Well, I was expecting to plug in the Aldi/Lidl battery conditioner yesterday morning to see if the battery had held it's charge.
Turns out, the conditioner itself has expired under the stress of revitalising the battery. I checked the voltage using a multimeter - 12.34V - Probably quite low in retrospect.
However, the car seems to start without issues.........
I'll venture to Lidl/Aldi and see if they have any conditioners.
NADA
OK I'll go to Halfords. B*****. Forgot my wallet
Back home for lunch and then back out Halfords. This time with wallet.
Beep - Beep. ASR, MSP, blah blah - drive slowly to dealer - again!
One NOCO Genius 5 purchaced and plugged in.
Battery not good < 25%
So, Is it the battery or the alternator? Alternator replaced May 2018, battery replaced in Jan 2018.
or it's a bearing gone as well... Had 4 of those, one of the front ones has been replaced twice.
Eb
Can you remember how many days the car went unused for since you had it on charge.
A new battery will show voltage of between 12.75 and 12.95 volts approx.
The chargers will treat a battery showing 12 volts as having zero % left and above 12.75 to 12.95 volts as being 100% hence your seeing 25% at 12.34 volts.
When you start you car a low battery will dip to about 11 to 11.5 volts and will take a good run above idle speed about 20 mins to put enough charge back into your battery to be a higher voltage than your start point.
Rough guide it probably takes 40 mins to 1 hout to fully recharge your battery from the altetnator.
No running times on your post as to how long the car was running for between restarts. 2 or 3 restarts and only a short run inbetween could well have pushed your battery below the 12.34 volts you started with.
Short answer is it sounds like your battery is tired and getting towards end of useful life. You could well be fine for the rest of this year just putting it on charge once a week. If we get a cold snap now or the back end of the year it may be enough to kill your battery off. I suspect your battery at the moment is only holding enough charge for 7 days before its very low. Any short trips will just compound the issue.
I have one of these fitted to my battery so i can check via bluetooth current voltage of the battery without having to open the car. It will also do a crank test and altetnator test for you and easily moved to anothe car if needed. Hunt around you can get them for less or you can spend more if you want a visual display version.
Car Battery Monitor BM2, ARCELI 12 V Battery Tester, Bluetooth 4.0 Wireless Battery Tester, Charger, Diagnostic Analyzer, Monitor for Android & iOS (Black)
https://amzn.eu/d/1pYIox8
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