Battery.Again..

[Themoog2]

Car has been ok for ages and I use my ctek regularly to keep the battery on its toes as I generally only do short journeys.
Today I used it today to drive a mile, stop, then return (lazy I know but was in a hurry). 4 hours later I went to start and nothing. Even the comfort access complained by moving at a snails pace..
I’ve had the ctek on it for nearly 7 hours and it’s saying that it has 2 hrs to go. It’s never done that before - a couple of hrs and it’s normally in care mode.
Is my battery finished?
Fortunately I have a spare from the Range Rover in the garage which has been at 12.54v for a year so that should be ok.

[Themoog2]

Interesting. I heard the car alarm going off so I went out and now the car won’t even unlock. I opened the door with the key and only the only interior light that was on was the one by the mirror and that was flickering.

[Leslie]

A cold snap like we are having now seems to finish a lot of batteries off, it may have developed a fault in a cell and is discharging internally , swap it out with the spare and see what happens and just because Ctek says its good doesn't mean it is , it can have good voltage but not be able to provide much current for starts etc.

How old is it anyway ?????????? our focus battery is 5 years old now and was flat this week after doing very little for a good few days and all short runs , has been charged now but any reoccurance and it will be changed out

[Alan Gunn]

The cold will kill a battery if it is on it's way out or getting old.
That doesn't look right but you understand what i am saying i hope lol.

[Themoog2]

So anyway I’ve swapped the battery over and it runs. But.. now the key remote won’t unlock / lock the car. It works ok if I put the key in the door.
I also noticed that the interior lights didn’t go out while I was sitting in it with the motor running. I manually switched them off but when I locked the car the two boot lights stayed on until I switched the interiors on again. Then when I locked it everything faded off as usual.
Ideas?

[Themoog2]

By the way - the battery in the car measured only 5v before I took it out.

[Themoog2]

Sorted. The key lost its remote sync for some reason. A turn in the ignition and a few key fob prods and good to go. Odd.

[X5Sport]

By the way - the battery in the car measured only 5v before I took it out.

Knackered. At least one cell has gone open circuit or short circuit (usually caused by plate failure). Throw it away at your local tidy tip. My Škoda Superb AGM battery went in its first year and the alarm thought the main battery had been stolen so went off (at 4:30am!!!) and I couldn’t get in the car for about 30 mins. The alarms often have their own independent battery/power source. That battery showed about 5V too.

[Themoog2]

Thing is its less than 18 months old but guess what.. I can’t find the receipt. I remember buying it and one for the mini together from Tayna. I even mentioned it on another members thread on here.
If I can find the receipt then I can get another so I’ll have a spare - handy as the Range Rover has the same battery.

[Leslie]

If you paid by card you will have a banking receipt online for them

[Alan Gunn]

Contact Tayna they are very helpful even in a case like this.
They don't give you a new battery but the percentage of the warranty left in a cash refund ??? ?.
If it had 5 years warranty and it failed at 1 year you would get 80% back and so on.

[Themoog2]

I've bought an old school battery tester - not one of these digital things - it's got a dial and needle on it. Puts a proper load on a battery.
On another subject, there was an X5 on auto trader and in the ad the seller stated he had the exhaust centre resonator replaced with straight pipes - no xpipe or anything. He said it sounded so much better. I'm tempted.
Has anyone else had experience of this?

[henrym3]

I find battery’s seem less reliable these days so have got into the habit of sellotaping the receipt to the battery. I normally forget that and find it a pleasant surprise when I take the battery out.

[Alan Gunn]

I have a folder for each of my 2 and every receipt i get goes in there along with the V5 and MOT's (insurance used to go in but online now)..

[Themoog2]

Well well..
My old school battery tester arrived so I chucked it on the battery that played up.
All good apparently. I loaded it twice within 3 min and the needle stayed in the green.
I did have the ctek on it in 'recon' mode overnight as well.
Maybe something in the car flattened it - the alarm was going off before I realised. Strange.