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-   -   Did your car suffer a dead battery during the lockdown? (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/technical-stuff/237530-did-your-car-suffer-dead-battery-during-lockdown-4.html)

Yes.

My 3 year old Verna didn't start after 3 weeks of leaving it idle. Initially did the jump start with the help of a local battery technician and it worked fine for next 2-3 months . I was starting the car at least once a week for 5-10 minutes for the next few weeks. And then missed to start the car for 2 weeks and this time it is dead and doesn't even charge after jump starting. Had to replace the battery. Now I make sure to at least go for a 5 km drive every week.

I am keeping all these two and four wheeler batteries charmed and also charged, using the home charger that is working overtime from home.

Just the other day, while in a hurry, I connected my one year old M 800 battery terminals to the charger. And after 24 hours, I was shell shocked to see that there is no charge and noted that the brand new battery is not at all charmed. The charger room in the house is out of the way and no one even peeps in there, unless there is some work. The entry door is nearly bolted to prevent the obnoxious fumes emanated during charging, away. Was contemplating calling their dealer up to say that the battery was a "lemon" and the three year warranty calls for a decent replacement by them.

Then to my shock, I saw that the red wire of the charger was connected to the battery's negative terminal and black to the positive.

By the grace of the Almighty, the battery was saved. The charger fuse had blown up and this fuse saved the entire lot of connected objects in the circuit. And then after replacing the fuse, I could very well recharge the battery to its optimum level in 24 hours.

"Haste makes waste" is what we have learned as children but we do not follow it always.

Never faced a dead battery problem. Touch wood.

Multimeter (voltage) reading of battery is not an accurate way of judging the battery remaining capacity unless it is (electrically) loaded.

A very accurate and cheap method of checking battery 'state of charge' is hydrometer i.e. checking 'specific gravity' of a battery.

I had been a bit ignorant of my Pulsar 180 ever since I started working. Bike's 8.5 years old now, and have ridden it for hardly 2K kms in last 2 years. However, even I started it once in 10 days, it used to fire up in one button start (No kick on this bike). Once it even started in one start after being idle for 19 days. Became a bit overconfident and neglected riding it. Now the bike refuses to start, and have kept it idle for about two months now. Don't plan to replace the battery soon, as I am hardly using the bike anymore.

On the Ford Ecosport, I make it a habit to drive it for 15-20 mins once every week. Since the car was purchased in June 2020, it has barely made any running (3K kms). Need this weekly running atleast, it refreshes me a lot, I look forward to weekends.:Cheering:

I never thought my 7 year old trusted Fortuner will fail to start some day, but that happened during 1st leg of the lockdown after the vehicle being idle for around 4 weeks.

While I invested on a jump start cable from Amazon, got the vehicle checked for weak areas including battery (1 year old), alternator, wiring alterations done for 1. Reverse Camera 2. DRL 3. Amplifier 4. Dashcam. All came fine and it was all smooth for next few months probably because of a long trip to native and weekend travels there. Issue reappeared in the next idle cycle, further investigations reveled 1. Alternator not delivering it's best and 2.weak joint in the DRL wiring. These things would not have created any issue if the vehicle was regularly used. Got the alternator overhauled and the wiring replaced and I assume the issue is fixed. But I always make sure it is not left idle for more than 3 weeks and also has the jump start cable in the boot(trust in God, but lock your car!).

Let me also share something I learned about jump starting. Battery had completely drained out during the second time, and the Fortuner failed to crank with a brand new Innova connected and revved. I had to leave both the vehicles wired with Innova engine running with throttle for around 3 to 4 minutes before attempting to start the Fortuner again and that worked (procedure advised by the SA)

Yup. Two of them last year during the extended one. One car turned out to have a dodgy battery in itself while the other had passed its best.

After the first one failed I invested in this and it works a treat.

https://www.team-bhp.com/news/maruti...p-starter-cars

Plan to keep it in the new automatic for all long drives henceforth.

My cars are used regularly despite the lockdown as I have passes for movement.

My KTM RC 390 though, is left unused. Last lockdown it was unused for 6 months except for starting up once a week and idling it for 10 minutes. It didn't help. The fuel pump failed as well as the battery. I had replaced them both.

Now it's again dormant. This thread is a reminder to me to atleast start it and ride around my street for a few km every two days.

Voted- No.

Surprisingly modern batteries these days are far more reliable than the ones which used to come in the years before. I made it a point to go down and fire up the car at least twice a week. I also used to drive it up and down my building to make sure that the parts have some movement and the tyres aren't stuck sitting in one place for a long while. Apart from that an important tip that was given to me by the Exide guys was to make sure that distilled water levels in the battery are correct.

Weirdly enough my starter motor which had been having problems for about 1.5 years gave way and had to get a new one fixed and I'm not sure if the reason why it suddenly went kaputt was due to the battery or not. The VW SA tried to draw some connection between the two which seemed feasible but not really realistic.

I have gone ahead and purchased the Bosch C3 Car and Two Wheeler Battery Charger. Post that I have no issues. I charge the car every weekend - it has an auto shutdown feature which means it stops charging once the battery is fully charged. Costed approx: ₹3000/-

Purchased it from Amazon - looks like the demand has increased now and it is sold out both on Amazon and Flipkart lol:

Amazon Link: Link

Unboxing video: Bosch C3 Battery Charger

3 cars at home saw dead batteries during lockdown / reduced running:

1) VW Tiguan : Hit the 2 year mark in Aug 2020, and along with it the stock Exide battery went kaput. I believe even regularly run Tiguan vehicles have this issue at around this timeframe, so chalking it up to that.

2) BMW 328i : The OE battery finally gave up after 8.x years of use last year! Guess it was time.

3) Corolla : Reduced running saw the 3.5 year old battery giving up. Could've lasted longer, but most OE batteries in my experience start fading in the 3-5 year mark. Interestingly, this was the most regularly car during / post the lockdown.

My car’s battery was almost on the verge of dying when I did not use her for a week. Last weekend, when I tried cranking the car, she refused to start twice and the instrument cluster light would turn on and fades off. On the third attempt, fired her up and drove around the apartment block for a good 15 minutes. Thereafter, I’ve been driving the car every night before I hit the bed. Just around the apartment block; clocks some 2 km barely but I go around real slow.

A friend-colleague’s WagonR battery died. Advised him to pick up a jump start cable and he ordered one from Amazon, from the Amazonbasics brand. Just a simple, no-frills cable:



And gave him these instructions to jump start the car:

He reported that he could jump start the car today successfully.

Yes, in last year's lockdown in both A-Star and Nano.

Thankfully both were on last legs anyway and had to be changed.

Both my cars have gone through extensive no-use periods since the pandemic struck last year. The Palio's battery was flat and the Corolla's battery had a bit of life which cranked the engine but I knew I was pushing my luck with them and should do something than just run the car around for a few kms hoping it will recharge. Yes it would recharge but partially so because these batteries need a good highway run to bring that battery up to 100% SOC. Instead of waiting for the batteries to deteriorate and burning fuel I decided to:
a) Disconnect the -ve cable to minimise self discharge
b) Remove the batteries every 2-3 months and bench charge them in the house using either my Bosch or CTEK "smart" chargers which tend to baby batteries. I normally run them through the desulphate program that is available on both.

For times when the batteries are stubborn a cheapo no-smarts charger I purchased many years gives those batteries a good kick with a ~14v constant voltage charge that gets em furiously bubbling/gassing. A day or two of this voltage induced kicking dissolves sulphate crystals rather nicely. Keeps them in top shape. Of course I need to check electrolyte levels and top up with distilled water if necessary during or after this rough treatment. :)

A jumper cable is a blessing as is a good quality charger during these strange times. I encourage all car owners to buy them.

It is always a good idea to start the car at least once a week and even just go around the building. Other than the battery issue, unused car may become home (engine bay) to rats, frogs, spiders, cockroaches and finally fungus on the upholstery :)

My father's Maruti Ignis suffered the same fate, and didn't have immediate access to jump leads. Realised the insurance had a roadside assist component, called the helpline and mechanic landed up 45 minutes later. 10 minutes later, problem solved. The guy didn't even ask for any money, gave him a Rs 100 gratuity and he was quite happy.

Once in a while, great service happens and that makes your day!

(insurer's name rhymes with wacko)