Technical Made it another year without a problem..till last week ;(

[jadento]

So my left rear brakes have been squealing for weeks. Popped by my mechanics two fridays ago and he looks quickly and says...yeah the discs and pads are knackered. Quotes me 150 quid plus vat parts and installation. I told him I would let him know. Did some quick looking online and I could not hardly get the two discs and pads for that price so I let him do it. He takes care of it for me while I was on vacation last week. I come home and have a chat with him and he says the car barely started when he went to move it after sitting 3 days(dropped it before I left for vacation). Said he put it on a charger all day and it still did not register as fully charged. Kinda interesting cause I thought I had noticed in the past couple months that it was starting slower. Also have noticed some weird warning lights sometimes right after it cranks. Like the Temp sensor, or traction control, etc...Guess the battery was being pulled below 12V on cranking the motor and the ECU didn't like it. Having already replaced the alternator I had read some stuff on batteries and the fact that fitters always seem to try and fit a much smaller battery which is what the charts call for. Talked to my fitter and sure enough the battery his supplier recommended was much smaller than my original one. Anyhow I ordered a Silver F18 as recommended on here. I fitted it myself this afternoon. WOW!!! the engine cranks like it never has before now!

Anyhow, 175 quid for the brakes and 102 quid for the battery and I seem to be going strong again. Hope it makes it another year without problems! I know tyres are next. But that's normal wear and tear. Well I guess so are brakes and the battery. Not Fiats fault. But the obscure costly parts could be!

 

[Daveof49]

Interesting about your battery. I have just had a similar thing happen to me in that the battery seemed to have lost all its umph. This also happened to me last year. I was just about to spend around £100 on a new battery but just before I did I thought I would check the water level in the battery and sure enough it was below the plates. I topped it up with distilled water and charged it up. Keeping a regular check on the chargers ammeter it looked as if the battery was taking the charge ok. Left it on charge for about 4 hours, refitted it and it had lasted for about seven months until yesterday when exactly the same thing happened. I topped it up, recharged it and it appears to be ok, started first time this morning but I suppose the big test will be when I leave work tonight!

I dont suppose anyone else has experienced this with the battery water levels dropping below the plates every 6 months or so. There are no leaks that I can see and the car, Croma 1.9 diesel 8v, appears to be charging ok (not overcharging as far as I can tell). It certainly is the first car I have had that has done this.

 

[s130]

Not noticed this myself however I would be concerned about having to nurse any battery on a Croma. The Croma alternator seems to be a common failure after about 4 years and this just so happily coincides with typical battery life expectation.

It is a shame there is not a charge / discharge ammeter as standard on cars from the 60's and 70s. If there were we could watch the typical average charge current increase over time and intervene before the poor old alternator is running flat out or at higher average loads all the time.