Hello everybody,

Few days ago I bought Ford Focus, mk1, made in 2000, engine - 1.6 petrol. Yesterday, the first time after buying it, I came to the car, tried to turn on the ignition and nothing. The battery was dead. Alright. I knew my friend had one spare battery, 55ah, but we knew it's not realiable. We pulled out the dead one, putted in the non-reliable, i took a look to the dashboard and saw alarm light blinking. "It's alive!" - I tought. Got in the car, turned on the ignition and the lights in cluster were kind of blurry. Could not start the engine, because battery was pretty much dead. The thing I noticed, that the battery light did not came up when I turned on the ignition. Oil pressure light came up, handbrake light came up, airbag light came up, bet the battery light - didn't. Could it be because of dead battery?

Sorry for my bad English, but I hope you'll get the idea of situation and my question :(

Sounds like it is a problem with the alternator. The built-in regulator should operate the battery light so the combination of a dead battery and no light points to this as the cause.

Well that sucks. Am I able to test it? Tommorow I'm planning to buy a brand new battery, it would be a shame if it would drain instantly because of the alternator. One more thing: what signs would be, if alternator is dead/malfunctioning, if the battery is dead and engine is running with lights and heater turned on? That was the situation, when the last time I've seen that engine running and thought that just the battery is dead, but my friend said, that when I drove the car, he was outside and saw how lights dim (I don't know what is the correct word, sorry, but what happened was that the lights were lighting a bit less) every time the gear was changed (it's manual). Could that be one more sign that the alternator is not working correctly?

Yes, I would say that also points to the alternator. You can test it. Check the voltage of your new battery before installing it. If fully charged it should be about 13.2V but shouldn't be less than 12V. After installation and with the engine running at a fast tick-over (say 100rpm) the voltage should rise to around 14.4V - 14.8V. If it doesn't then the alternator is not charging properly.

I presume you know that a calcium type battery is required rather than a standard lead-acid type?