Hi Everyone,

I discovered this morning that my battery has completely discharged over the past couple of days. I last used the car (V-reg 1.8 ELX) on Saturday when it started very easily, but this morning when I got to it the first indication was that the central locking didn't kick in and only the driver's door unlocked.

I assumed that this was a problem with the central locking, but when I tried to fire up the car the lights on the instrument panel lit up only very faintly and there was just a faint ticking from the engine compartment.

So the question is, is it possible for the battery to completely discharge in the damp over a few days (all electrical items turned off during that time) or does it sound like I've got a failure in the battery cell and therefore need a new battery?

Finally, am I going to have any ECU problems or have to reset any warning lights (airbag, etc.) if I replace the battery?

Thanks for any advice,

Mike.

If your battery is not fully discharged then i would sujest one get a new battery and 2 get a memory battery from the same place you get the battery from. it normally has a 9 V square battery or 9 AA batterys and connects to the car positive / negative terminals. keeps it going long enough to replace the battery.

When I swapped my battery out I expected to have to re key the radio. It only takes about 1/2 hour to swap and when I turned the radio back on, no probs. Same with ECU, turned blue key and bingo. Always fit a good quality branded battery remember you can get killed on a motorway with a dead car and after assembly put vaseline over the terminals. If you dont have time to paint any rust you can put some vaseline over that at the same time. Although "petroleum jelly" is always recomended I have used oridinary lithium grease and it works fine.

Just a quick update on what's happened.

I called the AA in on Saturday morning and once we managed to pull the bonnet open (something had seized so the spring wouldn't work) the guy measured 2.1V across the terminals. He gave it a boost and ran the engine for a while then did a check on battery drain which turned out to be minimal. However, in the 5 minutes it took him to complete the drain check with the engine turned off the battery lost nearly 2V, so the conclusion was a defunct battery. In fact, it looked like it was probably the original which ain't bad on a V-reg.

Got a new one fitted and everything seems to working perfectly normally.

OK, not sure if this is part of the cause of my battery drain, but I've just gone out in the car tonight and discovered that the lights on my radio are permanently on, even when the key's out of the ignition. I doubt there's enough drain from that to discharge the battery in a couple of days, but I'm still a bit concerned about it. Anyone got any ideas on what could cause it and what I can do to sort it out?

Cheers.

The standard headunit has a expert settings option. the link below has a list of what they are i'm pretty sure you will find what your looking for in it.

https://www.fiatforum.com/marea-technical/40862-standard-ice-help-marea-brava.html?highlight=secret

The Beast said:

The standard headunit has a expert settings option. the link below has a list of what they are i'm pretty sure you will find what your looking for in it.

https://www.fiatforum.com/marea-technical/40862-standard-ice-help-marea-brava.html?highlight=secret

Click to expand...

Thanks for that, but it doesn't look like any apply. It's as though something's not getting the signal that the ignition's off so although the radio itself switches off the backlight stays.

Anyway, I've finally decided that it's getting a bit too expensive to run, with nearly £1200 in repairs within the last 12 months (£750 for air-con, new front pads and disks, new brake lines and lambda sensor test and replace: £367 for a new full exhaust minus the cat: £50 for a new battery). I've now got this to sort out and it's due an MOT and the cam belt change service in a few weeks, so I think it's time to sell.

Sell and you lose all that money you invested. You've fixed a lot of things that won't need fixing again for years and years. What's to say you won't buy another car and have to fix everything you've already fixed on this one?

Keep the car as long as possible, as you get to know it you can run it better easier and less expensivley. You could get another Fiat radio from a scrapper, or fit an inline switch and see how the software gets around that!. In fact thinking about it I wonder if there is a reset problem on the radio after power off and re entering the key and re-booting may fix it?
As for getting another car and all worries are over, in South Africa they say if it's got tits or wheels it's going to cost you.

Modern Batteries fail suddenly unlike batteries of old that would slowly give you a warning that they were on their way out. Batteries take a bigger hit in the winter when it gets cold, and any battery past its best will show up here.
When changing a battery, use a memory plugin to keep codes etc.
Correct battery is an "063" type.

Andy.

I had a sudden death with a batery 2 months ago, car started perfectly, no slow turn over and its diesel, went to shops, parked came back 15 min later completly dead, fitted new battery no problem since,(used 1 of those external power memory savers).

Renegade_8 said:

As for getting another car and all worries are over, in South Africa they say if it's got tits or wheels it's going to cost you.

Click to expand...

lol, noted for future reference.

Hellcat said:

Sell and you lose all that money you invested. You've fixed a lot of things that won't need fixing again for years and years. What's to say you won't buy another car and have to fix everything you've already fixed on this one?

Click to expand...

i know so many people who've done exactly that and they never learn.
buy a banger, spend a fortune, sell it, buy another banger, spend a fortune, sell it etc etc. pure madness

A battery only needs one dead cell and its curtains, if you had fitted a new one and it still ran flat then you would be looking at the starter or alternater
as the fault.