Reet first time iv had a techy problem, but im wondering if any of you guys can help. I own a Felicia 1.3 Lxi R reg 98 facelift, My problem started over the christmas period, i went to start it up one evening and nothing...dead as a do-do, turned out battary was flat so i got a lift to work and left the car on mains charge over night. Car was fine till 3 weeks later, car started getting lethargic to start again. Charged it once more, 1 week later it was dead again. Took it to a local garage and they said the battary was only charging to 75% or something and was basically a duffer, this was the same battary fitted to the car since new. Apparently the car was charging fine with all the electrics going. Slapped a new good brand battary on. Problem solved i thought. 3-4 months and an annual service and checkover later, and once more my car is getting lethargic to start. It's voltage is 11.9v or something, so basically it's gone on charge again. Looks like im not gonna get rid of this problem.

I do alot of cut and thrust urban driving, my week consists of around 10 2-3 mile trips, sometimes more, around 4 5 to 6 mile trips. Everyweek i take it for a 25 mile run down the motorway to try n blast all the rubbish out. But basically nearly all my journeys only last 5 to 15 minutes.

Anyone know how long, and what kind of distances you should be driving to keep a good charge in the battary? Or any other potential problems?

Oh and 1 more thing, im thinking of trading in for a nearly new car, furbie vrs or micra 160sr or something within the next few months. You think ill suffer the same problems?

Cheers in advance.

Its quite common for the Felicia alternator to over charge the battery. This dramatically reduces the life of the battery and will go on to cause other problems.

Best get the alternator output checked and see what your charge rate is.

Yup they are.

I saw one that had blown the battery and acid went on to the ECU and bu**ered that up.

So it ended up being an expensive fix.

Quite often buggers the ECU anyhow as it gets a 19v input to it before it blows the fuse. Then usually creates an internal dead short so as soon as you turn the ignition on it pops the fuse.

I think it was charging at 13.4v at 2000rpm IIRC (don't hold me to this), my dad suggested getting the alternator charge rate increased a little to cope with my shorter journys, if at all possible because hes thinking back to the days when he ran a Citroen 2cv and the alternators wernt sealed units or something. Anyhow iv decided to avoid this and just try and take the car for a 7 to 10 mile run every couple of nights to try n keep the charge up. Thanks for all the help.