So had a tricky few weeks recently but the last 7 days have been rather irritating, had 4 breakdowns and all were so simple to repair.

1) battery was dying so was replaced.

2) battery replaced but died, hadn't charged properly, so pulled out charged up and put back on

3) battery continued not to charge, and had several dead on key incidents, all by the looks of it due to a single missing 10mm nut on the negative terminal

4) bad earth connection caused the car to fail to start and sound like a machine gun...

5) bolt came out shredded to hell, seems the thread is ripped apart... This was from the earth connection and is currently patched up with a mud flap clamp, awaiting ford's receipt of a new one...

All such small issues, but when surface rust on bolts is what secures a connection until they are disturbed there is a slight issue lol.

So, I would advise that if you replace your battery, disconnect the earth and bolts, clean everything with a wire brush and rescue it... Just to be sure.

For your amusement, here are some pictures of the bolt below...

Repeat after me:

It's still better than an Astra

It's still better than an Astra

It's still better than an Astra

:D

Haha too true! It wouldn't have been half the issue if my back wasn't stuffed! But lugging batteries, contorting to remove bolts and fighting the freezing temperatures to get the car fixed, is much more difficult in pain!

I'm fairly confident I need new glow plugs, as the car struggles on cold start, but if I run it for a few minutes then turn it off and on again it starts first time with no issue.