Battery issues

[dtulip8]

So I think I have a completely flat battery, the wing mirrors wont even fold in or out now, although the central locking still works. How flat is the battery, will a smart charger still work or is it new battery time? Thinking of getting the CTEK MXS5.0. Reluctant to pursue the new battery route due to almost no money. Also, how do I get the battery cover off as I can't seem to budge it lol. It's my new MK3 1.6 Ecoboost for those that can't see it in my profile.

[Eric Bloodaxe]

I would think it's worth having a go with the charger before buying a new battery. My dealer mentioned my battery was low at my recent service so I thought it might be time to update my ancient battery charger. After seeing a few negative reviews on recent CTEK chargers (chiefly referring to faults with the mode button) I thought I'd try the NOCO Genius 5 which seems to be equivalent at a similar price. Used it on my Fiesta and the Mrs's 6 year old Seat Mii (which does even less mileage) and it seems ok so far.

I'll probably be using it fairly regularly while the Coronavirus restrictions are on - I usually do most of my mileage March - October but driving seems to be off the agenda for now, other than the permitted supermarket run.

 

[Carl123]

10 minutes ago, Eric Bloodaxe said:

but driving seems to be off the agenda for now

Why? 

Getting in the car and taking it for a run for an hour, once per week, then straight back home should not pose any risk to anyone and it's a lot safer than risking a flat battery and then having to get on a bus to go to the supermarket

[williamweb]

2 hours ago, dtulip8 said:

So I think I have a completely flat battery, the wing mirrors wont even fold in or out now, although the central locking still works. How flat is the battery, will a smart charger still work or is it new battery time? Thinking of getting the CTEK MXS5.0. Reluctant to pursue the new battery route due to almost no money. Also, how do I get the battery cover off as I can't seem to budge it lol. It's my new MK3 1.6 Ecoboost for those that can't see it in my profile.

I can recommend the CTEK MXS 5.0 👍

[Frembrit]

Recommend the MXS 5.0 too 🙂

[Tizer]

A smart charger may not work if the voltage is very low because it might think that you are trying to charge a 6V battery.

I don't know if the ones mentioned here have a way of overriding this.

[mjt]

4 hours ago, Carl123 said:

Why? 

Getting in the car and taking it for a run for an hour, once per week, then straight back home should not pose any risk to anyone and it's a lot safer than risking a flat battery and then having to get on a bus to go to the supermarket

Actually this would be frowned on since if you were involved in any type of incident or breakdown it would result in emergency services putting themselves at unnecessary risk.

It would be much safer and much cheaper to put the battery on charge periodically unless you're in the unfortunate position of having to park on the street. Ctek claim their charger can safely be used without needing to disconnect the battery.

 

[dtulip8]

Thanks guys, will get the CTEK and have a go. If it works, I’ll leave it on trickle charge and just disconnect it if and when I need it e.g. shopping.

[Micro]

 

4 hours ago, Tizer said:

A smart charger may not work if the voltage is very low because it might think that you are trying to charge a 6V battery.

I don't know if the ones mentioned here have a way of overriding this.

If the voltage is that low then the battery is more than likely toast anyway!

How old is it? 

[dtulip8]

Well it appears these smart chargers are in short supply, nowhere locally has them and amazon Prime will take a month (!) to deliver me one. Now looking at new batteries.

[Micro]

1 hour ago, dtulip8 said:

Well it appears these smart chargers are in short supply, nowhere locally has them and Amazon Prime will take a month (!) to deliver me one. Now looking at new batteries.

Is it the original battery? If so, and it's no longer holding a charge for a reasonable length of time, i'd probably just go for a new one. You can always keep the old one for small projects/solar powered things around the garden or shed (Have an old leisure battery powering some lights in the shed, solar panel on the roof, works a charm!)

[TomsFocus]

9 hours ago, dtulip8 said:

Well it appears these smart chargers are in short supply, nowhere locally has them and Amazon Prime will take a month (!) to deliver me one. Now looking at new batteries.

Are you at home or away at Uni still?  Surely your Dad must have a set of jump leads if you're at home?  Give it a jump, let it idle for a bit and the make your necessary journey to Waitrose!  

[dtulip8]

Got a standard battery charger plugged into it atm. My worry is that it is designed for lead acid batteries, will it still work with my EFB battery? We’ve got some signs of life, the dash lights up again and the radio and central clusters works again, just not starting atm.

[Eric Bloodaxe]

18 hours ago, dtulip8 said:

Well it appears these smart chargers are in short supply, nowhere locally has them and Amazon Prime will take a month (!) to deliver me one. Now looking at new batteries.

Just looking on the Halfrauds website, the CTEK is shown as unavailable, but home delivery of the Noco Genius 5, which I have, is showing as 2 April, or available "click and collect" 30 March.

4 hours ago, dtulip8 said:

Got a standard battery charger plugged into it atm. My worry is that it is designed for lead acid batteries, will it still work with my EFB battery? We’ve got some signs of life, the dash lights up again and the radio and central clusters works again, just not starting atm.

Yeah, I'm so out of date on batteries I only realised they were different types nowadays when I read another thread on here. My understanding was that my ancient charger was not suitable for EFB, which is why I bought a new "smart" charger.

[dtulip8]

12 minutes ago, Eric Bloodaxe said:

Just looking on the Halfrauds website, the CTEK is shown as unavailable, but home delivery of the Noco Genius 5, which I have, is showing as 2 April, or available "click and collect" 30 March.

Yeah, I'm so out of date on batteries I only realised they were different types nowadays when I read another thread on here. My understanding was that my ancient charger was not suitable for EFB, which is why I bought a new "smart" charger.

Going to be going down to see if I can pick up the Noco tomorrow. Do i need to reset the battery monitoring thing after it fully charges? Modern cars are bloomin irritating at times.

[Eric Bloodaxe]

9 minutes ago, dtulip8 said:

Do i need to reset the battery monitoring thing after it fully charges? 

Don't know I'm afraid - still getting my head round modern batteries. Can only say no problems after giving mine an overnight charge, but it wasn't fully discharged of course, just a bit low on voltage. But yours wasn't totally dead either - it did unlock the car as you said, so fingers crossed. 

[jonj1611]

I have a Halfords Advanced battery Charger which works very well, has 8 stage charging I think and adjusts automatically to different battery types and has a trickle charge if the car isn't going anywhere.

 

https://www.halfords.com/motoring/battery-maintenance/battery-chargers/halfords-advanced-smart-battery-charger-plus-238350.html

[pcaouolte]

The battery monitor only needs to be reset when a new battery is fitted. If you connect the charger to the positive terminal on the battery and the negative ground on the body near the battery the battery monitor will register the charge that you put into the battery.

[TomsFocus]

22 hours ago, dtulip8 said:

Got a standard battery charger plugged into it atm. My worry is that it is designed for lead acid batteries, will it still work with my EFB battery? We’ve got some signs of life, the dash lights up again and the radio and central clusters works again, just not starting atm.

 

17 hours ago, Eric Bloodaxe said:

Yeah, I'm so out of date on batteries I only realised they were different types nowadays when I read another thread on here. My understanding was that my ancient charger was not suitable for EFB, which is why I bought a new "smart" charger.

 

Hmm, I wasn't aware of this either...voltage is voltage isn't it!?  

I have the older version of this charger, around 6 years old now - 

https://www.halfords.com/motoring/battery-maintenance/battery-chargers/halfords-automatic-battery-charger---vehicles-up-to-2.0l-329075.html

Says it's not suitable for stop/start batteries...anyone know why?  Will it just not cut off in when full?  So could still be used if I'm careful with it...?

I'll be using the car tomorrow for the first time in 6 days, wasn't too bothered if the battery was flat as I'd just charge it and go out later...but I'm worried now! 😮 

 

Irony is, I have 2 decent batteries in storage, but neither are EFB, and I don't even have any jump leads to connect them to the cars battery. 🤦‍♂️  (Must stop facepalming in the current situation!! )

[Tizer]

21 minutes ago, TomsFocus said:

Says it's not suitable for stop/start batteries...anyone know why?  Will it just not cut off in when full?  So could still be used if I'm careful with it...?

AGM Batteries do need special charging and when the instructions were printed for your charger they may have meant AGM, who knows.

I have a newer cheap smart charger and it does have a separate charging cycle for AGM, but does not specify one for EFB, just Lead Acid.

[dtulip8]

I think the EFB batteries need a special cycled charge so as not to deliver too much charge at once? This old crappy charger is only good for vehicles up to 1400cc anyway, so didn’t expect it to work. Noco has been ordered now.

[TomsFocus]

5 minutes ago, dtulip8 said:

I think the EFB batteries need a special cycled charge so as not to deliver too much charge at once? This old crappy charger is only good for vehicles up to 1400cc anyway, so didn’t expect it to work. Noco has been ordered now.

Which NOCO did you get?  The 5, same as Rogers?  The smaller ones are only 1/2Amp!   Don't forget your FOC Halfords discount card.  

[Tizer]

7 minutes ago, dtulip8 said:

I think the EFB batteries need a special cycled charge so as not to deliver too much charge at once? This old crappy charger is only good for vehicles up to 1400cc anyway, so didn’t expect it to work. Noco has been ordered now.

I don't know for sure, but I do know that too much heat causes damage to and kills the longevity of batteries.

I would be interested to hear if your new charger has a separate charging cycle for EFB Batteries, or if anyone else's more expensive than mine charger has a separate charging cycle for EFB Batteries.

[dtulip8]

1 hour ago, TomsFocus said:

Which NOCO did you get?  The 5, same as Rogers?  The smaller ones are only 1/2Amp!   Don't forget your FOC Halfords discount card.  

Yeah it’s the 5amp one, don’t want to be doing anything with a 1amp haha 😂. @Tizer I’m pretty sure these do have separate programmes for an EFB, as it states stop start compatible and the YT vids I’ve seen have mentioned one.

[Eric Bloodaxe]

22 minutes ago, dtulip8 said:

I’m pretty sure these do have separate programmes for an EFB, as it states stop start compatible

Mine (Noco 5A)  has a separate mode for AGM, EFB is covered by the "normal" 12V mode. From what I could see from the info, the CTEK is similar in that respect. The Noco claims to be able to do a full recharge in normal mode from as low as 1v, below that there's a "force mode" for a battery showing no voltage at all. Can't testify to how effective this is, as I mentioned, only used mine so far to "top up" from around 11.5v. 

Even at 5A, a full charge is going to take 12 hours on a 60A battery of course.