Possibly a "maintenance" question but as I was supposed to be on the road at 6am I'll put it here..

Nipped out in car last night, bout 8.30pm, no problems....

Came to car this morning, refuses to try and start, starter motor not really kicking or turning at all.. so problem is electrical not mechanical....

Checked voltage - 11.5 volts - can never remember what it should "hold" but that seems pretty good?

Central locking fires as it always had, can hear fuel pump priming etc, all lights flash bright on dash and interiors fine.

(from past experience with dead battery on another car - all the above struggle)

Have left the car for days before now and no probs, nothing in the car left on, no recent electrical issues, no alarm to go off etc.

Battery is currently on "fast" charge, will give it a while then try again.

Any thoughts?

Came to car this morning' date=' refuses to try and start, starter motor not really kicking or turning at all.. so problem is electrical not mechanical....

Any thoughts?[/quote']

Starter motor has gone.

Mine did that just before crimbo, remember......

No warning.

I had to get a tow to get the damn thing started :(

ok, after 15mins on charge she fires up.... so do I risk driving 100 miles to then get stranded in Birmingham... decisions decisions....

Battery is on the way-out.

Had exactly the same problem with another car. Lights, alarm, stereo etc. all worked fine, but there just wasn't enough juice in the battery to turn the motor over - the starter would just rapidly cut in and out - sounded like a machine gun!! Fully charging the battery overnight would result in enough power for 1 or 2 starts only.

Since new battery fitted everything is fine.

Quite possibly, car is only used one day during the week and then at weekends.

Having (in the above process) discovered my portable battery charger \ boost powerpack is flat, have decided to postpone my trip to Birmingham to tomorrow. Will attempt it then with it fully charged (car and powerpack )

So, now catching the train (as I always do) into Manc at 8... (so pleased to have been up at 5.30 )

(and a big to those daft souls online at this silly hour of the morning to offer their thoughts! )

Get a new battery.

Should be changed every 3 years or so anyway:)

I'd advise one of those jump start / compressor gizmos too. Mine's got me out of several dead battery situations with works vans before.

Yep got to agree get a new battery should have more than 11.5 volts coming out of it!!

I'd advise one of those jump start / compressor gizmos too. Mine's got me out of several dead battery situations with works vans before.

Already got one... see above... came to it to find it was flat Is on charge today (takes about 6hrs iirc) and will take it with me tomorrow...

Get a proper drivers car?

Get a proper drivers car?

Yeah, swap the 4x4 for a large diesel saloon with someone who would use it daily?

Not naming anyone imparticular.....:rubchin:

Java, don't tempt me!

Ian, out of interest, when you tried starting it, didn't the cabin lights go down and the on board computer reset? When I had a dying battery on my old car - ok it was a diesel so sucked a lot more amps - the computer would reset and go "mad" for a second whilst it was deprived of its voltage to keep it going. Trip computer reset to 0, etc, etc.

Because the beefiness of a starter motor for a petrol powered car is a lot lower than the dervy version, maybe the light dimming / computer reset didn't happen? Just curious really

11.5V will be plenty to keep the auxiliaries working, but not enough to turn the starter motor - needs to be closer to 13V for that.

I had a couple of times when mine was too flat to start, but it's not let me down since I've started using it at least once a week...

Rob.

Must agree - 11.5V is simply too low for the starter motor. Battery is running towards its end.

Mr car is nearly 4 years old now, original battery and during winter is rarely used. I drove it last week for the 1st time in 4 weeks and it started 1st time, the car is kept in a garage though so maybe that helps a little.

Not only is it not used very often, but last night was fired up and only run locally, so probably took more juice from it than charged it!