So I went to take my car for an MOT this morning and the battery was completely flat.

I quickly took a multimeter to it and it was 1 volt!

I only drove the car 2-3 weeks ago, so it's not like it's been sitting for a long time to get down to that level from not being used.

I've got 2 questions:

- Any ideas as to what may have caused it to drop so dramatically? (I have a tracker, but surely it can't draw that must power)

- Will it be possible to charge the battery up from 1 volt? (was thinking of getting one of the Ring Smart Chargers?) Or shall I just buy a new battery?

Thanks in advance for any help!

 

Maybe a boot light or interior light was left on ? slowly charge her back up if its a good battery.

 

Thanks - Couldn't find anything switched on when I looked after I found it was flat, but will have a further look later.

Will give the battery charging a go, hopefully it will be ok, have read about issues with chargers having problems with batteries with such a low voltage.

 

Can't get the charger to recognise it, just seems to flash 0's when it's connected to it (doesn't say what this means in the charger manual)

Do I assume that battery is completely dead?

 

If the battery is totally flat then no, most chargers will not bring it back to life. Some chargers will pulse charge to try and bring it back up but I doubt it will work if you are only reading 1v.

I'd think it has a drain on the system somewhere, just a knackered battery will not drop as low as 1v, they will normally stay pretty constant until you put it under load, which is when it will drop off.

 

Mines the same and after two weeks flat I just leave a ceetek trickle on it. If battery on its way out surely alarm and other things would then drain it to flat.

 

Two to three weeks is a long time if your alarm is armed and pulling half an amp or so!

 

Thanks guys, replaced battery and have left on trickle charge, will have a look for drain when I have a bit more time.

Strange thing is, now the old battery is removed, it's reading 6 volts - weird...