Help! It's all dead!!!!

sdibbers

sdibbers

Well-Known Member
So turned the car over and all was fine. Started as always on the key. Switched off to test where I've bleed the clutch slave cylinder (works fine now).

Went to start it again and the lights went out and the starter behave strangely. Making a buzzing noise.

I can start the car with jump leads and even run once leads are removed. But there is no juice in a fully charged battery. Other thing is that a volt meter reads 12v but there is no amperage to speak of.

My question is this. What could kill a battery so quickly? A full short of the starter motor? There was no discernable heat in the battery leads. This is a 1968 2000tc with an inertia starter motor fitted along with a dynamo/generator charging system. The battery is at least five years old.

Any thoughts or comments really welcome.

Thanks in advance,

steven
 
2 options, 1:bad terminal connection on battery 2: high resistance internal connection on your Very old battery (I would go with this one) solution chuck out your dunger battery and buy a new one and give it no second thought :D

Graeme
 
Thanks Graham
yep I reckon you're right. Just tried the battery fom our other car and it's all fine. Just never had a battery go with Bo warning like that before. Turns out it's seven years old! So to be expected then.

Panic over,

Steven
 
Batteries do seem to just fall over without warning these days. I recall a few years ago delivering a rental car to some customers in the city. We had started the car several times to move it round the yard for cleaning etc, then made the 25 minute motorway drive in to the city. Signed them up, said goodbye and two minutes later got a call from the customers to say that the car wouldn't start! Battery was completely dead!
Also, my 3500S has a 600 amp truck battery in it that has been replaced under warranty 3 times because 1 cell keeps dying when the car isn't used for a bit.
I guess they don't make them like they used to.
 
It won't do any harm to check your earth points at battery terminal and chassis/engine. You could also run an earth directly to the stater motor just as a belt and braces thing.
 
Put in a new battery, new earth to battery cable and new positive clamp this morning. I had already replaced the engine earth strap last week as the finishing touch to it's rebuild. That and the fact I destroyed the old one forgetting to undo it when I took the engine out (oops).

All seems good now. The battery going from fine to completely dead in ten minutes without fire or smoke is a new one on me and I've been playing with cars for 25 years. Old dog=new tricks I guess.
 
Just as a little extra I'd look at the starter motor terminals and check that nothing is earthing out or loose. Just a thought.
 
I was thinking of the ceramic teminal where the positive battery cable goes through the floor - assuming 68 TC's have those
 
DaveHerns said:
I was thinking of the ceramic teminal where the positive battery cable goes through the floor - assuming 68 TC's have those
Click to expand...

Series ones have the battery under the bonnet.
 
The starter terminal was the first thing I checked. new Battery fitted and all is fine. Charging seems good. I checked the date on the old battery, it was 7 years old! No wonder it gave out! But I have never seen one die in less than 10 minutes before. Amazing.

Yes, its. under the bonnet on the SI 2000TC models. New earth and clamps all round should be fine until the next thing :D
 
What happens is that the cell interconnects become either thin and fail with age or become high resistance, so the underlying cell condition can be very good but getting the amperage out to the outside world becomes compromised by a dodgy internal connection.

Graeme
 
I have found through the years that after five years of use a battery is likely to fail, even unexpectedly.
I just replace it with no remorse.
 
My knowledge of series 1's and inded 4 cylinder cars is limited I admit

I've had a car which I drove to Sainsbury's , did my shopping , came out and the battery was dead - it was a Rover 214Si and under 3 years old
My "little angel" had a 1986 Nissan Micra and the battery lasted 13 years on a life of short runs
 
I have to admit that 7 years is above and beyond. just the fact it died in literally ten minutes was a shock!
 
sdibbers said:
I have to admit that 7 years is above and beyond. just the fact it died in literally ten minutes was a shock!
Click to expand...

I had one go like this on a BMW I had, one day fine, next morning, flat as a pancake wouldn't even hold a charge. New battery and was fine after that. Like you at the time I couldn't shake the feeling there was something else wrong, but nope all was ok just a dead battery.
 
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