flat battery

[million miles]

I have a 96 …3 litre manual which has been in my garage for a couple of months. I have been starting it every weekend and letting it run for ten to fifteen minutes. Unfortunately I was away last weekend and forgot to start it up. I now have a flat battery.

Any suggestions? I am not in a hurry to use the car so would a trickle charger be best? Jump starting could be awkward but not impossible due to the car being in the garage.

I am a non tech person so opening the bonnet is the extent of my knowledge.

Thanks in advance

[blue5]

Million,

This is a common occurance, it used to happen to me all the time!

There is no problem with jump staring, but as you say you dont need the car at the moment so open the front bonnett, remove the spare wheel (2 minute job), connect the battery charger to the battery and come back in a few hours.

I had an alarm on mine which used to go off when the battery was flat and i had to disconnect the positive terminal (10 mm ring spanner).

V easy job do not worry.

[Steveycaz]

because it is a regular occurance I bought a jump starter which I connect through the battery terminals in the engine bay. This is a lot more accessible than the battery itself and is clearly explained in the manual. The jump starter cost about £40 from halfords.

[Andy]

At the risk of stating the obvious when disconnecting the battery always disconnect the negative terminal first (and reconnect it last). If you disconnect the positive first then if the spanner accidently touches the car you would short out the battery - with unhappy results!

My NSX is a garage queen in the winter and even though I warm it up every weekend if I miss a week the battery still goes flat.

[Nick Graves]

You really should invest in trickle chargers;

Flattening the battery is unhealthy & re-charging it too fast can be bad too.

Warming the car up without taking it for a good thrash is not generally good either - you need to get all the oils hot & throw them around too.

Sorry to be such a -ve sod!

[QuietJim]

A trickle charger really is the way to go, clip the crocodile clips onto the battery terminals, turn it on and walk away. You can leave them attached for as long as you like. Mine's from Halfords and does the job very well.

However, it's not completely numpty-proof to a big enough numpty, as I discovered at the weekend when I went to collect it ready for my track day on Monday - and found I'd connected it the wrong way round! The battery was deader than Britney Spears's chances of becoming the new L'Oreal girl. Cost of new battery: £65 down the local auto-spares shop and half an hour taking the bracket off to get to the battery. Lesson learned!

[reg]

I have a 96 …3 litre manual which has been in my garage for a couple of months. I have been starting it every weekend and letting it run for ten to fifteen minutes. Unfortunately I was away last weekend and forgot to start it up. I now have a flat battery.

I was doing the same and found that even with running the car every weekend the battery wasn't staying fully charged. If you are worried at all give http://www.accumate.co.uk/ a call, they are pretty helpful. They are ~£50 per unit.

As others have said there are jump terminals in the rear engine compartment so you dont have to open the bonnet and remove the wheel if you want to get it running. If it is dead I would probably jump it then take it out for a blast before sticking it on charge.

Don't worry about the tech, Accumate's are protected against polarity reversal, short circuits and over heat, even one of our Salesmen could use one :D

[rkanaga]

I had an Optimate on my Caterham (as that had a battery the size of a flea's handbag and went flat very quickly if you didn't use it.) These come with a pair of leads that you can screw onto the battery terminals, and at the other end is a weather proof plug that you can mount somewhere discreet (like poking out underneath the rear valence etc.) The Optimate then plugs into this connector.

That was you don't have to open the engine compartment to plug in the trickle charger.

You DO have to remember to unplug it before you drive off (!) however so put the charger somewhere in the garage where you have to trip over it before getting in the car!

[million miles]

Thanks to you all, Halfords trickle charger at £29 did the trick.

[TheSebringOne]

If u want2 save some £s, I got a reputable brand " Draper" trickle charger from Motorworld called Battery Master,cost £17.99. It might even b cheaper on tintanet as Peter Kay calls it. Its very small & compact and does the job for the low car users or winter hibernators ! :D

[Steveycaz]

Having not driven mine for 3 weeks I took advantage of the sunny weather yesterday and went for a spin. As predicted the battery didn't have enough juice to turn the engine over so I used the jump-starter - great excuse for a 45 minute blast around Hampshire to get its juices flowing and recharge the battery.

I don't have a garage yet, but when I do I may invest in a trickle charger. A friend has recommended a solar powered one but not sure it would work underneath my car cover :D !

One thing I did notice was how ceased the brakes were. It took quite some revs to get the car to move as the pads from seemed stuck to the discs. I don't leave my car with the handbrake on either! Anyway, some firm braking in a quiet road soon polished the discs again.