it works well, my only slight gripe is that it does not automatically restart in maintenance mode if the power is interrupted.