Battery Chargers

RichyX

I only use my 1.4 Focus intermittently (sometimes only every 2 weeks or so), so the battery has gone flat a few times.
I had a mechanic check the battery and he reckoned it was grand.

How well would one of these products work? - Ring Car Starter PowerPack and Torch
I tried a cheapo 20€ charger that you connect through the cig lighter, but it did nothing. To be honest I don't think its battery eveworked, it didn't heat up when charging.
Would it be worth spending a few € on the above charger?

Antiquo

OP are you takin the pi$$?


Benefit of the doubt.. you can't charge your car from a charger that gets it's power from the battery you are trying to charge.

Did I read this right....:)

Yeh go to the motor factor and get a mains battery charger.

RichyX

Antiquo wrote: »

OP are you takin the pi$$?


Benefit of the doubt.. you can't charge your car from a charger that gets it's power from the battery you are trying to charge. :confused

"The Car Starter Powerpack provides emergency power to recharge your battery and start your engine."

It has it's own built in battery.

doctorchopper

sounds like there is a electrical draw somewhere, a battery should last for months without charging it and still start a car, the other thing you could do is just disconnect the negative lead on the battery if its going to sit for a while.

RichyX

doctorchopper wrote: »

sounds like there is a electrical draw somewhere, a battery should last for months without charging it and still start a car, the other thing you could do is just disconnect the negative lead on the battery if its going to sit for a while.

I've been told by mechanics 2 weeks is a reasonable amount of time before it discharges to the point where it won't start the car.

I went out to start the car 5 minutes ago and it's dead already. I gave it a good drive last night so this is really weird. First time it's discharged this quickly.

Could the alarm cause said electrical draw? When I went out and deactivated the alarm the bugger went off, and then the car wouldn't start. As usual all I get is a mechanical clicking when I try to start.
How would a car react if it was an immobiliser issue?

samhail

Can anyone comment on whether a suggestion of unplugging the battery from the car for the 2 weeks might do any good ?

Rovi

samhail wrote: »

Can anyone comment on whether a suggestion of unplugging the battery from the car for the 2 weeks might do any good ?

It would certainly confirm if the fault lies in the battery or elsewhere.
If when you reconnect after a few days/weeks, the battery behaves normally, you can conclude that there's an issue somewhere else in the electrical system.
If the battery is flat again, it's a faulty battery.

dharn

sounds like your battery is buggered the extremely low temperatures of last winter really killed off batterys in cars that were not being used much i have the very same experience car not being used much would start all summer no problem but now battery wont hold charge for any length of time

Ghost Train

I'd check the age of the battery, If its four or five years old it might be past its best

Disconnecting the battery should help

Can't imagine the portable car starter would be much good, not if battery completely dead, might give enough boost if battery level marginal

Also possible the car isn't charging the battery when running

Putting proper charger on the battery every so often might help keep battery well charged if not getting much running

langdang

Disconnecting the battery will reset the ECU so it could be in "re-learning" mode regularly - slight increase in fuel consumption probably, while it re-learns the best settings for your driving. (this sounds more advanced than it actually is) And you'll lose all the settings in your radio, and will have to re-enter the radio code.

If it was the immobiliser then your focus would probably crank the engine as normal but wouldn't start the car. That clicking sound (and mad erratic movements of the rev counter) is Fords way of telling you your battery does not have enough power to start the car..

How much was a good drive? My own was reluctant to start recently and a 20min hard drive sorted it. You need the revs up to get a proper charge into a drained battery. (Idling won't really charge it but if your driving it should be ok)

Ghost Train

revs of the car won't make much difference to the charge, alternator will limit the voltage/current to give steady charge. Idle speed should charge slowly slightly above idle maybe a little more, but no need for high revs

RichyX

Ghost Train wrote: »

revs of the car won't make much difference to the charge, alternator will limit the voltage/current to give steady charge. Idle speed should charge slowly slightly above idle maybe a little more, but no need for high revs

That's exactly what a mechanic told me. He reckoned you don't even need to go for a drive, just let it sit idling for 30 minutes and it should charge her up.
Not in my case, but there may be more to it with my machine...

One of the battery cells was bubbling a little. No idea of the age of it. No receipts and nothing on the battery to indicate age.

Ghost Train

Thing is to give battery decent charge you'll need it on a charger at least 8-12 hours (depending on size of battery charger etc.). Half an hour drive won't put much into it.

unkel

RichyX wrote: »

"The Car Starter Powerpack provides emergency power to recharge your battery and start your engine."

It has it's own built in battery.

It's a joke and it won't work. It's got a lousy 4Ah, nowhere near enough to charge even a small car battery.

RichyX

doctorchopper wrote: »

sounds like there is a electrical draw somewhere, a battery should last for months without charging it and still start a car, the other thing you could do is just disconnect the negative lead on the battery if its going to sit for a while.

Out of interest, what would the difference be between disconnecting the negative, and disconnecting both leads?

doctorchopper

nothing really just half the work, if you only disconnect the positive you can run the risk of it falling onto the terminal and arcing, so safer just to disconnect negative, also if you are disconnecting both leads always disconnect the negative first to avoid the risk of shorting out your spanner on the positive terminal to ground

RichyX

What about giving one of these go? - http://www.argos.ie/static/Product/partNumber/7402144.htm
Getting a jump start is pretty awkward here. Conveniently the bonnet won't open on my housemates car.

RichyX

How about buying a new battery? Do they come charged? Guessing not considering they lose their charge after about 2 weeks.

E39MSport

CTEK trickle conditioner/chargers are very good.

doctorchopper

Most shops they will come fully charged, but ask first, if not a lot of places will charge them for you. A battery in good condition will not lose its charge in 2 weeks without a draw on it, it shoulds last months

Yawns

battery trouble myself.

The car went dead on monday on us as we were driving. Managed to park in the town and walk home, grab wallet, off to hardware shop cos no tools.

#10 spanner and out comes the old battery. Bought new battery in autoshop for €73 and it's running grand now. It was giving a lot of trouble over the winter and it needed jump starting twice in a week so I think it's just knackered now. Even tho it seemed fine last week. It's 5 years old. Here's hoping it's not another problem

unkel

Yawns wrote: »

The car went dead yesterday on us as we were driving.

As you were driving, like at a constant speed? In that case it is unlikely it was the battery (alone)

That said I had a battery once (10 years old ) that was so dead that you had to jumpstart the car with a similar size car (well similar size battery) PLUS a batterypack. It would then start fine and the engine would run fine and keep running after disconnecting both other batteries, until you put the autobox in reverse. The engine would then conk out

Yawns

nope when the gf started the car the lights popped up. Thinking it was just low I said we should be alright getting home. I tought she left lights on while we were out of car as it wouldn't be a 1st or 2nd or 15th time.

Then it died as we drove a few mins. Think the battery just went kaput. That was Monday about lunch time. Drove it yesterday about 50 k/m and today for about 30 and so far everything is normal with new battery in so fingers crossed.

It's due a service soon so will change the sparks too along with filters and oil.

RichyX

E39MSport wrote: »

CTEK trickle conditioner/chargers are very good.

How do they actually work?
Do they have an internal battery, or do they run off the mains?
The company website doesn't make it very clear.

From what I've seen it looks as though they take a charge from the battery when the car's running, and then feed it back into the battery when the car's off.

Might invest in one anyway, battery city do them for pretty cheap.

E39MSport

They are intelligent trickle chargers and stop charging when the battery is charged, so you can leave it connected up over long periods. I've had my car connected for the past 4 months and continue to do so. Crank power is always tip top.

They work from mains power. The higher spec ones are also good for battery reconditioning.

RichyX

E39MSport wrote: »

They are intelligent trickle chargers and stop charging when the battery is charged, so you can leave it connected up over long periods. I've had my car connected for the past 4 months and continue to do so. Crank power is always tip top.

They work from mains power. The higher spec ones are also good for battery reconditioning.

Hmm, not really practical then, unless to have a garage.

E39MSport

Not necessarily. I have my car out of storage now and will be wiring up an outdoor socket in the next few weeks. B&Q stock them at about 25 lids I think.
The main unit will be residing in the engine bay somewhere. Just need to ensure its stable.

RichyX

Can anyone tell me what the correct capacity for a new Focus 1.4 battery is?