Have I just bought a duff batteruy?

[rainagain]

So I can change the cambelt in my Stilo I need to remove my Alfa from the garage, the battery in the Alfa has died from sitting around for so long so I nipped down to upullit yesterday to grab a second hand one. The guy said take anyone from the big box of batteries with a yellow or white splodge of paint on them as they'd been tested and charged. I picked up a nice looking Bosch Silver one and paid £24.

 

However when I got home it was only reading 3volts across the terminals  

 

I looked at the serial on it, the first part is C6, from a bit of googling this apparently means it was made in March 2006, does this sound right?  If so it probably is buggered   I'm charging it overnight so at some point today once I've finished work I'll try and see if it can start the car, fingers crossed.

[rainagain]

Please excuse the random 'u' in battery in the title

[twosmoke300]

3v is probably buggered but it may recover with a good slow charge.

[rainagain]

I really hope so, as I'm planning on selling both the Alfa and Stilo and combining the money for my next car, so I don't really want to have to fork out ~£100 for a new battery especially as I've just had to spend £60 on the Stilo for a new cambelt kit and water pump.

[Richard]

It's a duff battery. It shouldn't have run flat if it really has been charged, take it back and get another one.

[Ratdat]

That sounds fubar to me. Take it back.

[rainagain]

Bugger

[nigel bickle]

My scrapyard charges me £12 (inc VAT) for batteires- and checks them in front of me.  (Mind you -minimum 'order is usually 6 for me!)

 

I'd have a major grump at that, frankly.

[Bren]

Even if at was'nt knackered it's 8 years old so not long for this earth, especially if it's spent time doing nothing.

[DaveAspley]

A new 075 with 2 year warranty is only £28, Andrew Page motor factors (national chain)

[rainagain]

A new 075 with 2 year warranty is only £28, Andrew Page motor factors (national chain)

but not in scotland

[rainagain]

so tomorrow back down scrappies and get another battery

[rainagain]

local factors want £89.86

[Pillock]

If they test them first they obviously only want to sell working ones so take it back. Can't see it being a problem, even secondhand parts are covered by statutory rights etc if you buy from a retailer.

[Sigmund Fraud]

local factors want £89.86

 

Don't panic ! There's loads of places on the internets that sell new batteries cheap, ebay has 075s for under £40 delivered.

[cobblers]

Yeah man I wouldn't bother with seconds hand ones for £20 when new ones aren't much more.

 

Any battery left with 3 volts in it for long is fucked. Ideally you'd want to see one drop tested to make sure it was any good, but if its stood for a while and still has 12.3v+ with a normal meter then it's likely to be fine. 3v is definitely knackered, don't bother trying to coax life into it.

[rainagain]

Don't panic ! There's loads of places on the internets that sell new batteries cheap, ebay has 075s for under £40 delivered.

i didn't even think of checking ebay, doh!

 

that's a good price. Had to move the Alfa today so i used the scrappy battery. It started it ok and is now showing green on the built in hydrometer. If it starts it again tomorrow i think I'll just hang on to it.

[hauserplenty]

A 12V battery has six cells @ 2.1V per cell.  2.1 X 6 = 12.66V

 

In a lead-acid battery, a charged battery has lead in solution, and as it's discharged the lead settles onto the plates.

If it's left unused, the lead hardens and will not easily return to the battery juice. It is possible in some cases to knock the lead off the plates, by running a few charge/discharge cycles but that can take some time.
IIRC, 12.4-12.5 or so is the 50-60% voltage range. This is too low to start in most cases. While I have seen batteries measuring lower voltages in service, load testing revealed that they had already begun to fail.

Since your battery has only got the equivalent of one and a half cells, I'd say: Take it back and tell those motor factors it's no good.

[rainagain]

well went to start the alfa last night, wouldn't start, battery now only showing 9v, so I'm going to go back to upullit today and try and remind them that they said on the phone I could bring it back. Ideally I would like a full refund and then I could buy a new one on ebay, failing that a credit note, hopefully they won't make me try and get another one! My days of scrap yard batteries are over.

[dollywobbler]

I've found these good. www.thebatteryguys.co.uk

[CortinaDave]

I've had decent success with scrapyard batteries. Got one for my missus Fiesta a couple of years back - still going strong .

 

Also bought one for the cortina fairly recently. It's bob on as well . Both times - £12.

[retrogeezer]

yeh, a second hand battery for £12 is ok.....but not at £24.

[rainagain]

Just to give some feedback, thanks for the tips everyone, ordered a 075 from ebay, it's slightly shorter than it should be and a bit taller but I squeezed it in and it works great.