Car battery - new one or recharge!?

thenap80

Hi
My car has been on the driveway for five months and as u can imagine will now not start at all!

I have removed the battery and measured the voltage as 4.67 using one of those multitester things!!

I drive a Honda Civic 16V

Would I need to buy a new battery or can this one be charged happily!!?

Battery is five years old but I never had any probs before leaving the car standing for five months!?!?!!?!

Cheers

Inactive

Give it a charge and see if it holds it OK.

It will probably be OK.

Locknut

Hi,

It will probably be ok with a good charge, IE overnight at the least, but at 5 years old its coming to the end of its expected life anyway. charge it up if it works happy days.

onejontwo

They reckon the expected life of a good battery is about 3 years, after which it deteriorates, once discharged as in your case the coating on the plates inside the battery slowly starts to fall off which is why you should always keep your battery charged even when not in use.
You'll be one of the lucky ones if your battery is OK after this length of time. But hey, try charging you never know.

steveo3002

no harm in charging it over night , you might be lucky

if it doesnt charge no hard feelings , 5 yrs is old enough anyway and the sitting there for months prob just killed it off

goldspanners

onejontwo wrote: »

They reckon the expected life of a good battery is about 3 years

who are they?

a good battery,a really good battery can last 7 years no problem if charged and used regularly, my focus is 5 years old on its original battery,still starts even after being out of use for 2 weeks,its also got an amplifier wired up to it so its is doing a little more work than it would be expected to.

petrol engines take very little out of a battery diesels are harder to start due to higher compression which means heavier starter motor,and also glow plugs on before battery is being charged,so a diesel will need a heavier battery,but again ive had 5 years from a heavy duty diesel engine battery aswell before it gave up.

op,charge the battery up over night,or even jump start the car with,take the car for a run and allow the battery to get a charge up via the alternator, you may find this will work just as well as waiting for an over night charge. but make sure you run it for a good few hours,make sure alternator is charging with your miltimeter then switch it off and try to restart it, if it starts then your laughing.

swiftnick

goldspanners wrote: »

a good battery,a really good battery can last 7 years no problem if charged and used regularly, my focus is 5 years old on its original battery,still starts even after being out of use for 2 weeks,its also got an amplifier wired up to it so its is doing a little more work than it would be expected to.

petrol engines take very little out of a battery diesels are harder to start due to higher compression which means heavier starter motor,and also glow plugs on before battery is being charged,so a diesel will need a heavier battery,but again ive had 5 years from a heavy duty diesel engine battery aswell before it gave up.

quote]

Got 7 years from my diesel Focus battery was still working well when I changed it.

Only changed it because winter was approaching and didn't want it to let me (the Mrs) down.

Seen batteries go down in an instant.

hewhoisnotintheknow

my pug still has its original battery some 10 years on

thenap80

How do I charge it up!

I have it resting out of the car now.

DO i need a good charger? Where do I get one of these from!!!

Nex0

thenap80 wrote: »

How do I charge it up!

I have it resting out of the car now.

DO i need a good charger? Where do I get one of these from!!!

At this time of night halfords or argos are your best bets.

LeeSouthEast

The original-spec battery in my Focus (from new) lasted 6.5 years before being replaced in January. It still started, but it was getting more and more reluctant in the depths of winter to turn over first thing in the morning. Yours after a decent charge should kick onwards for another year yet, if it's a reasonable battery. Charge first, replace later. A charge is a lot cheaper than a decent battery.