Forum:
After stupidly leaving my lights on when I parked up in town, I found my battery too flat to be jump started, so I got towed across town and put my battery on charge. Unfortunately, since refitting it, On turning the ignition, the warning lights came on as usual, but when I attempted to fire up the engine, everything immediately cut out.
I checked every fuse and they were all fine, and then we checked the battery connections. At the moment it looks like a bad earth from the battery, which after much fiddling, accidentally shearing a rusted bolt and buying some more and finding a new hole to attach the earth lead to, the bad earth is now between the battery bay and the bodywork, but I won't know until we've drilled a new hole tomorrow and bolted one side of the bay down securely.
Could it be anything else? When it cut out, my first thought was something had shorted, but I wouldn't know whereabouts. I have also been having problems with the ignition cutting out occasionally when trying to start it, but I had a look at that today and didn't find anything obviously wrong. Any ideas people?
My van:
Hijet P reg, 993cc engine.
The battery could be shot, if
The battery could be shot, if they are discharged below a certain voltage they cannot effectively be properly recharged, they will accept some charge, and it will be a tiny amount, enough to light up the dashboard and not much more.
As you engage the starter it effectively short circuits the battery as the starter motor consumes so much instant power, and if it will not recharge it certainly won't turn the starter.
It's never a bad idea to
It's never a bad idea to check and clean up any earth connections that are suspect.
If a overnight charge of battery doesn't start car easily next attempt, one of the battery cells has probably died.
I'll try getting the battery
I'll try getting the battery bay bolted in properly today, if that doesn't work, I could test the battery in a friend's car to see if the same thing happens. If it does, it will have to be a new battery most likely.
Although when we put a multimeter across it, it reads a fairly healthy 13.2 at the moment, and doesn't discharge when I turn the ignition.
It was the earth. Cleaned up
It was the earth. Cleaned up the connections and made sure there was a clear connection from the battery bay to the body, and it fired up first time. Such a wonderful sound! It was even nicer getting rid of the dead fridge that had been sat in there for a good two days.