Sudden Battery Death
One Sat. morning my daughter's Scenic battery was "dead". It is well used for commuting and family run-about, and a recent holiday in Norway, and never an inkling of weakness. The battery, original 4 yr old FULMEN wouldn't take charge or deliver power. Kaput!! This isn't a friendly way to expire.
In the 1970's , sudden failures of Lucas batteries were the talk, but I haven't heard of it since. Are we going to have another spate?
CentaurHJ
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Most modern batteries fail without warning, I am afraid. Not unusual for a car to start OK in the morning and then fail in the afternoon. Average battery life is still around four years, so you are "on the money", but a little unlucky.
Regards, Adam
Whatever is rightly done, however humble, is noble.
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Driving home from work one day I stopped for petrol. When I tried to restart the car the battery was completely dead - wouldn't even light up the warning lights on the dash!
Prior to that there was no indication (such as slow starter cranking) that a problem was in the offing.
They do just die without warning I'm afraid.
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Yup, had a similar thing a few years back - in fact I thought that the battery may be on the way out, so went to an auto electricians for a check. They put the "magic box" across it and said it looked reasonable but didn't appear to need changing just yet. Went to re-start to go home and ... nothing! Battery gave up just like that.
A couple of years later, wife's car battery gave up one morning also out of the blue, but able to "bump" start on sloping driveway and head straight to battery replacement company.
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I had the same problem as Alan on my BMW a few years ago.
Started fine from cold at home, stopped at a shop 2 minutes later for some bakewell tarts, got back in and it was as dead as anything, wouldn't light up the dahboard.
Called the AA, and they started it and followed me to their autocentre where they changed the battery (for a Lucas one which never seemed as good as it's predecessor) I kept the old one, and cut it open. Where the and plates were welded to the terminal post, it had corroded away and snapped, presumably with the vibrartion of driving, the car ran OK on the alternator but had nothing once the engine was stopped.
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Yep. Sounds about right. Most batteries die "suddenly". I shouldn't feel hard done by if I were you.
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Have a look at the recent "Maintenance free batteries" thread.
www.honestjohn.co.uk/forum/post/index.htm?f=4&t=16...2
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Just had a battery fail on a 2 1/2 year old Mondeo. It was ok 2 hours earlier.
This was a Ford calcium silver battery with va on the label, which I think means it was made by Varta.
So much for all the hype about calcium silver batteries lasting longer.
Although I bought the car 2 1/2 years ago the first charge date was 3 years ago, so the car must have been in storage for 6 months before I got it. I wonder what damage this did to the battery when it was new.
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I think car batteries are made on the cheap now, and are less robust inside than formerly. I remember from years ago that good quality batteries (Crompton Parkinson were said to be the best) would last 10 years easily if looked after and topped up. They never failed suddenly, but just gradually lost storage capacity.
We had heavy duty Cromptons in our boat, and they would start a heavy diesel engine after standing uncharged all winter. They lasted 20 years, and were then relegated to back-up duty for lighting.
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I had a Varta battery which also failed suddenly, on the other hand I have a 10 year old black hard case battery (in a classic car) which has only just started to fail slowly (by not holding its charge over a couple of weeks). Having cut open the Varta battery I can see that the construction is rather dfferent from an old fashioned traditional battery. One difference is that the plates go right to the floor of the battery which means that any debris from sulphation or mecahnical damage is more easily able to short out the cells. On the other hand I'm sure the Varta battery packs the biggest capacity comensurate with weight and the cost of manufacture. My black hard case battery weighs a ton and is probably unnecessarily over-engineered. But it does give warning of failure !
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The (original!) battery went on my 9 year old Xantia about a month before I sold it! Strange to say, the battery showed no problems with starting etc but the car's alarm wouldn't turn off (even after disconnecting the battery!) Apparently the alarm senses a low voltage and interprets it as an attempt at unauthorised entry! The alarm, of course, has its own backup battery so it keeps going. The upshot was that I had to drive 10 miles with the alarm wailing to buy a new battery!
Graeme
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