I have a x plate 1.8 zetec focus and it has been standing still for a mouth due to personal reasons and went to start it yesterday and I had to jump start it off the wife's car and got the engine running.

Gone to start it today and the car is dead. When i turned the key I had a ping noise and there is a click when the key is turned (this click was not present yesterday).

I am not mechanical in anyway and would like some advice. I thinking the battery needs replacing, but I also am aware it could be the alternator that could be causing the problem anybody got any thought on this.

Dave

Hi Dave because its been lying for a while unused its discharged. Id recommend jump starting it again and then going for a decent 30-40 minUte run in it to allow the alternator to give the battery a decent charge and this should solve your problem. Either that or you can get a battery charger to charge the battery in your house

I suspect that its most likely a flat battery. Have you had the opportunity to try and jump start it again?

I came to the same conclusion, but would like to add that once you get it started put a multimeter across the battery terminals, it should come back with a reading of around 14 volts once the battery has charged, if it doesn't it's most likely an alternator fault on top of a flat battery