Hello all :) I haven't been on for a while so please excuse me if it seems I'm just coming back for help!

There's a little problem with my car, over the last few days I've noticed she seems a little slow to crank over. The car starts fine and idles as normal, no issues on starter motor jamming etc.

The car is fine once it's been run up to temperature and I can shut it off and restart the engine with no issues and it starts as normal again.

I've had a multimeter out today and measured my voltages from my battery with someone cranking the engine.

Engine off: around 12v

Engine cranking: around 8v

Engine idling: around 14.4v

So there doesn't seem to be any issue with the volts the battery is putting out? I lost my trip counter this morning when starting it first time and it's reset back to zero, and was slow to crank over - surely there's a problem here but I'm having trouble finding out where it is lying?

Anyone with a similar experience or is there anything I have missed? I'm not working right now and money is an issue, I can't afford to dilly dally around replacing parts which might be working fine :(

Hope someone can help :)

Can anyone offer any words of advice?

I've just been out to the car again and expected it to be fine, but it did exactly the same thing. Slow to crank over, although it did start.

Seems there's a problem electrically but as I said the battery seems fine on its power outputs. The engine is running rough and my CD player has lost its code.

I suppose it's the battery as the ECU learns correct settings and stores them, when they're lost it reverts back to default so my engine has to learn ideal settings for fuel injection, idle speed etc....?

A bit confused here, which you can probably tell :D

sounds like the battery has had its day mate.

Thanks mate, it seems that way. I'm just going to replace the battery tomorrow I think. It's not exactly that expensive and I can't moan too much as it didn't cost me that much to MOT last month :)

Cheers mate,

Dan

if you are loosing your radio code and trip computer then i would suggest that the battery is not able to supply enough power when cranking. the voltage does also seem quite low.

is it still on the original ford battery?

Hi sorry I missed this one! The battery isn't original and it's some unknown brand, I used the other car and went to Halfords earlier and was given a price on a new battery.. £70.. So I came home and did some Googling and have found an online supplier selling the required battery for £38-odd, all inclusive of VAT and next day delivery via courier, so can't moan too much at that.

I think that's probably what is happening if I'm honest, the central locking is even slow to unlock. It really struggled this morning to crank and I was there for a while with the starter motor 'churning' until eventually the engine started. When the engine started my gauges went up and then back down, almost like a test function. My engine was running a bit poor but I think that's because the ECU has been starved of voltage and the system has to learn from scatch. That's just what I'm guessing anyway! :)

I was thinking about something draining my battery, so I disconnected the negative and checked for voltage drop. Over the course of 20 minutes while being isolated from anything which could have been causing a drain, the voltage dropped from 12.31v to 12.27.. Over the course of one night that's dropping the voltage quite some amount when I go to crank the engine and my starter is asking for volts.

Thanks for your help :)

Dan

wow only 8 volts on crank! your battery's knackered mate, need a new one. usually happens around wintertime.

i'd just take the plunge, dont want to be caught out in the (soon to be??) snow!

Thanks mate, so looks like there's no doubt the problem lies with the battery. Like you said it's a common thing in the winter. I don't think I can moan too much, the car has been great since I bought it. It cost virtually nothing on the MOT.

Will get a battery ordered up tomorrow and get it changed!

Cheers again :)