4th April had flat battery. Not surprised as 4 years old. AA patrol got me going, said alternator is fine, battery not holding charge. Got myself to Halfords who replaced battery.

All ok, then 10th May left car at airport while on holiday. Came back two weeks later. Flat battery! AA patrol again got the car started, tested alternator and again was charging battery but he tested the battery with a meter and said it wasn't holding charge. Print off stated 'replace battery. So I went back to halfords and told them my 8 week old battery is a dud. They then tested it with their own meter and it passed. The blokie said it is holding 72% charge which while low for a nearly new battery, is not low enough to indicate a maufacturing fault. I was not happy to get two contradictory 'expert' reports, but bottom line is that Halfords refused to relplace the battery.

So now I'm thinking of taking it to Fiat to see if there could be an underlying problem causing this lack of full battery charging. If the alternator is working as the AA stated and the battery is not faulty as Halfords stated, then what else could it be?

Before I take the car to Fiat and get bamboozled with pseudo-science which ends up with me being relieved of £1000 for them to stick a bit of tin foil to a bit of wire, does anyone know possible causes so that I can go to Fiat without appearing to be totally gullible.

Ta!

Not being of sound mechanical mind all I can suggest is contacting a reputable mechanic around your local area and seeing what their thoughts are.

Sorry if this hasn't been helpful.

Return to halford and put your foot down.

Battery is obviously not fit for purpose. If it can't sit for a week and start car then its useless.

If it's charging fine and the battery holds charge fine then something is making the battery discharge when the engine is turned off ie something is "live" when it shouldn't be.

IS THE FULL VOLTAGE GETTING TO THE BATTERY?
Check voltage between battery pos and a shiny metal part on engine (not between the the battery pos and neg)

Looking for around 14v plus on running warm engine


and at least 13v with big electrical load on like HRS and headlights

DISCHARGE
Disconnect the battery neg when you leave the car overnight and see if it holds its charge, check battery voltage before and after, if it's around 12.6v after an overnight rest then battery is proven to hold charge and something is staying on when it shouldn't be. So you need to see what is drawing current when engine is off. Bad CAN bus nodes are known to not go to sleep when they're told to and continue to draw current. Do a search for a few threads on those

WHAT CURRENT?
Check what current is being drawn when everything is turned off. Disconnect the battery neg and place an ammeter between the lead and the battery neg post.

EASY ONES
Check obvious things like radio or boot light isn't staying on

MOD SUSPECTS
Disconnect any after market installs you've done like after market ICE or alarms etc so you can eliminate them first.

Then gradually and systematically remove fuses to see which system is drawing the currrent

It is also a good idea to check a battery when you purchase it. It should hold at least 12.6 volts when they hand it over to you. If it's lower it is dead - in my opinion.

hi there just to let you know i have the same problem, i have had the alternator replaced and 2 new batteries, the problem i have is that sometimes you can leave it for a few days or weeks and its fine and sometimes if you leave it overnight its flat !! obviously there is a current being drawn from it intermittently which i presume is being caused by a circuit being left open sometimes!!
in a previous post somebody has said to check the "CAN bus nodes"
if somebody could advise further on that or offer any more advise that would be brill as i am pulling my hair out !!

thanks
stevie