[Pandrop]

Hello ,

Last June my 2003 corsa wouldn’t start and I had RAC cover through my car insurance so the RAC patrol came out and fitted a new battery with a 5 year guarantee. Problem solved…. or so I thought…..

I became unwell in November last year and didn’t use the car at all and recently about a couple of weeks ago I found out that it was completely flat not even power to show dash fuel or radio etc so i have been researching online and it says probably dead defunct because of non use and sulphation etc but maybe recoverable maybe not .

So I bought a standard 6 amp battery charger and i don’t really know what’s happening here because it does seem to be charging but it shows an increase but the volts are showing as increased but are showing as negative volts but the car started.

I am disabled and don’t even do 400 miles a year and since the new battery was fitted maybe done 160 miles and when reading the battery guarantee it’s only for over 2000 miles which I would never have done anyway but am getting a bit better now and my car is a lifeline so should I try a trickle repair charger ? or does the increase in negative voltage mean it’s a useless battery and needs replaced? . The charger i’ve just bought is 6 amp and it’s connected correctly. I’m really confused any ideas much appreciated

[Pandrop]

Thanks everyone a few days on what i think i was doing wrong was testing the voltage as i was actually charging the battery without removing it from the vehicle. Now it seems to be charging as the volts are rising, i’m testing now with the charger off etc . Plus i’ve ordered a trickle charger with a repair function it’s arriving today so hopefully combination of both will solve everything.

[Santa]

What you needed was a "Smart" charger. That should be able to revive a totally flat battery given time. It will also maintain the battery in between uses.

This is one example of the many available: https://www.amazon.co.uk/CTEK-Batter...zcF9hdGY&psc=1

You should also consider whether owning a car is a cost-effective solution for your transport needs. A taxi would probably be cheaper.

[NMNeil]

@Pandrop Less than a year old battery with a 5 year warranty. Use the warranty and get it exchanged, but never mention that you tried to charge it as warranty claims may exclude 'tampering' by the owner 😉

[Rolebama]

I am into RC models, and I have a host of NiMh, NiCad, Lead Acid,LiFe, LiIon and LiPo batteries. I also have a battery charger which copes with them. It has settings for the type of battery and voltages. I have found that if I neglect one of my batteries to the point where it will not take a charge, then changing the type and lowering the voltage will often revive the battery so it will take a 'proper' charge.
This is the type I have, but not the same model. https://www.modelsport.co.uk/product...charger-440716

[Pandrop]

Ok after a week into this what i did was charge it up with a 6 amp ordinary charger and only got it to part charged but the car started and then my pulse repair charger has been on for maybe 30 hrs now but it’s not getting to the full 100% repair it’s been stuck at 80% repaired for the last 12 hours. However the standard charging mode on the pulse repair charger says the battery is full !

Does this mean that the battery is only 80% capacity but it’s fully charged? and if so is 80% good enough? good enough not to replace i mean .

Thanks everyone