Showing my ignorance

[sapphireblack]

I have the quick connectos also, it makes life just a little bit easier.. I put it on a reconditioning charge last night. Until I'm free of Covid which has been dogging me for over a week now, i am house bound anyway

My overnight top ups have been more like weekly and now I've put the car back together, i did wonder whether i should have just replaced the thing? Summer hasnt arrived here yet of course, so the car sits a lot, I'll see what transpires in the coming weeks.

[X5Sport]

Sorry to read you have the lurgy! It’s one I’ve managed to escape so far - no idea how - however both of our cars are showing signs of aging batteries. Carly flagged the X6 one as only 94% capacity now and it’s used almost every day. The E46 needs a charge every couple of weeks.

[sapphireblack]

Lurgy struck me the w/e of 4/5th although the penny didn't drop until the 8th when i first tested. I had shivers and a cough but still hadn't twigged. When i first tested on the 8th the scale reading roared up double quick to a significant positive. Tested yesterday and still bloody positive, though i feel OK again now.

Like you i had avoided it during the pandemic and never thought I'd be immune, but nor did i think about catching it now either. Its a local version and i think i must have acquired it here shortly after i arrived and went grocery shopping.

[sapphireblack]

To conclude on this scenario, i set about battery replacement mid week. I connected the Audew jump start pack to the engine bay terminals and unhooked the battery negative, at whicn point the permanant live 12v sockets went out.

So my plan immediately failed. However, the car somehow managed to retain all the seat and key memories which was a happy surprise. The only thing that was zero'd was the clock. With hindsight i should have just used the CTEK, not the jump start pack.

The battery i took out was put on a conditioning rechage on Thursday, the CTEK is displaying stage seven now but not yet reached the stage eight 'sleep' mode. The batteries window display is very green and im still not convinced it's a dud. That said, the new replacement is showing 12.7/8v in the mornings after the car is used the night before. In truth the removed battery would often show less, 12.2/3, sometimes 12.5v and would start the car but frequent need for the CTEK suggests that maybe the removed battery is simply 'tired'?

Regardless, its done now, and i have a battery to dispose of somehow. There are no recycling facilities here!

I just read this morning that Italy is officially Europes poorest country with the UK a close second. I cant believe Greece is richer than either, based on my experiences? For sure the summer weather is better though

I've posted this purely for battery behaviour info as the vehicle is not a BMW

[X5Sport]

Glad you got there in the end. The only real way to check a battery is a drop-test….and that doesn’t mean dropping it!

Back in the 80s, we tested police vehicle batteries with a very large resistor that put the battery under great load. If it held for 10 seconds the battery was good, if not it was replaced. Modern drop testers are nowhere near as good….although probably a tad safer.

It doesn’t surprise me that the UK is in a bad place. Successive governments have put off doing the right thing for years because it takes more than one Parliament to fix stuff, and the long-view is taken over by short-termism that we know doesn’t work.

[Leslie]

I think the Ctek needs about a week to get to the last stage , I only ever see stage 7 that day and its usually all good however you can see stage 7 but the battery has lost its ability to flow a high current as over time the plates in the battery become less efficient , nothing lasts forever . I wonder how many borderline ok batteries the drop test killed X5sport , I remember garages wanting to do it if you came in with a flat battery which was completely pointless to start with as it was already discharged so would fail the test !

Not surprised the uk is second from the bottom all you hear is no money for anything all the time despite what is probably the longest working week in Europe , the oldest retirement age and possibly the lowest pension They really want you to work till you drop now There is another way of thinking if the people had more money they would spend more which would boost the economy, bring in more tax and create jobs and wealth. Austerity is still here since 2008 never left