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Fiesta 2008 - I am not using my car very much and did take it off the road during the pandemic. The battery was flat when I wanted to use it again so it was charged up and okay after. But again not using the car much and it is sitting on the drive. I do like to have a car, to get out and about if need be. The battery was flat again yesterday so I am going to put the battery on charge again this weekend and wondered if it is necessary to disconnect the battery, have been told I should and have been told dont bother? The battery was a new one in January 2017 and I suppose if I get another new one now and dont use the car much, the new one will eventually go flat. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Annoying isn’t it? I’m told that it can often be due to leakage through a faulty diode in the alternator.
You could fit one of the low wattage solar panels for topping up your battery via the cigarette lighter.

When I was working abroad some years back I used to keep my car battery topped up using one of those smart trickle type chargers, just connected it up to the battery in the car and never caused any problems.

Lead acid starter batteries don't like being discharged below 80%, allow it to go flat and you permanently damage it. Even if you do use a vehicle regularly, but only for short trips, you can be killing the battery because you're not allowing the alternator to charge the battery to full.

Your battery is dead. You need to buy a new one.

To prevent this happening again you should charge the battery once a month if the car hasn't been driven on a long trip that month. I've seen solar panels you can leave on the dash, there is no reason this won't keep your battery topped up so long as it is angled correctly and is at least 10W.

Stinsy wrote: ↑Sat Aug 07, 2021 3:37 pm Lead acid starter batteries don't like being discharged below 80%, allow it to go flat and you permanently damage it. Even if you do use a vehicle regularly, but only for short trips, you can be killing the battery because you're not allowing the alternator to charge the battery to full.

Your battery is dead. You need to buy a new one.

To prevent this happening again you should charge the battery once a month if the car hasn't been driven on a long trip that month. I've seen solar panels you can leave on the dash, there is no reason this won't keep your battery topped up so long as it is angled correctly and is at least 10W.

Yep, wot he said.
I did remember to charge mine from time to time during the lockdowns but I forgot to leave it with the handbrake off -so it stuck on and had to be persuaded with a rubber mallet on the brake drums. The front discs got really rusty too so maybe I should have just taken it out for a decent run once a month.

The battery has been removed from the car and is now on charge. The idea of a low wattage solar panel to charge up the battery sounds good - can you point me in the right direction of what to buy and where from please. I dont think I would be able to keep taking my battery off the car, charging it and putting it back on, it is too heavy for me to handle.

JR wrote: ↑Sat Aug 07, 2021 5:31 pm The battery has been removed from the car and is now on charge. The idea of a low wattage solar panel to charge up the battery sounds good - can you point me in the right direction of what to buy and where from please. I dont think I would be able to keep taking my battery off the car, charging it and putting it back on, it is too heavy for me to handle.

I'd go for something like this: Learn more: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B08FX68GHX/ ... 8FYAP0C86Y

(No experience of this exact model, there seems to be lots of similar ones available. Please be aware that this is an area of the market where many products are "optimistically labeled", if it is too small or too cheap it will be junk. )

Our 607 was standing, unused for long periods during lock down last year.

Unsurprisingly the battery became discharged due to drains such as immobiliser/alarm.

Charging on a normal battery charger proved unsuccessful because the battery would only support the normal items available, with the ignition switched on, for very few minutes (less than ten minutes and likely little more than five). A week without charging resulted in loss of power for starting (low voltage auto switches the engine management system off and requires the battery to be re-connected for over a minute for a computer reboot, before the engine can be restarted).

A reconditioning recharge with a CTEK charger, which desulphates (reconditions) the battery, has very much restored the battery to expected capacity. I expect it will not last another winter but it is doing fine at the moment. These chargers are not cheap, but they do actually work. They are popular with farmers, for instance, to maintain agricultural batteries in the best possible condition.

I loaned my charger to a near neighbour and he was impressed with the effect on the battery in his wife’s car (which I got started for her on a couple of occasions). I now have a lidl float charger and another basic charger which are redundant for car battery use.

The solar chargers will not work if the cigar lighter is switched by the key (as it is in our 607). Ideally you also need a charge controller, to avoid charging the battery to more than about 14.4V (dependent on battery type), if a decent-sized panel is employed.

Thank you for your replies. We removed the battery from the car and connected it up and has been charging since around 4pm - 10pm. The battery charger has a pointer and the scale is 0 - 2 - 4 - 6. The pointer was half way between 0 - 2 and it looked pretty much the same when I switched it off, if anything the pointer may have been very slightly below the half way mark between 0 - 2. I know the charger is working because new crocodile clips were put on it and it was tested by charging up an old battery. I have switched it off and unplugged the charger for the night and will put it back on charge tomorrow. Would you have expected the pointer to have moved in 6 hours? The charger is 4amp output 12v, input 220/250v 50Hz.

I very much doubt that a normal basic battery charger will recover your battery.

Unless you are prepared to invest in a good charger for the future, the cheapest route is to buy a new battery - and then make sure it does not discharge deeply. Complete discharge soon kills modern VRLA batteries - particularly cheaper examples. Your battery has sulphated cells and may well have been down on capacity last year.