Either the AA or Halfords are lying to me

molerat

Paradigm wrote: »

I always thought batterys were stored "dry" & the electrolyte is added when purchased?

No, they are delivered wet and fully charged.

I would question why Halfords did not use their very expensive battery and alternator tester http://www.ap-tech.co.uk/products/details/863.html which all stores should have.

vikingaero

molerat wrote: »

No, they are delivered wet and fully charged.

Depends. My local Vauxhall dealer stores them dry and adds the electrolyte at the point of purchase - I saw him "fuel" it through the double doors of the parts department.

pendulum

molerat wrote: »

I would question why Halfords did not use their very expensive battery and alternator tester http://www.ap-tech.co.uk/products/details/863.html which all stores should have.

It is not down to Halfords to find this fault. It is highly probable the battery they have sold is fine and the fault lies elsewhere.

The AA man said he checked the alternator. Considering the fact that her original battery 'failed', and now a brand new replacement has also 'failed' in a very short space of time, my vote is also with something draining the battery.

TrickyWicky

It could be the battery, it could be the alternator but I suspect its probably something in the car draining the battery. Has the interior light been left on by accident? - heater blower? Anything plugged into the cigerette lighter socket?

Batteries do get sold in duff condition. I've had two within the same year. I actually had better luck buying a second hand battery for a tenner from someone. The two duffers.. well one ended up at the tip with their collection waiting to be recycled and with the leaking acid, probably left a hole in the tarmac and the other is still useful enough to power a lightbulb in the shed.

To test your alternator, put a voltmeter on the battery when the engine is off. Red probe goes to the positive (+) terminal and the black goes to the negative (-) terminal. It should be about 12-13V. Start the engine, measure it again, you should see about 14 to 14.5V. If not, the alternator is duff. If it does provide those readings its ok and the battery is either at fault or the car is.

maxheadroom

I had a problem with a fault draining the battery a while ago, fault nothing obvious and googling it revealed likely to be part of computerised dash - v expensive to replace. So i fitted one of these

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Motrax-12V-Motorcycle-Battery-Guard-Anti-Theft-/270785047679?pt=UK_Motorcycle_Parts&hash=item3f0c0bec7f

basically sits connects to the battery positive terminal and the positive wire and automatically disconnects the battery when the voltage drops below a set level but will still alow car to be started, is reconnected by remote control and you can start the car - obviously when battery disconnects you lose radio presets, clock settings etc and if theres an alarm system it wont like it but it was a 15min £30 quid fix with few inconveninces liek clock not workign and radios hundreds for part and hassle of dismantling half the dash.

Have a similar heavy duty system on my works vehicles so you can leave lights etc running with no worry that you wont be able to restart the vehicle but it costs around £200

http://www.maplefleetservices.co.uk/component/virtuemart/detail/19-battery-care/flypage/21-battery-guard-2000.html?sef=hcfp

pendulum

^ Rather a good idea!

patman99

Trouble with the Focus, if you get a voltage reading from the alternator of 9V. it may not be the alternator but the smart-charge system. This is made-up of 3 components - the alternator, ECU and dashboard. If the chip on the dash fails, the ECU detects this and instructs the alternator to drop to an output of 9 volts. Replacement involves a new dash + reprograming of the ECU, alternator, alarm/immobiliser and all the keys. Cost £500

Road_Hog

Wig wrote: »

I've never heard of "autocentre" but assuming they are independent from the Halfords store,
The thing to learn from this is that if you had

It's Nationwide Autocentre and Halfords bought them out about a year ago and have been going through a rebranding exercise. So, they are the same thing.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8521404.stm