Car battery temporarily died on the motorway. Restarted after a while. Next action?

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Kokolot
Kokolot Posts: 16 Forumite
edited 10 January 2018 at 9:10PM in Motoring
Hello all,

My car battery temporarily died so my car stalled on the road.

After turning off all lights (except headlights), radio etc for a while it restarted and I was able to drive home for 20 miles.

I think this happened because I left the indoor car lamp on accidentally and also had my TomTom, and radio on so it drained the batter?

The car was driving fine after this for the 20 miles after and I got home.

What should I do next as a safety precaution?

The car is at home now.

Shall I leave it on for another hour while parked?

This never happened to me before so any advice welcome please.
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  • arcon5
    arcon5 Posts: 14,099 Forumite
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    Your alternator runs the electrics when the engines running. Having lights and radio etc won't cause it to cut out.

    If it cut out you should have it looked at to investigate the fault.
  • Kokolot
    Kokolot Posts: 16 Forumite
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    Hi there,

    So what happened was I was driving as normal, and then during a traffic jam I breaked as usual, but then when I hit the accelerator to move ahead again it wouldn't go forward.

    The engine was revving but no forward motion.

    Then I turned off all the non-essential lights like above and shut the car down and after a 5 minutes it was OK and drove once I switched from Neutral to gear.

    What does that suggest?

    I will get it checked.
  • Norman_Castle
    Norman_Castle Posts: 11,871 Forumite
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    Kokolot wrote: »

    The engine was revving but no forward motion.
    Sounds like a transmission fault. Quite common among recent newbies.
  • Kokolot
    Kokolot Posts: 16 Forumite
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    How much does this type of thing cost?

    I have a Nissan.
  • arcon5
    arcon5 Posts: 14,099 Forumite
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    Is it an automatic or manual?
    What model nissan is it?
  • facade
    facade Posts: 7,030 Forumite
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    It will be the woeful CVT. The torque converter auto is very reliable.
    CVT repairs run into 4 figures I'm afraid.
    I want to go back to The Olden Days, when every single thing that I can think of was better.....

    (except air quality and Medical Science ;))
  • IanMSpencer
    IanMSpencer Posts: 1,517 Forumite
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    If the battery was genuinely flat then all bets are off with computer controlled elements of the car. Components may refuse to work as start-up diagnostics fail or the computers and sensors simply don't work properly. With battery in poor condition I've had a car that drives but randomly the dashboard has died, cruise control has failed, doors have automatically unlocked and stop-start has refused to enable.

    Restarting the car when voltage has been restored will normally sort things out.
  • marlot
    marlot Posts: 4,934 Forumite
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    IanMSpencer wrote: »
    ...
    Restarting the car when voltage has been restored will normally sort things out.
    Except that the engine didn't actually cut out. The OP is completely mistaken when he states its the battery.

    My money's on it being a failed CVT automatic - but he hasn't told us axactly what model car it is yet.

    I wish people would give us all the facts instead of having it drawn out of them!
  • Kokolot
    Kokolot Posts: 16 Forumite
    edited 11 January 2018 at 9:53AM
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    Hi,

    Sorry I don't know all the details to post.

    My car is an automatic. And Nissan Micra 2008.

    And I am not a car expert so my initial thought was it is the battery so I shouldn't have stated battery in my post maybe.
  • IanMSpencer
    IanMSpencer Posts: 1,517 Forumite
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    marlot wrote: »
    Except that the engine didn't actually cut out. The OP is completely mistaken when he states its the battery.

    My money's on it being a failed CVT automatic - but he hasn't told us axactly what model car it is yet.

    I wish people would give us all the facts instead of having it drawn out of them!

    Regardless. OP identified that they had good reason to believe they had flattened the battery and after letting it recharge for 20 minutes it drove normally.

    Based on that I would not be inclined to assume any other fault than low voltage inducing faults in electronics.

    If faults re-emerge, given this incident, I would first get the battery checked, free, rather than assume there is a gearbox fault.

    Put another way, if you know you have a flat battery, why would you not fix it before trying to diagnose more expensive faults? If the battery has flattened it might hint that the battery is also in poor condition.
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