Car dead

[wilo76]

just went to start my car and it is totally dead , even the alarm LED,s are off and when i opened the door and tried the ignition that too was dead (nothing not even one turn:ack2:) . took a battery reading with a multimeter and it shows 8.8 :confused:. The car was used yesterday and was fine with no problem starting all day and no symptoms of a faulty alternator . Any ideas peeps

[lankey]

Stab in the dark- HT coils. Kids not been playing with all the electrics with the engine off?

Worth checking all battery connectors and earth cable.

[wilo76]

just checked , radio was off , all lights (interior and exterior) were off , battery terminals are tight . iv seen cars before where the alternator is faulty but there is still some power left , where as my car is totaly dead and theres not even power to even control the leccy seats which are in recline position :(.the only thing thats very dimmly lights up is the alarm override switch LED and the the ciggy lighter LED which goes off when i turn ignition key

[tiddler]

Could be the battery is draining down through the alternator. A sticky relay perhaps.

[unwind-protect]

The battery cells can fail overnight. We had this; assumed we left the lights on and got the car jumpstarted. When we tried to restart it later it wouldn't, so we called RAC again and the changed the battery over and it was fine.

(I missed out the part where I locked the keys in the car whilst it was idling recharging the battery and we called out the RAC again to open the car back up for us. We got our money's worth out of them that day!)

[wilo76]

[QUOTE=tiddler;709331]Could be the battery is draining down through the alternator. A sticky relay perhaps.[/QUOTE]Can this be checked with a multimeter ? and if so do you know how

[tiddler]

Not sure, but I suppose If you have a charger connected to the battery you could see how many amps its taking. Then disconnect the alternator and see if the amps draw drops.

[bigbas]

there is no way u are going to start that with that battery voltage and if you do it will turn on engine management light not enough voltage to operate injection system of fuel pump so put a charger on battery or go and get a new one save u aload of hastle my trade mate!!!!!!

[LaurenceGough]

I would get a new batt if your one is over 2-3 years old (and out of warranty). Or you can try to recondition it with good lead acid chargers but if you're sure nothing at all was left on 100% then new batt would be my first thing to try. To be honest that is so low, no point really reconditioning it.

[Balders]

My boat battery did this recently. Went out on the Saturday, all absolutely perfect, ran sweet as a nut, master breaker off over the week, went to start the following Saturday, almost completely dead. It had just failed, simple as that, a cell had broken down. As it was for a boat, the decision was simple. Replace with new (and I installed a 2nd battery with split charger/switch, just in case!)

[wilo76]

The battery is 2-2.5 years old and iv double checked that nothing was left on so I'm hoping your right and its a battery problem and not a alternator problem. as soon as i get hold of a charger I'm going to charge the battery and check that the leccy seat motor were not still engaging after i locked the car up for the night because the drivers seat was reclined last thing so i could get kids out of the back and some guy off my coupe forum suggested i try this first

[1chris]

why go through all this pain messing about, just fit a new battery

[wilo76]

[QUOTE=1chris;709378]why go through all this pain messing about, just fit a new battery[/QUOTE]
because if there is some factor IE something stuck in the seat tracks causing the motor to stay on , then all this will happen again if i fit a new battery without finding the cause of the problem . and to be honest i dont have the money to keep buying new batteries all the time when they may be fine and something else is draining them.

[1chris]

Ok, how about take it to the dealers let them sort it, save a lot of messing about, dont think anybody on a helicopter forum is going to know the answer

[LaurenceGough]

[QUOTE=1chris;709389]Ok, how about take it to the dealers let them sort it, save a lot of messing about, dont think anybody on a helicopter forum is going to know the answer[/QUOTE]

There are people on here from all kinds of professions, these forums are I think one of the best places to ask car questions (and many other things!) unless it's very model specific!! (this isn't really)