Don't trust the green light!

[El Berlingo]

Hi guys,

How much trust do you put in the green battery warning light (if you have one) on your battery? The other morning I went out to start up and...nothing! Starter would not turn, all electrics dead. Funny, O.K. last night when parked up. Checked lamp on top of battery which showed green (fully charged). I then put a voltmeter across it and reads 10.2 volts. Cutting a long story short, new battery, problem solved. Checked charge rate +/- 14.2 volts on BOTH batteries. The moral of the story is 'don't trust the green battery light'! Batteries can be fine one minute and then completely dead the next....no getting dimmer to warn you like with a torch! What probably finished it off was the extreme temperatures we are having at the moment (40 degrees) and the increased use of air-conditioning.

Checking the condition of your battery before winter might be a good idea too!

Regards to all, El Berlingo unny:unny:unny:

[Rustscrat]

Hi, the green indicator is usually some kind of hydrometer which measures the specific gravity of the acid.
This just sits in the acid and raises or lowers depending on the charge state.
It might have stuck in the up position with crud from the battery degrading. alut:

[El Berlingo]

Hi Rustscrat,

Sounds like a good assessment of what the cause may have been. The battery was the original so it was about 5 years old. The other thing to note was this 'original' was not the generally accepted type for the diesel variant like mine. A bit of research revealed that this battery is for the petrol model with a slightly larger one normally being fitted to the diesel. The thought may have been as the vehicle was bound for the Spanish market it was not going to be subject to freezing conditions (unless used in the Pyrenees region of course!) Oh well, all done now....supermarket replacement with 2 year warranty doing fine!
(still cost 109 eur!)

Regards, El Berlingo

[Rustscrat]

Nice one, don't loose the g'ntee.alut: