How long should it take?

I may have left an interior light on in my Fabia from Friday night to Monday morning while the car was locked in the garage.

It turned over a couple of times this morning but would not start.

Borrowed some jump leads, poitive to positive, negative to earthing point, turn jumper on, leave to run for 10 minutes, turn off, try my car, one chug, dead.

Reattached leads, leave for 20 minutes, turn off, try again, not even a chug, just a click and dimming of dash lights.

How long does it "normally" take to transfer across enough charge?

If the above hasn't worked is it likely to be the sign of something more sinister?

Uh Oh, I was out doing this on New Years Day evening.

 

SWMBO left her interior light on in the Yaris over a full week at Christmas.

 

Connect up as you say pos to pos neg to neg, turn on my Fabia so as not to drain my battery (donor electricity).  Then immediately hop in the Yaris, still connected to start (which it did). Turn off the Fabia, disconnect all leads.

 

The assumption then is that the car just jump started has now got it's alternator running and the best way to charge it up is to take it for a run (in my case extremely challenging as the battery was flat as a fart it was dark and the car could barely get it's lights going and SWMBO left 6 miles of fuel in the tank prior to this)

 

I fear from your description that as was the case with SWMBO's Yaris the Battery is goosed and needs replacing.  I think that leaving an interior light on to trickle down the battery is a bit of a swine for killing the battery speaking to my uncle who is a mechanic and deals in second hand cars.  Thanks to same Uncle I was lucky enough to get a replacement battery from his garage late at night on New Years Day.

 

To test the battery, try getting the car started as above without disconnecting from the donor car, take it for a run (suggest daytime as per lights issue) if after a 30 minute drive it wont turn off and on again, either a cell has gone on the battery or you have an alternator issue.  When you do the charge drive I suggest you have a rescue driver on hand as I was stranded twice on NY when turning the lights on stalled the car at a considerable walking distance from the house, long walk back to pickup my car to jump again followed.

Ten minutes isn't long enough to recharge a flat battery. You need a good run of 45 minutes to an hour once started unless the battery is fried in which case it won't hold a decent charge.

I remembered it being much simpler from the last time i jumped a car (15 years ago with my dad), connect everything, turn it over, start, job done.

 

I even deaded indoor after 1st non-start to check google to make sure i was doing it correctly

 

I've taken the soft option and called my breakdown people to come out and either use a super booster to start it (in which case i'll find somewhere far away to drive to to charge the battery back up) or to diagnose a dead battery.

 

If it's the latter expect to see a "Cliff needs a new Battery" Badge Group Buy thread in the immediate future!

Ten minutes isn't long enough to recharge a flat battery. You need a good run of 45 minutes to an hour once started unless the battery is fried in which case it won't hold a decent charge.

 

If I read the original post correct Mr Pasty disconnected the donor car then tried to start.

 

I don't believe the Donor Car will push enough charge into the battery for you to then be able to to turn it off,disconnect and start the flat car.  Leave the two connected for the start, then disconnect

 

You need to start the flat car with the Donor still attached then disconnect, then take the flat car out for a long run. 30-45 minutes should be enough for you to turn the car off and then back on again to verify the battery has received a charge from the alternator and held it.

Get a CTEK trickle charger..........................worth it's weight in gold

If I read the original post correct Mr Pasty disconnected the donor car then tried to start.

 

I did try both attached and unattached and neither worked.

 

Mrs Pasty has confirmed that Mr Greenflag has just been and got it started - after commenting "oh i've been here before" so i assume he was the same guy who came and clear the ECU faults described here.

Apparently the battery had less than 9 volts in it and it took 3 booster packs to get it going.

 

Mrs Pasty is now sat in the car reading her book while waiting for approx 30 minutes for the alternator to do it's thing.

Athough apparently she is close enough to get wifi from the house so can still "work from home" but is gutted she now can't watch the darts!

it needs a drive, Cliff. Just idling won't help much if at all :(

it needs a drive, Cliff. Just idling won't help much if at all :(

+1 this, tell her to put down the iPad and go out and give your pride and joy a good thrashing for the next hour

As above

 

Get some sort of mains battery charger!

Hmmm she's just doing what Mr Greenflag told her.

He did joke that if it didn't charge he'd be back in half an hour when we had to call again, maybe he gets paid per call out

 

I'll get her to give it a half an hour thrash and try to blag a charger from somewhere

& these days you need to take care Jump Starting cars, for the likes of the ECU.

 

Connect the Jump Leads and let the 2 vehicles sit a few minutes and balance things.

Easy for a power spike to mess things up, especially the modern new car lending the power.

 

& proper jump leads, not some Pound Shop ones.

 

george

 

PS,

you are not getting much charge back in with a short thrash if it is now lighting up time.

So lights on,

but no Rear Heated Screen, Audio, Heater Fan etc,

and then the Battery will benefit some from the alternator charging.

I was once told (how true it is I dont know) that sticking side lights on will help get the alternator going a bit quicker but the lights dont pull much power. That said, I went for a spin anyway last time my battery was flat, 20min or so of brisk (relatively high rpm) driving and it was fine the next day. 

meh

 

Mrs Pasty is going to sit in it until she decides she's ready to go to the gym then drive it in there, stop, then hopefully drive it home again.

If it doesn't start after she's done being healthy and fit then i'm sure i'll hear about it and have to swap places with her whilst waiting for Mr Greenflag to turn up again.

If she works hard enough at the gym she can bump start it herself. 

Connect it up pos to pos

Neg to neg

With donor car running!

Leave for 10-20secs.

Rev donor car a bit and start flat car with donor revving. Will start straight away

If she works hard enough at the gym she can bump start it herself. 

 

Could replace the gym session with a sessionof pushing my car down the road!

 

 

Will start straight away

 

It should but it didn't

Properly properly flat

I'm no expert, but surely if the battery is only holding 9 volts (ignoring the ampage) one or more of the cells is either dead or on their way out ?

 

From memory at 10 volts they were reckoned to be dodgy, and at 9 volts or less were scrappers.

Indeed Mr Greenflag did say that one of the cells was dead so the battery needs replacing anyways.

That said Mrs Pasty made it to the gym and back with no issues.

Shall let her take my car on her 45 minute dual carriageway commute just to make sure it's got some juice back in it.

"I may have left an interior light on in my Fabia from Friday night to MOnday morngin whiel the car was locked in the garage.

It turned over a couple of times this morning but would not start."

 

I think the bigger problem is some smart Alec has moved your keys around 

From what I remember the Fabia's  interior lights automatically switch off if the ignition key is not in the keyhole, 10 minutes is it not? 

   At least my A3 does.

Not if it's slid to "on" 

Even so, it should still turn off on a timer, even my old Vivaro light goes out after a few minutes.

was the small reading light with the push button on/off.

i used it to check if the car needed a service, then left it on

all kind of redundant now though

Petrol or Diesel . Conect leads and let batteries make friends. Then let donor help flat battery get some charge. It then depends on the donor, if it's a diesel or petrol . petrol wil get enough in a few minutes, a diesel a bit longer.