Urgent: my battery just died

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CCOVICH

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Left on the interior light when I was cleaning my car on Weds. night and now the battery is dead. What can I do? Thinking of heading to Halfords and getting jump leads, but have never used them before. Any advice?

What happens when I get the battery charged-do I need to change it?

Can't used an A/C powered charger, cos the car is miles away from the gaff (in underground car park).
 
Best to change it because when the winter comes around it will most likely let you down. Bought one recently in [broken link removed]on Kylemore Rd. because they appeared to be the cheapest. They open even on Sundays.

Do you have any sort of breakdown cover? We have a battery charger and it would have taken hours to charge. The guy was able to charge it in 2 mins. max - no exaggeration.

If you know someone with AA cover as far as I know they can call them out and get it charged.
 
sueellen said:
Best to change it because when the winter comes around it will most likely let you down. Bought one recently in [broken link removed]on Kylemore Rd. because they appeared to be the cheapest. They open even on Sundays.

Do you have any sort of breakdown cover? We have a battery charger and it would have taken hours to charge. The guy was able to charge it in 2 mins. max - no exaggeration.

If you know someone with AA cover as far as I know they can call them out and get it charged.
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Thanks for that Sueellen. Have sourced a set of jump leads, and have a fair idea how to do it, but I have someone who is actually done it before, so might leave it to them.

So these chargers are no good? Was looking at one in the Argos catalogue, as my gf reminded me that there are electric sockets in the car park.

Btw, how much was the new battery?
 
Hello CCOVICH. A word of warning about jump leads. A year ago my battery was flat because car was idle. A neighbour kindly offered to charge it up using his jump leads. The car started but the surge blew the car radio! Cost €250 to replace. And I could have phoned AA. Was told the leads the AA use have some kind of surge protection. And the neighbour is an electrician! I didn't tell him but will get AA in future. I think a garage may have some kind of device that measures the health of a battery - though not sure.
 
Hi,

Battery was €45. Price elsewhere was €65! Was told by a few different people that Southside are the cheapest in Dublin. They provide as far as I can recall a 2 year warranty on it as well.

Down thru the years we have bought 2 battery chargers and I have come to the conclusion that in the long run you are better off replacing the battery especially if its anyway old at all. It might hold the charge for a while but winter time usually throws the problem up again presumably because of all the gadgets that we use in the car in colder weather. The guy on the call out said the same thing.

Had never heard of the surge problem with the jump leads that Sherib suffered but obviously something to watch out for.



P.S. No association with Southside.

 
If a battery is completely flat, use a charger. This trickle charge rate is best at bringing it up to it's fully charged state.

If you jump-lead your car, then you need to drive to charge it with the alternator. This is not an ideal situation, as it is forcing a charge into the battery, and you very often don't reach a full charge.

The alternator is designed to keep a charged battery system, topped up.

When you get a charger, it might have two settings (high and low). Use the low setting to charge up a fully flat battery.
 
Thanks for all the replies.

Got the jump leads, but in the meantime the alarm and CL had fired back up, and I wasn't able to open the car to flick the bonnet!!!

So had to trigger the alarm and run down the power again. Jump leads worked a treat, and I then took the car on a 30 minute drive. No problems (yet).

Oh well, could have been worse, I'm actually selling the car at the moment-just as well nobody was coming to see it today!
 
CCOVICH said:
Got the jump leads, but in the meantime the alarm and CL had fired back up, and I wasn't able to open the car to flick the bonnet!!!
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Don't you have a manual override for the Central Locking (I presume CL refers to central locking - right) - in most cases, the key can be used to open the lock even when the CL is not working.
 
RainyDay said:
Don't you have a manual override for the Central Locking (I presume CL refers to central locking - right) - in most cases, the key can be used to open the lock even when the CL is not working.
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Well, when the alarm light came back on, the CL came back on as well. The alarm could be disabled, but there was not enough power in the battery to open the car via the CL.

Whenever I turned off the interior light that was draining the battery, power returned to the alarm, CL, and immobiliser. Once I had drained the battery again (by activating the alarm, i.e. I re-armed it, and opened the boot to set it off), I was able to open the door old school style (i.e. with the key).
 
Never jump start any car with a cat.

The raw fuel kills it, and they are very pricey (maybe €700) to replace.
 
RS2K said:
Never jump start any car with a cat.
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Absolutely - stick with the jump leads. It's very hard to persuade the cat to stay in position with 1 leg on each battery terminal. My cat clawed me to bits last time I tried this.
 
RainyDay said:
Absolutely - stick with the jump leads. It's very hard to persuade the cat to stay in position with 1 leg on each battery terminal. My cat clawed me to bits last time I tried this.
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lol.

RS2K-can you explain-do you mean a "catalytic convertor"?
 
Yep. Semi precious metals inside a catalytic convertor.

Very expensive to replace.
 
Ok, cheers for that.


Am I right in think that only older cars have cats fitted? i.e. those that were not originally made to run on unleaded petrol?
 
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