Having been cranked dry by a breakdown company, and then left in the garage, discharged, for a month, my battery no longer holds its charge.

It was new from Halfords 6 years ago. Are they salvagable? My current plan is to leave it on trickle for a month to see if it comes back. Leaving it like that for a week didn't revive it.

It performs well for the first day after a charge, by the way...

Cheers

Gary

Does it do this when disconnected from the car??? i.e. fully charge it then disconnect from the car for a few days and see. If it still dose it the battery is in a bad way; you could try using a CTek type charger that can de-sulphate a battery (apparently not tried; an it will not allways work!)..

If it does not discharge (when it's out of the car) then you have a large unwanted current drain.. You could also check with a meter for current drain into the car as well..

Try not to leave the battery in a flat state if you can or you will kill it via sulphation..

Dan

[Edited on 18/9/09 by Bluemoon]

[Edited on 18/9/09 by Bluemoon]

[Edited on 18/9/09 by Bluemoon]

I'd say it's knackered myself especially at 6 years old.

New batteries can be had online for £50 - had to replace SWMBO's 306 battery earlier in the year.

6 YEARS IS OLD for a battery its scrap

^^^ Don't totally agree with that... They can last way longer than that just depends, our feista ones 11 years old and still fine...

Dan

My tintop one lasted over 10 years, my other (not so exciting) tintop is still going strong on its 11yo one

How long they last depends on the chemistry used in the battery plates the quality thickness of the plates and how the battery is treated --- at 6 years old a Halfords replacement battery is well past its best before.

Modern car batteries tend to fail in a different way from older plain lead-acid types with modern batteries the amount of charge the battery can hold seems to decrease gradually.

With modern batteries after they have been flattened the only chance of recovering them is to use a charger designed to put a higher voltage ripple in to the battery at the start the charge cycle, normal trickle charging just won't work.

Send it to the great battery graveyard in the sky and buy a new one
the breakdown man has killed it
six years is a good run for a battery that came with 3year guarantee
you can get 3,4 or 5 year guarantee ones from halfords or cheap 1 year ones from euro

I took a battery off my Nissan van as it was dead. I fitted the new one and left the old one in the shed then a few months later my daughter's Corsa battery was acting up. I put the old van one on the Optimate and left it for three days and eventually it was showing a green light so I put it on the Corsa and it is still running round 8 months later. 6 years is a good innings for a battery nowadays though.

well, the ammeter says the car is only drawing 50 milliamps, which must be the remote alarm receiver... so I guess it's time for a new one...