Car help?

Embrace

Hi All,

Today when I was driving, I had my heater, back window heater and also my radio on. It kept on cutting out, then turning itself back on throughout the journey (around 10 minutes).
Anyway, I popped in the shop and when I turned the engine on again, none of the things were working for the duration of the journey.

Does anyone have any ideas on what could be causing this?
And please bear with me as I am an 18 year old female!

Nearly_Old

Hopefully it will be something simple like a fuse or fuses but a few more details would help.

When you say "it kept on cutting out" do you mean the car or the radio?
How old is car and do you know how old the battery is?
Did you get any warning light (possibly looking like a battery) showing?
How cold was it last night? - sounds to have been quite cold with all the heating on.

Embrace

Nearly_Old wrote: »

Hopefully it will be something simple like a fuse or fuses but a few more details would help.

When you say "it kept on cutting out" do you mean the car or the radio?
How old is car and do you know how old the battery is?
Did you get any warning light (possibly looking like a battery) showing?
How cold was it last night? - sounds to have been quite cold with all the heating on.

Hi,
Thanks for the reply. Yes it was the Radio, and both heaters that cut out.
The car is around 8 years old, but I purchased it second hand so not sure about the battery?
No warning lights and everything else (brake lights, indicators etc...) were all working normally.
I did think that it may have been the cold weather as well. It was -4 this morning!
Thanks.

Nearly_Old

Sorry but another question: is the car being used mainly for short journeys; e.g. just a shortish daily commute? If so it might be that the battery has got low and needs re-charging. If you don't have a regular trusty mechanic who can test the battery then you can it tested at most garages.

The radio and heaters are likely to be on different fuses so more than one fuse would have had to fail which is possible but unlikely. My neighbour's daughter had electrical problems on her 9 year old Corsa a couple of weeks ago and that turned out to be a failing battery.

If you could post the make / model of the car others on here might have more detailed knowledge.

On the brighter side as everything else is working fine until it's sorted it's just an extra jumper and having your own sing-a-long.

Embrace

Nearly_Old wrote: »

Sorry but another question: is the car being used mainly for short journeys; e.g. just a shortish daily commute? If so it might be that the battery has got low and needs re-charging. If you don't have a regular trusty mechanic who can test the battery then you can it tested at most garages.

The radio and heaters are likely to be on different fuses so more than one fuse would have had to fail which is possible but unlikely. My neighbour's daughter had electrical problems on her 9 year old Corsa a couple of weeks ago and that turned out to be a failing battery.

If you could post the make / model of the car others on here might have more detailed knowledge.

On the brighter side as everything else is working fine until it's sorted it's just an extra jumper and having your own sing-a-long.

Well I used to do a 35 mile commute every day until I got made redundant (Mid December) so now my journeys are small (15 minutes usually)

I did think it could be the battery. Its a Daewoo Matiz SE Plus. I'm hoping that it is relativly cheap to recharge the battery... I paid for a full service in December!!

Thanks for your help so far

Inner_Zone

Embrace wrote: »

I did think it could be the battery. Its a Daewoo Matiz SE Plus. I'm hoping that it is relativly cheap to recharge the battery... I paid for a full service in December!!

Buy a battery charger. What has the service to do with it?

Embrace

Inner_Zone wrote: »

Buy a battery charger. What has the service to do with it?

Just the fact that I payed £500 for a service about 6 weeks ago, so I was hoping that it doesnt cost alot

Nearly_Old

Sympathise with the redundancy - mine was at the end of October but I converted it to early retirement.

It's looking more like that it's the battery so I would suggest that you get it checked asap otherwise there is a risk of the car not starting one morning. As there hasn't been a warning light for the battery charging then (hopefully) your alternator that provides electrical power when the car is running is OK. Starting a car on a cold morning takes a lot out of the battery and having lots of electrical equipment on means that there's very little spare output from the alternator to re-charge the battery. As you're now only doing short journeys the battery may have gradually run down over a period of time.

Getting a battery charged shouldn't be expensive but you might find that if it is the original battery that the garage may suggest that you fit a new one. Beware of this as a battery from a main dealer can be quite expensive and if you do need a new one there are cheaper alternatives.

Have you the facilities to use a battery charger? Ideally you would need to connect it (they usually come with clear instructions and there may be something in your handbook) and leave it on for a few hours; e.g. overnight. So this is not usually an option unless you can get the car off the road and near enough to your house/apartment to use an extension lead. I'm assuming that you don't want to have to remove the battery and carry it indoors, charge it and then put it back in the car the next morning - don't think that I'd want to do that. There are places that will fast charge a battery so using Google might give you more options.

Inner_Zone

Battery chargers at Argos and Halfords start at about £25. Though you might want to spend a bit more around £40 to get a better one and future proof if you change your car anytime.

PS Sorry to hear about the redundancy, been there twice.