Team-BHP - Battery completely drained in 15 days

Hi

I have a 14 month old FIAT Petra 1.6 ELX. On 12th Aug, therewas an emergency requirement and I left. ON 27th (today) when I returned, I found bettery completely dead. Called RACE, got it jump started, drove for 15 km (40 minutes as advised). In the everning, again dead; although better than earlier, power windows now operating.

I want to know the following from you guys:
Is it normal? Some one told me that with central locking system, it happens.
Do we need to get my battery fully charged at FIAT sservice center / appropriate place? How long and how to ensure that battery is fuuly charged?

There was also a problem of prolonged / multiple cranking for starting. If battery is not fully charged because of any reason, could it lead to this starting trouble. In fact, on 10th August itself, I went to Samyak motors, Delhi for solving the starting problem, he suggested to leave the vehicle overnight, which I did not because of vehicle requirement.

Kindly suggest.

Regards

Subodh

you need to get the battery 'bench charged' over night.
even after that if the battery gets drained get the battery changed.its under warranty anyway.(i'm assuming here that there are no electrical faults/alternator problems in your car).
which make is it by the way?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Subodh Kumar (Post 545353)

Even I seem to be having a similar problem. My Baleno is just 15 months old and my battery has gone down 4 times already. I got it bench charged all the times. Yet, when I had not used the car for 4 days last week it went kaput. The battery guy says battery has gone bust and I would need a replacement. What is the warranty period for batteries? I think mine is an Exide too.

I was told all batteries comes with 18months replacement warranty. However I dont know how do they check if there is some problems with car electricals before replacement.

Again, it was discussed in this forum, if you leave the vehicle unattended for long time, advisible to disconnect negative terminal while out.

Quote:

Originally Posted by mclaren1885 (Post 545935)

Sirjee, with so many mods, me thinks you need to keep couple of spare batteries in the trunk.lol:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jaggu (Post 545940)

Get battery charged by an authorised exide dealer.

Check charging is ok while fitting it back.

Check if there is a heavy drain from the battery when car is switched off, and isolate the reason (can be a badly installed central locking system).

That is correct.
Charging voltage is easily checked.
Checking if something is draining the battery is a little more difficult. He will have to put an ammeter in series with the battery and see how much current is flowing.
The only things drawing current would be the alarm and the radio clock. This amount is so small, it should not make a difference. If there was a big drain on the battery it would short a fuse.
The battery is probably faulty, cells damaged and does not hold a charge.

just now, I got my car battreies checked by Ameron batteries guy. He checked using hygrometer and said that the battery is DEAD (one cell) and would need replacement. The voltage was 9.27 volt. He said that even with completely discharged battery, voltage is not that low.

I talked to Vivek auto Delhi from where I bought the car in June 2006. He asked me to bring the car for inspection and said that even the battery may be replaced under warantee. I checked battery manufacturing date: It is probabily 2005 make.

What should I do now? What is the chances of getting a new battery under warantee? If I get under replacement a secong hand battery, it would again be of not much use. A new Ameron battery with 4 years warantee costs me 4600. Whether the cost is right?

Experts opinion, please.

Guys general information about battery...

A car battery has got 6 cells connected to each other. one cell has to produce 2 volts...that is 2 volts* 6 cells=12 volt battery.

If a new battery is not holding charge there can be only three reasons..

1. Faulty wiring(insulation not proper) which is touching the body of the car....since the power is getting drained from the battery when the car is ideal.

2.You car alternator is not working properly....Alternator has to produce 13.8-14.2 v which will charge the battery when the engine runs. anything below 13.8 will not charge the battery. any thing above 14.2 will over charge the battery (acid inside the battery will start comming out)

3.battery also fails when the inter connection between the cells goes off.This is a manufacturing defect and you can claim warranty for this if the battery is under warranty

Just get the Battery recharged fully(over-night). The battery guys will feel the cells with distilled water.BTW it's very important to keep the water level correct.Then run the car for few days,if there is no problem then you can keep on using it for some more time.Otherwise change the battery or check the alternator.Similar thing happened to me also and I used it for few more months but anyway had to change it at the end.
Normally when they say they'll exchange the battery,they'll actually give you discounts on the new Battery depending on the age of your battery.I think some 30% for 2-3 year old battery(exide).
And next time, if you are leaving the car idle for more then a week, better disconnect the battery.

I've left a car for five weeks (parked in a West London Street while I nipped over to India and back!) and it started with no trouble whatsoever. The following year I left the same car at a friend's place for six months. We did not think to disconnect anything, and it was flat when I got back. He was able to charge it up for me the day before I went to collect it.

Letting a lead-acid battery go completely flat is bad for it, and will reduce its capacity and life, which is why I just bought a UPS with about three times the capacity I expect to need. It may save me money in the long run.

If your battery is not charging, the 'ignition' light should be on while driving. One easy and simple check is to make sure (with the engine off, of course) that the belt driving the alternator is tight enough.

Car batteries seem to have an immensely long life compared to a few decades ago.