starter motor fubared?

[gregers]

hi peeps,took a short journey today,ended up being parked outside my local halfords about 1 1/2 miles from where i live.got back into the car and nothing doing,tried to crank and then up on the dash comes low battery warning symbol.
phoned the other half to come out,and i used 1 of those charging/starting devices ciggie socket to socket and nothing doing.went into halfords thinking i need a new battery monkey comes out with a tester and cant even gain access to the negative terminal,
so bit the bullet and called out the breakdown guys,im with dial direct car insurance and after 2 hrs(i went home)out comes the rac(result ).he ended up having to take out the airbox just to get to the battery cover just to get to the battery.JESUS WHY MAKE IT SO HARD?? and its a BIG beast 700 amp jobbie.
anyways he tests the battery and it came up ok around the 12volts.he ended up using a booster box and his van to start my car,starter was sounding a tad lazy so he tests that and apparently its drawing 260amps?? he reckons a new starter and battery.
so do you guys think he was bang on??

1 thing that got me.he tried to persuade me to take it to a local garage(his recommendation)seemed to of got the hump when i said no, .then he said if i go home and it doesnt start i cant call them out again .mmm. anyhow before he put everything back i asked him location of said starter and if it was a diy job and luckily its on the front of the engine block.

[Mirez]

12.what? You need to know what the battery is reading at rest, when charging and just after a run.
Whats he claiming with a draw of 260amp? That its too much or too little?

[gregers]

hi mark,that was at rest,he said the battery appeared to be ok,but reckons as the starter is drawing that amount on start up its drawing to much from the battery?

what should a battery at rest read?
when i last done an on board test iirc it was showing 11.8 volts.

[Mirez]

260amp to start a diesel, personally I think that's fine.

11.8 is discharged. You need to know what the precise voltage is at rest and when charging. A good fully charged battery should be at the high end of the 12's.. circa 12.8/12.9. A battery nearing end of life will be at the low end of the 12's hence why you need to know the exact voltage at rest. You need the charging voltage to rule out any issue with the alternator which would give you misleading battery voltages.

[gregers]

thanks m8ty,ill do another check from the onboard diagnostics and let you know.

[Chrispb]

Hi Greg
If your doing a lot of short journeys the battery's just run down, you can't reliably discharge test a flat or low battery either so if you have the time stick the battery on charge for 36 hours then have it drop tested.

[gregers]

thanks chris,been thinking about this,and i committed the ultimate mistake.
i normally make sure my cars are up to temp before i shut the engine down,but this time i turned it off within 5 mins of starting it.
after getting it started today i took it for a longish run,got it back home,turned it off and restarted it and it spun up like it always does.so eft it ticking over for a little while.
we see how she behaves in the morning.
my commute to work takes me approx 20 mins,so its always up to correct temperature before shutting down so slapped wristies for me then.but ill keep a very close eye on it and let you know.

[gregers]

got in the car this morning and checked the voltage of the battery 12.1 volts,fired up instantly no hanging at all.
got to work and checked again 12.3,left work done a short journey rechecked 12.4.

now the only thing ive done is to unplug from the ciggie socket is the camera,i know its only a small thing but im wondering if the camera is drawing all the time even if its turned off.ive also checked that when i lock the car after about 5mins the ciggie socket powers down,so do you think this is a red herring?

[Chrispb]

Those voltages are still very low, I would guess cranking the engine more than a few seconds would see it fail, running the car for 20mins will not charge your battery to capacity it needs a minimum 24hrs continuous preferably 36hrs to fully charge these battery's.

[gregers]

ok m8,ill keep an eye on it and see if i can get if charged over the weekend.