ok this afternoon, I turned the key and the starter motor didnt turn over.:eek:

anyway i charged the battery up for a few hours.

Then it started and got me to work and back, only a short ish journey. 4 mile round trip. - still gets warm/hot.

anyway, what i want to know is how the battery became discharged so quick. :confused:

. I checked the fusebox - no water in there.

. the sound system has a power capacitator so little battery drain

. last time i used the car was friday night

. it was in the spray shop for wed and thursday last week. ( they may not have realised about the immobiliser and couldnt get it started maybe cranked it over and wouldnt start)

. Didnt leave lights on or anything:rofl:

. I cant remember myself bcos of a drinking binge friday nite after work (but i told my dad when i got home from work that it wouldnt start first time.) - for a reason i cannot recall.

Knackered batteries will discharge themselves so would keep an eye out for that. With the colder weather it is probably more likely to show up now?!

Haynes manual gives a rule of thumb as to what to expect if you have a multimeter. Some places may offer free battery checking but IMO they just want to play everything up and sell you a new battery whether you need it or not.

thanks.

I forgot to mention the battery is a boosh

and was bought 05/2006

Might sound like a silly question but are you sure your battery was discharged? Did the starter try to turn at all or was it totally dead?

This could be the well-known felicia ignition switch syndrome, see this thread (among others): http://www.briskoda.net/forums/felicia-fun-forman/felicia-ignition-switch/89459/

About once a month I sit there with the "dead starter", but after a few tries I get contact and everything is fine. No doubt this will happen more and more often so eventually I'll have to get a new switch.

Did you check the battery with a volt meter before charging?

With engine turned off you could also loosen the + cable from the battery, connect an ampère meter between cable and battery. The measured current should be very low (clock, radio stand-by). Higher readings means that something is "on", then you'll have to pin it down through removing one fuse after another and see what happens.

well its working ok atm.

But i will accept the possibility that it could be the switch.

No we don't have an ammeter or volt meter, so i didnt test that.

However the battery charger was on for a good few hours and the MAINTAINING AND ? light didnt light up. But the main charging one was on the whole time.

However when i was out today and i truned my sound system on for the first time since the drained battery.

it was back to factory settings, so it has obviously been drained, somehow.

I've also give the car a good run today a good 50mile round trip, to clear the crap, and charge the battery.

However when i was out today and i truned my sound system on for the first time since the drained battery. it was back to factory settings, so it has obviously been drained, somehow.

And you didn't disconnect the battery while charging? Then of course sound system will go back to factory settings?

I remember having read elsewhere on the forum that apparently starters refuse to turn if voltage goes beyond a certain point so that even with 11-12 V and everything else running the starter is just dead.

I also had a mysterious fault on an old Audi. Once in a while the battery was completely (and I mean completely! not even the clock was ticking) drained in the morning. Then it ran beautifully for weeks, and suddenly it happened again. Left it with a car electrician who couldn't find anything. My guess was that a relay for some reason switched on during the night. When the battery was drained, the relay of course switched off, and it was impossible to find the fault.

I solved it temporarily with a switch on the - pole on the battery, cutting power completely when parking for a longer period. Not very convenient but I managed for a year or so before sending the car to the scrappie.