Hello,

My car seems to have a battery drain problem. I initially replaced the battery due to tarting the car up to get ready for sale. This caused the stereo to suffer a hardware malfunction and is due to be replaced under warranty (seven weeks and the part is still not in!!!). As I was driving my new Fiesta I didn't turn my Focus on for two weeks.. the new battery was completely dead.. wouldn't jump start and I am not very good at bumpstarting plus problem of needing to push car up a relatively steep hill to get to a suitable position. I removed the new battery and managed to get it replaced under guarantee. Today I decided to put the new battery in and will ensure the car is switched on daily. I am hoping Ford ring this week to get the stereo done so didn't want to be in a position of replacing the battery after work in the dark.

However, after switching the car on for the first time since the 5th of December, there was smoke coming from the bonnet. It smelled like burning as opposed to steam.. I switched the car off. I decided to turn the car back on with the bonnet open and this time there was no smoke. I ran the car for approx. 10 minutes and no smoke. I am a little scared to test drive it. I may have heard sizzling but am not too sure.. all happened very fast and obviously I panicked and just switched it straight off.

Does anyone have any ideas what the smoke may have been?

Also, is there any cheap/easy/DIY way to investigate the battery drain? Or could it be where it just wasn't switched on for two weeks.. ? This car has been a nightmare since I decided to sell it! :( Wish I had just !Removed! part exchanged it but was in a good position to buy the new one!

Battery not being in the best of health after sitting for 2 weeks could well be down to the time it's been sat without use plus it being colder this time of year which reduces battery efficiency.

Also how much use had the new battery had once you fitted it? might not have had that much charge in it from when you bought it, and if car has mainly been used with headlamps on, heated screens etc it may not have charged up that much.

For the smoke/burning from under the bonnet maybe one of your battery terminals wasn't making full contact after you've swapped batteries over? Won't hurt to recheck they're both tight. No sign of anything small and furry which may have thought your engine bay was somewhere cosy to live for a while?

batterys tend to come only about 70% charged up to about 10.5v, you need to do alsorts to get it up to full strength. They wont always charge to the full 12v when they are first installed, you are best off taking a smart charger to the battery and let it charge fully before installation.

batterys tend to come only about 70% charged up to about 10.5v, you need to do alsorts to get it up to full strength. They wont always charge to the full 12v when they are first installed, you are best off taking a smart charger to the battery and let it charge fully before installation.

I saw a recommendation from Varta that a new battery should not be fitted to a car unless the voltage was at at least 12.5 volts. There will be some batteries that would need more than 24 hours on a normal charger to get that far... But, in any case, the advice is right in that a lot of initial problems with batteries are down to the battery being supplied less than 50% charged and needing quite a lot more than a quick trip down to the shops to get to anywhere near 100%.

You'd hope that a battery would survive two weeks of not doing anything, other than keeping the car alive, particularly it it is a new battery in good condition, but, if it doesn't start the two weeks fully charged, then the chances diminish.