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[Mikes1670]

Bought a new battery (correct one for the car) from Vx stealers about two years ago - no problems. Being doing mainly short runs, town driving (approx. 4miles each way daily). About two weeks ago I left the car unused for a week then when I came to start it the code input required came up on the dash display for the radio and the engine would barely turn over - not fast enough to fire up the engine, so battery is now off the car - should mention it is a maintenance free type and the dot bubble is now showing black.

I would have thought the battery should not have gone flat in this time especially now the weather is warmer (well warmer than winter anyway).

Would the alarm system put a drain on the battery - I have been thinking of removing it given the bad press the power sounder seems to get - no problems with that as yet (fingers crossed!)

Can anyone recommend a charger for this type of battery and how much would it cost. Alternatively, I was thinking of taking it to a local gargage and asking them to slow charge it. I wouldn't have thought the battery was totally u/s given its age?

[martin42]

short journeys can kill a battery quicker as it doesnt really get charged properly and your taking more out of it than what you do charging it,put it on trickle charge and do this about every 6 months so it is charged properly,also once charged go to a motorist place and ask them to do a drop test on it,this will show if its any good 

[Andy B]

....
Can anyone recommend a charger for this type of battery and how much would it cost. Alternatively, I was thinking of taking it to a local gargage and asking them to slow charge it. I wouldn't have thought the battery was totally u/s given its age?

Look out for when Lidl or Aldi do their cheapo version of a Ctek/Optimate charger, they were £13 last time & I think are very good value for money - I've a couple of them. 
I reckon it'll be OK with a decent charge and use the car for a decent run out somewhere. 

[BiodieselOmega]

I was told years ago that if it takes 5 seconds of cranking to start your car it then takes 20 minutes of normal driving without lights heater's etc to recharge it.

[tigers_gonads]

Where abouts in Hull are you Mike ?
Pop round to mine and i'll have a look if you want 

edit ............ or i'll pop to yours if you can't get it started 

[Kevin Wood]

A failed power sounder can result in battery drain, along with a few other common faults. If the power sounder is original, then it needs to be either removed, replaced with new, or the batteries changed.

A car should be fine for 2 weeks if the battery was originally fully charged, but it sounds like it may not have been in this case.

These are the steps to follow to get to the bottom of it:

http://www.omegaowners.com/forum/index.php?topic=90619.0

[Mikes1670]

Hi, thanks for all the info. & thanks to Tigers-Gonads for the offer. Well, what I remembered was the battery came with a 3 year guarantee - and low and behold I found the receipt - bought Jan. 2010 (that doesn't happen very often!). So, today I took the battery back to the Vx stealers - they were most surprised to see it again but straight away started to deflect asking how old the car was and that they would need to test the car on the diagnostic tester (approx. £60 charge). I explained I couldn't get the car to them as the battery was sat on their service counter (LOL). They then said they would have to raise a job docket for it - they passed me over the girl that books the jobs - she in turn asked a colleague how much time to put on the job docket (he 0.5 hours) so she then looked at me and said that will £39.99 then! I said I wasn't going to pay £40 to have the battery re-charged so I suggested that if they re-charged & tested the battery under the guarantee and I would re-try it on the car and if the problem returned I would be in touch - she consulted a manager and reluctantly they agreed to do this. There was a big TV on the wall displaying the message 'Have you had a 5 star experience today?' er, not quite.
Anyway, a technician did come and test the battery with a meter - he said he was getting a low voltage reading and zero amps. What this indicates I'm not quite sure but they said they would put it on charge and contact me when they had news - heard nothing as yet so I will give them a call tomorrow to see how they are getting on - will keep you posted 

[freecall666]

Hi, thanks for all the info. & thanks to Tigers-Gonads for the offer. Well, what I remembered was the battery came with a 3 year guarantee - and low and behold I found the receipt - bought Jan. 2010 (that doesn't happen very often!). So, today I took the battery back to the Vx stealers - they were most surprised to see it again but straight away started to deflect asking how old the car was and that they would need to test the car on the diagnostic tester (approx. £60 charge). I explained I couldn't get the car to them as the battery was sat on their service counter (LOL). They then said they would have to raise a job docket for it - they passed me over the girl that books the jobs - she in turn asked a colleague how much time to put on the job docket (he 0.5 hours) so she then looked at me and said that will £39.99 then! I said I wasn't going to pay £40 to have the battery re-charged so I suggested that if they re-charged & tested the battery under the guarantee and I would re-try it on the car and if the problem returned I would be in touch - she consulted a manager and reluctantly they agreed to do this. There was a big TV on the wall displaying the message 'Have you had a 5 star experience today?' er, not quite.
Anyway, a technician did come and test the battery with a meter - he said he was getting a low voltage reading and zero amps. What this indicates I'm not quite sure but they said they would put it on charge and contact me when they had news - heard nothing as yet so I will give them a call tomorrow to see how they are getting on - will keep you posted 

when i tuck my faulty battery back they did nothink like that me, tuck battery of me tested it, then came back with new battery and 3years warranty and new receipt, all in all tuck 5min and out the shop. very good service.

[Kevin Wood]

Anyway, a technician did come and test the battery with a meter - he said he was getting a low voltage reading and zero amps. What this indicates I'm not quite sure

.. that he doesn't know his @rse from his elbow. Quite how he expected any Amps when the battery is sitting on the bench with no load I'm not sure. - unless he tested it with his multimeter on Amps, whereby the internal fuse would have popped and it would indeed have read zero Amps.

Still worth working your way through the maintenance guide in case your car is not charging it, or has an excessive current drain though.

[Mikes1670]

Update: right then picked the battery up this morning (after ringing them to find out what was going on - told it was ready to collect). Picked the battery up and they assured me they had re-charged it and it was sound, so good result as there was nothing to pay (still inside 3 year warranty). When I got it home I thought the green light in the bubble indicator looked a bit dim so I checked the voltage across the terminals with a multimeter and it indicted just shy of 13.1 Volts so I'm happy with that.

Busy today with the family so tomorrow I can start re-fitting my oil cooler as the forecast is for Saturday to be the best day of weekend.

I will check out the maintenance guides as suggested by Kevin as well - cheers