I purchased a new WestCo Battery back in 2011, but my MK1 is located in Spain so it’s not used all that often, however I always disconnect the battery when I know I will not be over for a long period.
Unfortunately last October I forgot to disconnect it and having just come over to Spain for a holiday have found the battery to be dead, in fact there is no charge to even turn an ignition light on, so can only assume the battery is completely dead.
Is there any way to charge the battery?
Can I just jump start the car and then give it a long run to recharge the battery
Ok many thanks, have looked at the chargers suggested but am really not sure what one I would need, how to I ascertain what charger to purchase as there are so many model available and many different prices.
Have also got to get it delivered over to Spain, so want to get the correct charger first.
How do you mean parallel it to another battery to start the charging? Sorry am really not technically minded, so need all the help I can get
Leave it on for a day and if after a day your battery has 12v between the terminals whith the charger disconnected then you have three options.
Buy a £40 smart charger and charge up the battery.
Leave the cheepo one on for a few days put the battery in the car and it should start.
Put the battery in a bath of cold water up to say half way up the side of the battery and charge it on low say up to 4 amps with a standard battery charger for say 3 hours at a time and check its progress.
Do not pay more than £40 for a smart charger and usually a few times a year Lidl or Aldi sell them for about £15.
Do not use a high capacity starting charger on it.
I would just add that My optimate 3 along with a number of other smart chargers struggle when the voltage gets below a certain value. From memory there needs to be at least 8 volts.
If the ignition lights are not working, I would suggest your battery is below 7 volts and a most smart chargers will not be able to charge it.
Your battery appears very flat. so if you have access to a standard battery charger with no smart technology, it’s best to start with this.
Put it on lowest charge setting and charge until voltage is up at the level where the smart charger can take over. Smart chargers are much healthier than standard for these batteries, so I would minimise the use to getting the battery up to say 10/11 volts before swapping to the smart charger.
This is the main reason why the original Panasonic battery is so popular. It can handle periods of inactivity and does not appear to degrade with regular charging.
It seems to do extremely well in conditions that would normally be thought of as abuse. Westco have a mixed reputation - hopefully you will be able to recover yours.
No battery will totally recover from being run completely flat.
Have you considered a solar power trickle charger for when the car is not in use? In Spain it would probably be ideal for a car left for long periods. Try looking them up and having a read, it may solve your problem long term.
So if my battery is below the 7volts how would I get a trickle charger to work?
I have ordered a Streetwize Car & Motorcycle Automatic Trickle Battery Charger for Gel / Lead Acid Batteries 12 V so hope this will charge the battery.
I am amazed that the battery is so flat as it was fine back in October last year, but I forgot to disconnect it then prior to returning to the UK. Expensive mistake and wont do that again.
Will also look at the solar trickle charger to see how they compare, thanks for that
Ok got my trickle charger and my battery has now been on charge for 15 hours, however the instructions state that the charger will not work if the battery has less than 1 volt to start with, but as I do not have a voltage checker all I can do is leave it charging for the next few days and see if the red power light on the charger changes to green.
How would you charge the battery if the voltage left in it is below the operating tolerance of the chargers?
My mk1 came out of a very long spell in mothballs with a dead battery recently but it’s starting absolutely fine now. This is what I did:
Friend came round with a battery he knew had almost full charge (not attached to a car). Disconnected mk1 battery, and connected the good battery to it using jump leads. Connected a mains charger to the mk1 battery, creating a “chain” with the good battery at the end.
The principle is that the mains charger, whilst it won’t charge a dead battery, detects that there’s a good one at the end of the chain, and charges that. Meanwhile the dead battery is “fed” on the way.
It worked anyway, although it took several hours. And I will disconnect mine too next time I SORN it!
Thanks Priya, will see if I can try that, I have a perfectly good car with a battery in it, do you think that would work?
I suppose I could jump start using my other car but not sure if a run will put any charge into the MX5 or even enough to then put it onto a trickle charger.