What Battery Booster ?

[Preee]

I'm looking to buy a battery booster , what have you guys got and what are you best buy tips?

First time ever this morning , came out to my car , and completely dead battery , Had to call Recovery.

Now when i had my car services Ford gave me free breakdown cover for a year , and today i had to use it. AA man turned up after 80 minutes.

Car battery was completely dead , doors would not open off remote , no ignition lights , nothing.

Could not Bump start as it's keyless entry and no ignition lights.

Once the AA man placed his booster on , it started first time and was charging at over 24 amps and 14v , so he said the battery was not duff.

What did i do different.?

Well i was on the phone , via bluetooth at the time i arrived at work , parked and then turned ignition off and sat talking for about 5 minutes with ignition off via bluetooth. Got out locked and walked away.

AA man thinks maybe a module then failed to shutdown and discharged the battery , makes sense i guess , so next time i'm on the phone i won't be turning the engine off.

So i'm looking for a Booster pack just incase i have a battery prolem in the future.

[mick85]

I would get jump leads and fix problem u would need buy a very expensive booster to jump ur car if there no power wat so ever those cheap ones won't start it

[Preee]

If i had been doing everything normally , then i would maybe be more concerned that i have a fault , so unless i go out to it tomorrow and it fails to start , then i'm just looking at a safe backup system for the moment.

Jump leads on a Ford can lead to all sorts of problems if you get it wrong.

[mick85]

Is it brand new car with battery monitoring sensor if not wouldn be to concerned problem is most people connect them up wrong it's positive lead on first followed by earth an remove earth first

[Preee]

With Ford smart charge , there are many horror stories out there. If i was to use Leads i would connect + first then earth to Car body , donor car not running , start , run for five minutes , stop remove earth , then +.

[Stoney871]

It is recommended to never jump start to or from a Ford.

Loads of sensitive electronics that can be damaged.

A booster pack is the best way.

[jeebowhite]

I have to be honest, I have jump started before with no issues. Its one of those hit and miss things!

I bought a cheapo pack, about £35, I have some breakdown cover anyway, so I know I can try the jump pack and hope it works, if it doesnt I have to wait anyway, if it does work, it saves me a bit of agro.

Theres a car on my road (Pug) that recently had a dead battery, I suspect its more a faulty battery (reporting that its fine, even though its got a dead cell) I tried to jump it with my pack to no avail. But then again, as I suspect the cell was gone, nothing could save its soul!

If nothing else, its a good source of portable 12v output :D