Stop Start Battery Advice

66Beetle

66Beetle

A2OC Donor
Please can anyone advise me on this Stop Start Battery question ? Unfortunately my Sister passed away on Boxing Day, after a very long illness. She did not live anywhere near us. She bought a new Ford Fiesta 1.0 Petrol in November 2016. We do not think it has been started for possibly 12 months or so. The car is SORN. It should have gone for a Service and First MOT Test In November but my Sister had been in Hospital since 9th October, so it was not a priority at the time. The Battery is completely Flat. I am assuming it is a Stop Start Battery due to the prices I have found for a New Battery. I tried putting an Automatic Battery Charger on it yesterday. I know the Charger is working correctly, as I use it to maintain the Batteries on our old VWs through the Winter. When connected to the Fiesta Battery the Charger only shows to be in Standby Mode. What it should do is go onto 6 Volt Charging - show when 6 Volt Charging is complete - go on to 12 Volt Charging - show when 12 Volt Charging is complete - etc. I think the Charger is not recognising that it is connected to a Battery, so will not move on from Standby Mode. Is it likely the Battery will be recoverable after so long out of use ? Say if I borrowed one of those Power Pack Car Starter things or a good Battery and Jump Leads to get the Engine started ? I can not even tell how many Miles the Fiesta has done with no power. I’m guessing at less than 2,000 Miles.
 
Some chargers need a small "response" from the battery that is flat to ensure correct connection and will not work unless they do.

We have a commercial jump pack at work and that will not work on totally flat battery's for this reason. So we end up using jump leads.
 
Batteries don't take well to be stored in a flat condition due to sulphation. Are you connecting directly to the battery? You could try cleaning the battery posts.

RAB
 
If its stop start will be AGM type

Fancy chargers seem to dismiss totally flat batterys so need an old school charger that simply puts charge in without anaysis, then after about half an hour get the carlos fangdangdo on the job!
 
Howey said:
If its stop start will be AGM type
Click to expand...

Not necessarily. All our 1.2Tdi's have wet cell batteries and have had them from new. The batteries for stop/start just have larger capacities.

If it is AGM, don't be tempted to charge at an excessive rate.

RAB
 
Howey said:
Fancy chargers seem to dismiss totally flat batterys so need an old school charger that simply puts charge in without analysis, then after about half an hour get the carlos fangdangdo on the job!
Click to expand...
This is spot on. Happened to my neighbour, funnily enough with a Fiesta as well, however, not stop-start.
 
I don’t know if a 66 Plate 1.0 Petrol Fiesta does have Stop Start. I just guessed that it must be after putting the Reg Number into eurocarparts and getting the price of a new Battery. Something like £300 ! I’m now thinking maybe just buy a New Spare Battery for our A2. It still has the Original from new Varta Battery on it, so it must be due a new one soon. Use the new Battery to try and Jump Start the Fiesta. I think there was some advice on A2OC about which Battery is correct for a 2003 A2 1.4SE Petrol ?
 
Last edited:
66Beetle said:
I don’t know if a 66 Plate 1.0 Petrol Fiesta does have Stop Start. I just guessed that it must be after putting the Reg Number into eurocarparts and getting the price of a new Battery. Something like £347 !
Click to expand...
Note Eurocarparts virtually always have a 50% off on battery’s, due to this their standard list price is normally double that of the best around. Check out this seller on eBay, most of us have found them to be excellent at service and price:

rover.ebay.com

Varta E44 High Performance Car Battery 12V 77AH 096 5 Year Warranty 577400078 | eBay

Varta 096 (E44) Silver Dynamic Car Battery 12V 77Ah - 577 400 078. You must check against the battery currently fitted to your vehicle before ordering to ensure that this is the correct battery for your vehicle.
rover.ebay.com
 
Carparts4less is normally a fair bit cheaper than euro yet it is euros!

I also like exide batterys not keen on bosch
 
Make sure you put lights, hrw, heater blower on when you go to disconnect the jump leads it helps stop spiking of the ecu's (on both cars just to be sure) the alternator will be pushing out it's maximum once the car starts and disconnecting can cause a surge in the time it takes the alternator adjusts to the new load
 
66Beetle said:
I don’t know if a 66 Plate 1.0 Petrol Fiesta does have Stop Start. I just guessed that it must be after putting the Reg Number into eurocarparts and getting the price of a new Battery. Something like £300 !
Click to expand...

Bigger but not by that much! The last time I replaced a Lupo battery from the local VW dealer, it was less than £100 (Exide) and that's for a diesel!

RAB
 
It not just Start/Stop you need to consider, there are also intelligent alternators. I’d imagine the fiesta is Euro 6 engine and will have a smart alternator. It’s a totally different way they charge the battery only putting out max charge when the vehicle is braking etc. The batteries are kept about 80% charge so that they have spare capacity to take the charge when braking occurs. It’s a fascinating read if anyone is interested in the new technologies used in vehicles.
As far as the battery in the Fiesta it’s probably as others have said, the voltage is so low the charger your using can’t see it and won’t charge it. Check the voltage with a meter if you have one. It may have damaged the battery being so low but it may recover to a usable state I’d you recondition it with a CTEK or similar charger. Just check it’s suitable for the type of battery in the fiesta.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
I have a couple of cars with ridiculously expensive agm batteries and I once accidentally allowed one to discharge to a level when it wouldn't accept a charge from my battery charger or wouldn't recognise it and the charger just kept clicking.

The solution is to trick the battery into charging or trick the charger into charging it.

Fortunately I had an old battery that had some charge in it and I simply put this battery on the floor next to the car and connected this battery to the flat battery via jump cables. I then connected the battery charger onto the donor battery (on the floor) and put it on a low/trickle charge for an hour or so which put enough charge into the flat agm car battery for the charger to then recognise it and accept a full charge via a direct connection.

The battery reached full capacity and I haven't had a problem with it since.

Hope this works for you and saves you the cost of a new (ridiculously expensive) agm battery.

Cheers
 
Last edited:
A2Z said:
I have a couple of cars with ridiculously expensive agm batteries and I once accidentally allowed one to discharge to a level when it wouldn't accept a charge from my battery charger or wouldn't recognise it and the charger just kept clicking.

The solution is to trick the battery into charging or trick the charger into charging it.

Fortunately I had an old battery that had some charge in it and I simply put this battery on the floor next to the car and connected this battery to the flat battery via jump cables. I then connected the battery charger onto the donor battery (on the floor) and put it on a low/trickle charge for an hour or so which put enough charge into the flat agm car battery for the charger to then recognise it and accept a full charge via a direct connection.

The battery reached full capacity and I haven't had a problem with it since.

Hope this works for you and saves you the cost of a new (ridiculously expensive) agm battery.

Cheers
Click to expand...
I've done this too on a few normal batteries that have degraded so the voltage is below what the chargers expect. Basically use a spare battery connected in parallel to allow the smart charger to begin its process. Then disconnect the spare battery and jump leads when charging begins. You will only need the spare battery connected for s matter of seconds.

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk
 
Everyone. Thank you for all the advice. Think I’ll go with a Spare Battery to connect in Parallel to the Battery on the Fiesta, and one of my Smart Chargers. That should then kick off Charging. I was hampered by the Fiesta being 60 miles away from where we live and having no tools with me. With tools to hand I could have removed the Battery and brought it home for a 24 hour charge, or more.

Steve
 
Sorry to here about the lose of your sister.

Do you not have an old school charger that just pushes out 3 to 5 amps or can you borrow one
I keep one for very flat batteries as my fancy all singing and dancing charger will not look at a really flat battery
Ideally if the Fiesta as an AGM battery then slow charge the battery for 24 hours as against jump starting the car. The alternator will charge the flat battery far far to quickly
 
Howey said:
Carparts4less is normally a fair bit cheaper than euro yet it is euros!

I also like exide batterys not keen on bosch
Click to expand...

It’s the same company but car parts is delivery only


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
depronman said:
Sorry to here about the lose of your sister.

Do you not have an old school charger that just pushes out 3 to 5 amps or can you borrow one
I keep one for very flat batteries as my fancy all singing and dancing charger will not look at a really flat battery
Ideally if the Fiesta as an AGM battery then slow charge the battery for 24 hours as against jump starting the car. The alternator will charge the flat battery far far to quickly
Click to expand...
No. My Old School Chargers both packed in years ago. Have figured out what I am going to do though. When my first Smart Charger packed in I kept the 2 Battery Connection wires & clips before I chucked it. Going to connect them to the identical replacement Smart Charger so it can be connected to 2 Batteries in parallel, and take another Battery from on of our old VWs so the Charger sees it is connected and Charging kicks off. Should do the trick ?
 
Yes should fool it
Just watch out for the smart charges tripping out as it I’ll take a lot of current at first and some chargers trip out on either heat or excessive current
When it trips back in you are back to square one again
Only reason I mention it is I have done the same trick one of my chargers managed it ok but it’s a monster of a chargers the other diy type charger tripped out every 2 mins until the battery was about 30% charged and each time it recovered it would not start charging as it thought the battery was too flat

It was a right faf

Paul


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top