Charging a battery

tomtiddly

Hi folks I was hoping you might have some suggestions.

Our alternator belt won't go on tightly, I believe a tension pulley has broken off and so it won't sit on correctly.

We've run the battery down getting it home, in hindsight we should have run it straight to the garage (about 5 miles away from home) but we didn't realise it was an alternator problem until getting it home. It's done perhaps 20-25 miles since the battery warning light came on.

When parking up the power steering failed and the ABS light was just starting to come on.

Any ideas if it'll start tomorrow morning for us to get it to the garage?

A friend has offered a battery charger but he lives 40 minutes drive so I don't want to ask him to drop it round if it won't really help.

I'd rather not pay for a tow if it can be avoided!

Any help much appreciated

maxheadroom

Charge the battery straight away, as leaving it flat will destroy the battery

hartcjhart

charge the battery overnight(if it is a small charger) BUT remember to make sure you connect it/disconnect it with the charger unplugged/switched off

tomtiddly

Thanks folks, do you know if it's safe to charge in situ?

flashg67

I'd disconnect the battery leads first to be on the safe side. Remove the earth first. When refitting, it's earth last!

Nilrem

flashg67 wrote: »

I'd disconnect the battery leads first to be on the safe side. Remove the earth first. When refitting, it's earth last!

That's pretty much it.

I topped our car battery up the other week as part of routine maintenance, bunged the charger on the passenger seat (not enough room under the bonnet for it), ran an outside extension into the car, and the charger leads out the car window, under the bonnet and charged it in place.

As you say, disconnect the car from the battery first (earth first on disconnection and last when hooking back up).


The only thing for the op to watch, is that the radio may need a code (usually in the owners manual) entered when the battery is connected back up.

s_b

OP doesnt say what make and model and year of vehicle they have
they have put that the power steering went to sleep before the battery died so its quite possible the bsi would need the proper wake up before refitting battery and cranking as on some cars this can corrupt the body computer

just food for thought because anglias dont have electric power steering so it must be newer:D

tomtiddly

Thanks folks for all the help, sorry I mis-wrote that, the battery isn't completely dead.

It was driven for perhaps 30-40 minutes since the light came on (presumably when the belt came off). We did stop off and have the battery checked as we thought it might be that, it was then at 11V and we just did a 2 minute drive from there. The garage thought it would fail around 9/10v? The power steering failed just as we came to park at our house.

Any ideas if it'll make a 5 mile journey on that alone? It's a 03 Peugeot 307 2.0l TDCi.

forgotmyname

Risky, Charge it before you need to buy a new battery as well.

paddedjohn

if the belts come off but it will start then tie a pair of tights around the pullys to get you to a garage.

s_b

paddedjohn wrote: »

if the belts come off but it will start then tie a pair of tights around the pullys to get you to a garage.

yes nice one
i can see it now all the cambelt cover ripped off
the timing belt teeth shredded
and the engine going nowhere

tights are fine to get you back from scarborough in an anglia,todays cars will just laugh in your 20 dernier

forgot a smilie