Got through a battery on MY00 classic after 2.5 years and then a new one in a month.

Supplier confirmed it was dead rather than flat.

So what causes a brand new battery to be fail rather than go flat. Can an unusual load cause such a new battery to fail or was it just faulty from new ?

Measured drain when car switched off and it's 0.1A so with 60AH battery thats 600 hours assuming it holds voltage all the way till its flat (which it won't).

New battery was dead after not driving it for 10 days (240 hours) so nowhere near stated life.

Is 0.1A battery drain a normal figure ?

Cheers

Mark

 

Mark,
0.1A sounds reasonable, the battery will only be powering the clock (5mA at a guess) and the alarm with the ignition off and doors shut. Batteries don't usually die unless they are duff to start with, are heavily drained until near enough flat then recharged many times, or are left flat for a length of time- lead acid and gel batteries like to be kept well charged.
Very high drain can also warp the lead plates, but you need to be going some to achieve this!
A good quality battery, Hawker Sidley Oldham, Exide etc should last for 5+ years easily with 'normal' use.

Hope this helps
Si

 

Cheers Si

Didn't sound unreasonable to me either - like you say a few bits and pieces and alarm stuff. It was a cheap battery anyway so hopefully just a duff one and all will be ok now.

Cheers

Mark