I've just moved house and i now have to move the car. last night i went out and changed the battery earth lead as i have had problems with this before. when i went to the ignition i found that i had left the keys in and i think the inition may have been left on

well the battery was well and truely dead

i used one of my other cars to try and jump start it, but no luck....

my questions are

1. if the battery is totally dead is it possible to jump start the car?

2. if it is possible it is still likely to be the earth lead being a problem with slow turning over.

3. if i have left the ignition on is it possible that i have fried my electronic ingition box and the coil?

i look forward to any advice or comments.

i know... im a fool for leacing the keys on the car but hey ho thats life

Ditch

If you have a car engined car (CEC) I've heard leaving on the ignition will fry the coil... I could be wrong though. Should have no effect on the ignition circuitry IMO.

Steve

[Edited on 27-4-06 by Hellfire]

Unless you're running points your coil should be fine.
Once a modern car battery is dead, its never the same again, it'll probably need replacing. They never hold as much charge as they did when new.
I'd hazard a guess that it'll be difficult to jump a car with a dead battery, I've never managed it ;(

Wasnt the old trick after a battery had been deep discharged to charge it up and then drain it with a high load (ie headlamps) and then repeat a couple of times finalising with a good charge up before using again.

As said they are not designed to deep discharge so wont be the same but it may restore it a bit.

I was told that caravan batteries are different and can be deep discharged.

Almost definately fried the coil!!

As mentioned above, not if you have electronic ignition. I left mine on by accident overnight and had a panic when I spotted it. The coil wasn't even warm and the battery was still up enough to start it. Connect your jump battery to the positive cable and your negative to a chassis or engine earth point, not to the battery terminal it should work same as your original then.

You can jump start a car with a dead flat battery provided you use real pro quality jump leads BUT the battery just won't charge when you disconnect the leads. Most jump leads are to put it mildly as useful as a toilet seat hinge in a nunnery.

You need to charge the battery over at least 24 hours using a modern battery charger designed to deal with modern high tech batteries ---- get down to your local Lidl quick that have very nice battery controlled chargers for a tenner.

Many thanks lads.

the electronic ingition was contactorless using a light sensor so thats good news.

i put it on to charge last night so i will give it a go tonight.

thanks again

ditch

ASlong as you charge the battery slowly it should bring it back up alright. Its when you boost them up or charge them quicly it kills them.

AS said above when you jump start put the neg on the engine rather than the battery.

Ditch,

I have a couple of unused batteries in my garage - they've been lying idle but have been kept reasonably well charged over time.

If your battery is SNAFU'd then give me a U2U and I'll bring them over and we can try them for size.

No £££ - I'll be glad to see one of them go!

cheers,
David

Many thanks lads

david thanks for the offer, i have been busy at the moment and DOH i went out and bought a new one.

car now running, problem appears to be with the carbs and the butterflys not being open enough to allow fuel through.

ditch

Trick to jump starting is good leads, if your engines not turning over with jumpleads its usually because the earth point sucks, make sure you earth to a good point on the block, works for me.

Cheers


David