Low electrolyte levels - cause of flat batteries?

fas3robinj

Thor, Top the battery up with distilled water to the recommended level and try charging it up again. Then I would go to a battery place. There is usually one in each major city or town, and ask them to test it for you. They should test it for free.

The other possibility is that there is a minor short in your cars wiring that is discharging your battery. I had that happen once.

maninthestreet

Modern batteries are sealed for life, and can't be topped up. Every car I've had, made since the early 80's, had a sealed battery. Assuming the battery is not going flat due to some excessive current drain when the ignition is switched off, you may want to consider investing in a new, sealed for life battery.

marlot

maninthestreet wrote: »

Modern batteries are sealed for life, and can't be topped up. Every car I've had, made since the early 80's, had a sealed battery. Assuming the battery is not going flat due to some excessive current drain when the ignition is switched off, you may want to consider investing in a new, sealed for life battery.

Many 'sealed' batteries simply have a cover over the cells, and you can still top them up as/when needed - you just have to pull the cover off.

Hintza

Here's a novel idea...........buy a new battery?

Joe_Horner

Hintza wrote: »

Here's a novel idea...........buy a new battery?

Here's an even more novel one. Try topping it up and charging because that will work perfectly well in many cases.

That's a good money saving approach, a good common sense approach and a good environmental approach. Far too many serviceable items are thrown away or recycled when all that's needed is a little maintenance because we've been taught that's "what to do".

The only thing it's NOT good for is battery sales, but those aren't really the OP's concern!

maninthestreet

marlot wrote: »

Many 'sealed' batteries simply have a cover over the cells, and you can still top them up as/when needed - you just have to pull the cover off.

Then they are not 'sealed' batteries - simply having a cover over the cells does not make the battery 'sealed'. Sealed batteries do not have a 'liquid' electrolyte, they use a gel electrolyte, hence they cannot be 'topped-up' with distilled/de-ionised water, and have no removable covers on the cells.

thor

I forgot about this thread so sorry about the late update.
I charged the battery at home again and left it overnight to see if the charge dropped excessively out of the car. It didn't. So that ruled the battery out(although I did go out and buy some distilled water to top it up afterwards).
I was all set to go out with my meter to conduct a current drain test on the car with the battery in situ. Once it had been connected up though I noticed the rear seat area was brighter than it should have been and on closer examination I found that the overhead lights were on:doh:
Can't believe I did not spot it before but do not feel too bad about it as I was bracing myself to having to splash out a bit of cash to get it sorted. In the end it only cost the 75p for the distilled water:D

Joe_Horner

Easily done, especially with the late evenings this time of year

Lucky that you stopped to ask rather than going straight out and buying a new one on Monday