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[Wayne]

Hi Guys, how are you all doing?

Merry Christmas and all that  

well, for the last 14 days i have been getting sooper dooper fit and bought myself a bike from Halfords, been cycling 8 miles a day to bloody work in the cold, am i mad? YES !! ha ha ha
working though, i lost 10 pounds in time to put it all back on over christmas stuffing my face and drinking myself to death

anyway, my Omega has been sat on the drive for 12 days through all this shitty weather, and i got in it tonight and its dead!
got no power at all, got to be the battery i suppose?
i only make short journeys in it pretty much, and yeah i know thats not good for it... but...could it be something else?
surely IF i want to leave my car on the drive and not drive it, i should be able to leave it a while and get in it and it should start yeah?

anyone recommend a heavy duty battery worth buying?
want a really good one so it dont happen again, the one on my car now is 4 years old

any reviews on car batteries anywhere, dont mind paying up to £75

cheers me dears

[Andy B]

......
any reviews on car batteries anywhere, dont mind paying up to £75

cheers me dears

Go to Vauxhall & put the change in your pocket or buy your mates a round.  I don't know the actual price but it's been discussed recently & a Vauxhall battery costs f*** all like £75. My Astra TD was around £40 last year.

[alanfp]

I have bought my last few at Halfords and they seem OK.  They all seem to last for 5 yrs.  

Once , I got one from the RAC (if you're a member) at a reasonable price.  And it saved me trudging to the high street on foot, or cycling with x kilos of lead in a rucksack.

[Wayne]

Went to Halfords today

£83 for a heavy duty battery!

wasnt sure whether to buy it as i wanted a better make maybe?

what batteries do ATS or KWIK FIT sell?
and what do they cost?


IF my battery is ok after a charge, i dont want to waste money buying a new battery really
they can check it apparently? then again.........who do you trust these days?
they might just say YES you need a new one! not known for their honesty are they?  lol  

[Kevin Wood]

I would go with the Vauxhall GO batteries. They are very reasonable, especially on trade club, and Halfords batteries don't always get glowing reviews.

You can do a few quick checks yourself using a multimeter.

Firstly, give the battery a gentle charge overnight and see if it'll start.

Secondly, connect a multimeter on DC volts across the battery terminals and see what voltage you get with the engine at a fast idle. Around 14 volts would be normal and indicate that the alternator is charging the battery well. It may be less if the battery is recovering form a deep discharge but lower than 13.5 is not good. Neither is over about 14.5.

Thirdly, Switch on a few large electrical loads (headlights, heated rear screen, blower fan) and check the voltage again on a fast idle. It will drop maybe 0.1-0.2 volts but if it drops much more there's a problem with charging under load.

Finally, if the battery appears fully charged stop the engine and leave the headlights on for a few minutes. You should see 12.5 volts or so initially. If this drops over a few minutes to 12 volts or less, the battery has had it.

In addition, check the positive battery terminal to see if it gets hot when running. Sometimes the large wire which is crimped into the terminal works loose and this seriously affects the ability of the alternator to charge the battery.

Kevin

[ELITE-3.0-V6]

Yer go vauxhall mate main dealer one would be the best thats where i got mine and it was £67 trade to me...

[Taxi_Driver]

Yer go vauxhall mate main dealer one would be the best thats where i got mine and it was £67 trade to me...

You were done m8.......for a 3.0 they are £65.80 incl vat retail!!!

For a 2.5 £58.40 incl vat retail...........tho worth finding someone close with a TC card as approx £15 cheaper  

Halfords batteries did get a good review in a motoring mag i read a few months ago.......but dont pay full price for them.......you can get upto 50% discount with a trade card  

[TheBoy]

I would go with Vauxhall GO batteries, esp if you have access to Trade Club

[ians]

I just bought one of these
http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=98358&C=Maplin&U=SearchTop&T=solar&doy=24m12
for such occassions.

May turn out to be crap but its only a tenner.

[JasonH]

The Vauxhall Go batteries are Calcium, have a built in hydrometer to show the state of charge and I think have a 3 year warranty.

They're good and on Trade Club excellent value, even retail price they're not bad.

The 66Ah battery for the 2.5 Omega is something like £35+VAT on Trade Club.

[Missy_MV6]

We had the same trouble just before we sold our old Omega (Typical!!) It had been stood for about 2 weeks and the day the buyer was coming my hubby decided to take if for a spin and put some petrol in it.Unfortunatley the battery was dead and none of the doors would open luckily though the key still works on the boot lock so he had to climb through the boot (Not that easy for a 6ft 17 stone man  ). He then fit the battery off our new Omega and went to Halfords to see how much a battery would cost...They were asking £85   He then ran our mate at the Vauxhall garage and with trade discount it cost us aprrox £37 and thats with a 3 year guarantee We obviously put the new battery on our new Omega  

We have been told by a good friend of ours that it is the alarm system that drains the battery whilst the cars are stood for over a week.