Morris Minor Owners Club

Hi everyone!

I recently bought a battery from Halfords and it doesn't hold it's charge for long so I'm always having to charge it in the house. It's such a nuisance.

I thought I had better warn all forum members as they refused to give me a replacement. It was guaranteed 3 years and I bought it last month.

The deputy manager who served me was rude to me, what a cheek! He looked about 10 years old!

Dare I suggest that maybe the problem is not with the battery - If it charges up in the house it may be the car that is not doing its job?

I sure it's not the car at fault. I've had trouble charging the battery. It was sometimes taking over a day to charge up.

Does anyone know about ampere's etc. and can explain it?

If you bought the battery only last month I can't think of any reason why it would need charging at all! You can take it to a local garage and get it tested- if faulty Halfords cannot refuse to refund if your have receipt or credit note if not.

we have had halfords batteries my dads one failed after 3 years 11months.it had a 4 year guarentee,they replaced with no questions.go back and get a new one.if you have not opened the caps it should be no problem.have you got an alternator or dinamow.

I see to remember there were some charging problems - it's almost definitely NOT the battery at fault here. You need a voltmeter - if you don't have on - off to Maplins and get one. With the engine running at decent revs - the battery volts should be ~ 14 volts DC. If not - the dynamo/alternator is not charging. Even if it is charging - the problem could be a reverse rain on the battery - usually though faulty diodes in an alternator, but possibly also through wireless equipment. Simple test - when you park the car up with fully charged battery, disconnect it. In the morning re-connect - does it start the car ok ? It's also possible to look carefully at the lead as you make the connection to the battery - if you see a little spark - there's the problem.

Thanks for the advice. Great as usual!

I'll have another look at it tomorrow but it seems faulty to me. I was trying to get the baby Austin started you see. The battery only gives you a few attempts at starting then it's kaput! When you charge it it acts weird as well. The charging lights normally go red amber green and charging doesn't take that long. This battery stays on amber then back to red etc.

I hope you can find somewhere that has a proper battery tester (called something like a "load discharge tester")

This will give a clear result. It does sound like the battery is suspect if you can only get a few turns before it stops...
However I had similar symptoms once and it was a failed starter motor!

As BMC said GET YOURSELF A MULTIMETER they have a million and one uses round the house and quite honestly those light based charger meters are about as accurate as sticking your tongue across the contacts to measure the charge !!!! You will get one on ebay for less than a tenner and you will then have an accurate idea of what is going on. A fully charged battery will read 13.2 volts (2.2 volts per cell x 6) any less and its either not fully charged or faulty. Check the Amp Hour size of your battery and the RMS amps out of your charger (not peak) so for instance a 50 amp hour battery on a 3 amp charger will take 50/3 = 16.66 hours so an overnight charge on a dead flat battery would not be long enough to reach full charge.

Here is a link to a suitable meter on ebay
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Digital-Multimete ... 7C294%3A50

Hope this info helps

i have a halfords battery on my moggy and its been crap to get to the point and ive had to charge it 3 times

Maybe the battery charger that's not right of course - and maybe the battery has been damaged by flogging it when it's charge is low ? But - you were warned against Hellfrauds way back at the beginning of all this.........

Thanks for that! Yes I was warned and I'm going to stay away from Hellfrauds from now on. Thanks for that link Nigel, I already have multimeter. It was reading 12V but the starter motor got stuck. I have a new starter motor ready to fit.

Does anyone know how to read the amp level as I didn't seem able to do it?<br><br>

It will only read milli-amps - don't even think of trying it - or the meter will be fried. While the battery is on the charger - what reading does the meter give ?

You have to be careful when measuring Amps as you can damage the meter if connected incorrectly or exposed to high currents
on the meter you will need to put one lead in the com position & the other in the 10A position. Then with ignition off disconnect the negative battery terminal & put the red wire to the neg lead & the black to the neg battery terminal. depending on accessories fitted the meter should read less than 0.03A which would be there parasitic drain for memories etc. anything significantly over that would indicate a fault with something
Do not try to start the engine with the meter connected as the starter current will damage the meter. you would need an amp clamp to measure this

Just the opposite experience with Halfords. Bought a new battery when I finished the restoration 11 years ago and replaced it as precaution about 3 years ago. No problems of any kind, never had to charge it off the car, even after a lay-off of a few weeks, and once for 4 months in the winter, just pull the 'Starter' knob and away it goes.

Katie, I would check out the charging system thoroughly next.

I've never had a problem with Hallfords batteries.
However any pre-filled battery has a limited shelf life. If it sat on the shelf for over a year before you bought it, then it would be faulty when you bought it!
You'll normally find a date on the top of the battery saying 'filled' or something like that. I look through the slection and get the most recent.