Can a car battery be too old for a jump start?

Forums › Transport (cars, bikes and boats) › Can a car battery be too old for a jump start?

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rayonline

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#2241589 20-May-2019 15:39

k1w1k1d:

Why do they keep the car if not being used?

Good question. They didn't want to sell it because they said the car wasn't used much and the large depreciation. They might not understood that the car if unused is not good for it. They might had thought a car stored away is like buying an extra microwave for contingency. In the past I also had to tell them to don't buy an extra smartphone or cellphone (prior to smartphones) because the battery can go bad, phones go out of date and telco's can discontinue the support of 2G etc ..

Edit. They also didn't want to sell the car saying it wasn't used much hence thinking that car is in tip top condition.

amiga500

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#2241677 20-May-2019 16:33

amiga500:

rayonline:

amiga500:

A mechanic told me that jump starting a car using one of those battery jumper packs might fail if the car has a battery that is dead flat - such as when lights have been left on for an extended period.

One time I left the interior light on overnight, was away from home. I was rushing to unpack the car since it was pouring down with rain. I borrowed a jump box from the petrol station to no avail ... Those A3 sized things. Jump start with the AA truck roadside worked.

Yep, my experience was the same, it was a car that was used a few times a week at the most & an interior light had been left on. And I was using a good quality jump pack & it was no go.

A small correction to my story. The guy who I was trying to help talked to *his* mechanic & that was what he was told! Anyway...

geoffwnz

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#2242062 21-May-2019 09:15

amiga500:

amiga500:

rayonline:

amiga500:

A mechanic told me that jump starting a car using one of those battery jumper packs might fail if the car has a battery that is dead flat - such as when lights have been left on for an extended period.

One time I left the interior light on overnight, was away from home. I was rushing to unpack the car since it was pouring down with rain. I borrowed a jump box from the petrol station to no avail ... Those A3 sized things. Jump start with the AA truck roadside worked.

Yep, my experience was the same, it was a car that was used a few times a week at the most & an interior light had been left on. And I was using a good quality jump pack & it was no go.

A small correction to my story. The guy who I was trying to help talked to *his* mechanic & that was what he was told! Anyway...

Yep, if they get below a certain voltage then no amount of jump starting will resuscitate them until they get a deep (or whatever the term is) charge to bring them back up to a usable voltage.

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wasssupppp

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#2242441 21-May-2019 15:59

Leaving a car sitting for this long isn't good for it. Ideally, it would be taken for a decent drive every month or so (long enough to get up to normal operating temperature). Not just for the battery.

tripper1000

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#2242464 21-May-2019 16:45

Batteries can fail in a way that prevents jump starting - no doubt about it.

You can't start with the flat battery disconnected and a donor battery connected via jumper leads unless your have exceptionally high quality jumper leads. 99% of retail jumper leads cannot do this - simply not thick enough copper in them. As several people have pointed out, most jumper leads and jumper packs are designed to assist the cars low battery, not replace it.

Going forward, prevention is your best bet. As you have unfortunately found out, a new battery costs many hundreds of dollars. A top quality smart charger such as a CTeck would cost ~$150 and when left connected 24/7 would keep the battery alive for up to 5 years, so would be a good investment.

Driving it is the 2nd best way to keep the battery topped up. The first best way is the use a mains charger. Driving isn't technically the best recharge method because it takes at least 8 hours to fully recharge a flat battery - driving for 8 hours is impracticable, but if you have a charger, then charging for 8, 16 or even 24 hours is super easy/zero effort.

If you disconnect the battery earth lead (either lead will work, but the earth is the safest to disconnect/reconnect), it will extend the uncharged storage life of the battery out to about 6 months, so while it is an improvement, it isn't the ultimate solution going forward.

TwoSeven

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#2242600 21-May-2019 19:31

If it were me, I would change the plugs, oil and filter, then put in a fresh battery, before trying to start it.

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Kiwifruta

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#2243360 22-May-2019 21:35

I left a new battery in my car. A year later tried to charge the battery and start the car, no such luck as the battery was kaput. Regular charging, as others have stated, would have kept the battery in good condition. Time for you to buy a new battery.

Fred99

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#2277828 16-Jul-2019 17:09

Had to change the battery in the old MX5 - it finally died. The dead battery had a 2004 date stamp, 15 years from a car battery isn't bad. I thought this was because Japanese battery quality, but probably not (or not entirely). The battery is in the back - it's never exposed to engine heat. It's parked in the garage overnight, so never gets very cold either. Anyway, that's my theory - I'll report back in 15 years if the new one lasted as long.

Rikkitic

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#2277880 16-Jul-2019 18:35

I think @sattv has it right. If a battery is completely flat, it can put such a load on the jumper vehicle that there is not enough juice to operate the starter solenoid, even if the other vehicle is running. Jumper cables that are in any way less than perfect, or do not make a perfect connection with lots of current carrying capacity, will also prevent anything from happening.

One way to check things is to temporarily put a good battery in the car, then try to push start it. You can also try the starter, but if the car has not been operating for so long, you may just drain the good battery. Once you have the car running for a few minutes, it will be easier to start again, so you can put back the old battery and give it another go. As someone suggested, putting the flat battery on a charger might also bring it up enough to make a jump start easier.

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#2277897 16-Jul-2019 18:59

Once you do get a working battery in the car, & considering the zero-mileage future of the vehicle - meaning the battery is going to suffer a very low & slow drainage from the clock & computer - you'd be wise to put a breaker switch on the battery, right by the terminals.

That way you'll retain useful charge for far longer.

This situation reminds me of Peter Witehira's Power Beat battery that would "never go flat". Whatever happened to that?

I had one fitted to a Rolls-Royce Corniche FHC that I'd restored, running the electric clock would drain a standard battery to zero over a month. The problem with that was that you'd only find out when you put the key in the ignition - which was an electric ignition so wouldn't release the key until it had power supplied. With the battery in the boot, which was locked & the ignition refusing to let go of the key, I soon got sick of crawling underneath to jump the starter motor directly. Just not Rolls-Royce style.

Powerbeat wasn't cheap but it sure worked, that was the end of that problem.

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#2278214 17-Jul-2019 11:32

rayonline:

Just used the multi-meter. The battery is still connected to the car. It measures 0.60V.

Its stuffed , no hope of reviving it. Dont try & jump start with that stuffed batt in the car .
Buy a used/recon batt , leave it disconnected & give it a charge every now & then .

If the cars been sitting for a years , you dont want to risk running old contaminated petrol through it anyway .

rayonline:

Just a thought, can you jump start a car without a battery installed ie just using the donor battery?

Sure, if you want to risk blowing the electrics , assuming youre going to use jumper cables :-)
Just connect the donor batt in properly, It doesnt take long .

rayonline:
It cranks.

Just saw that comment . Cranks but doesnt start ?

Anyway..
Long term storage : to do this properly requires more than just parking the car somewhere .

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