Battery Suddenly Died.

The Alfa broke its 'never failed to proceed' rule for the first time
in seven and a half years. Not too bad and a million miles better than
the last car I had.

A first in my experience, but not uncommon among others I know, is
that of a no warning, sudden (within 24hrs) and complete (can't hold
charge for more than a few hours) battery failure. It could produce
about 12.4V (without any real heavy load) and 6V
(cranking..er..barely). It could produce enough for all the lights
(headlights) but none for the starter. I couldn't help thinking that
it might not have been the battery but I checked for current drains
and it's been a couple of weeks now and no problem.

New battery fixed it and it is cranking a bit faster than before. I
guess some plates came together or a cell boiled dry on the old one.
Still, 7.5 years for a diesel battery is well good enough for me!

--
Z
Scotland
Alfa Romeo 156 2.4JTD Veloce Leather
'Oil' be seeing you..
(Email without 'Alfa' in subject will be auto-deleted..sorry!)

Zathras wrote:
> The Alfa broke its 'never failed to proceed' rule for the first time
> in seven and a half years. Not too bad and a million miles better than
> the last car I had.
>
> A first in my experience, but not uncommon among others I know, is
> that of a no warning, sudden (within 24hrs) and complete (can't hold
> charge for more than a few hours) battery failure. It could produce
> about 12.4V (without any real heavy load) and 6V
> (cranking..er..barely). It could produce enough for all the lights
> (headlights) but none for the starter. I couldn't help thinking that
> it might not have been the battery but I checked for current drains
> and it's been a couple of weeks now and no problem.
>
> New battery fixed it and it is cranking a bit faster than before. I
> guess some plates came together or a cell boiled dry on the old one.
> Still, 7.5 years for a diesel battery is well good enough for me!
>

That's pretty impressive. Batteries really do seem to die in a hurry
these days.

--
Catman MIB#14 SKoGA#6 TEAR#4 BOTAFOF#38 Apostle#21 COSOC#3
Tyger, Tyger Burning Bright (Remove rust to reply)
116 Giulietta 3.0l Sprint 1.7 145 2.0 Cloverleaf 156 V6 2.5 S2
Triumph Sprint ST 1050: It's blue, see.
www.cuore-sportivo.co.uk

On Tue, 11 Nov 2008 06:23:13 GMT, Catman
> wrote:

>That's pretty impressive. Batteries really do seem to die in a hurry
>these days.

Perhaps I should have added that it was an old fashioned "check the
water level" battery as the one Alfa originally supplied spat acid
out. Because of the air intake pipe, the old one only once got its
levels checked and that was this summer when only a little water was
added.

The replacement is a zero maintenance one though and I'll be surprised
if it doesn't see the car out of my ownership..time will tell!

--
Z
Scotland
Alfa Romeo 156 2.4JTD Veloce Leather
'Oil' be seeing you..
(Email without 'Alfa' in subject will be auto-deleted..sorry!)