Dead battery or something else...?

Eurorunner

I have a '97 Opel Astra. She wouldnt start this afternoon - and whatever power was left in the battery, it was used up within a few attempts at turning her over.
I left it at the airport recently on two occassions - the first time, i had to get someone to jump start it. The second time, It just about started. It had only been left for 2/3 days in both cases.
This is a recent problem - since the last month or so. Before this, it would start no problem at 5 in the morning during the couple of cold spells we had this winter.
Could it be that the battery is fécked or maybe a short in the electrics? Any way of working out what it might be?

colm_mcm

99% sure it's the battery. doesn't sound like the alternator as it only happend after the car's been left sitting.

Cal

I'd be confident it is the battery. 10 Yrs is not a bad innings.

Cal.

Eurorunner

Ok so new battery tomorrow. If I go get one, is one the same as the next or is there a particular brand to get/avoid?

colm_mcm

fitment varies from model to model. terminals may be at different ends of the battery. Aim to go for a brand that you've heard of.

JohnCleary

The cold weather will test the life left in a battery. On my old boat, the battery would be no good if left for more than 7 days during the winter. In the summer she could go 4 weeks without being started but had plenty of poke left when it came to starting.

Countryripple

A friend has an opel vectra, one of the new models. left it for three days around new years without using it and when he went to it was dead. there was a day of cold weather so he presumed that was what killed it. new battery was got and all was sorted. now, last week after leaving it for a week of not driving, same thing has happened!!! not a tinkle out of it. now, there was no cold weather at all over the last week so he is baffled as to what it was that killed it?

Is this a case for another new battery? Or is there some bigger problem? 2 battries in 3 months for an 02 car is mad!!

colm_mcm

get the battery tested by the dealer.

JohnCleary

colm_mcm wrote:

get the battery tested by the dealer.

F00k that. Just check it with a multimeter.

Rookie mistake: Don't check the voltage. A f00ked battery might show a perfect 13.* volt. The trick is to check resistence when under load, that'll test the health of a battery. Google the figures you want to achieve, can't remember off hand

colm_mcm

we got some fancy-ass battery tester, cost over 1200 yoyos, does some kinda state of health printout report thingy. won't even pretend to understand how it works. I believe it's necessary for warranty claims. Opel main dealer should have one too.

Countryripple

Will have to see if it can be jumped to get it near the dealer. Just seems weird that it could die so soon after being put it and there was no frost or cold weather to kill it you know.

Thanks for the help.

JohnCleary

colm_mcm wrote:

we got some fancy-ass battery tester, cost over 1200 yoyos, does some kinda state of health printout report thingy. won't even pretend to understand how it works. I believe it's necessary for warranty claims. Opel main dealer should have one too.

That's mental, but can understand why a main dealer would need one.

What exactly does it print out? Sounds like a fancy multimeter to me! €3.99 in Maplin and a quick Google and you could beat that machine!

colm_mcm

Can a multimeter instantly tell you if a battery can hold charge?

Pherekydes

colm_mcm wrote:

Can a multimeter instantly tell you if a battery can hold charge?

Absolutely not.

Regarding the voltage check, you could check the voltage while the car engine is running. This will give an indication whether the charging circuit (Alternator and voltage regulator) is OK.

JohnCleary

colm_mcm wrote:

Can a multimeter instantly tell you if a battery can hold charge?

No, but for 1,200 euro i'll tell you that any car battery cannot hold it's charge, and i'll include a new one in the price

maidhc

Battery in our Avensis just died overnight at about 80k miles without warning.

No reason, no lights left on, it just passed away. I charged it and it couldn't hold charge for more than 24 hours.

peasant

Batteries die. Full stop. They don't have an eternal life. Sudden death is usually due to some cells finally fusing up.

New batteries not performing could either mean faulty battery or some electric glitch that's sucking power while the vehicle is parked up.
Modern stereos that remain on standby insted of switching off completly often are the culprits, same as alarms.

Eurorunner

Replaced it this morning and all is well again. Least I don't have to worry about it letting me down any more.

Thanks for posting.

macnab

Another way of checking your battery is to use a hydrometer to test the specific gravity. Test each of the 6 cells and also visually check the acid for dicolouration. A dud battery will usually have one cell with a low specific gravity ie 1150 instead of a healthy 1250. If all cells are above 1200 and seem clear of dirt then a few hours on a good charger should have the battery back to life again. Hydrometer should cost about €10 in a motor factors.

Lucifer

Also check for glovebox light and boot light staying on. some astra radios and vectra radios suffered from a problem of coming on on their own during the nite causing flat batterys but was only a batch of radios affected around '04/05 so this doesnt sound like the problem with the 02 vectra. work for an opel main dealer and we do have an electronic battery tester which produces a test code for faulty batterys for warrenty when the chassis number is entered. is made by kent moore. but that only applies to opel batterys while under their warranty.