The Joshua Tree

My neighbour bought a brand new Ford Fiesta in Sept 2015 from a Ford main dealer, it's only just gone over 2 years old. The battery has just started to play up, a couple of times the car has needed a jump start, iv'e jump started it once myself.

She rang the Ford main dealer this morning to see if it is covered under warranty, they said that it is covered upto 3 years but their are some but's. They said that they will put it on a diagnostic machine, they then went on to say that if the problem is down to her driving style then they will charge her £110 to replace the battery.

That sounds bizarre to me, it's either covered under the warranty or it isn't. So basically they could turn round to anyone with a problem, and then go on to say that the issue you have is down to your driving style.

What's her best approach to deal with this particular Ford Dealer if they start to try and duck the issue and say it's down to her driving etc ?

Tidgy

batterys need to maintain a decent amount of charge, lots of short joureys are never good for a car battery because it doesn't get time to charge and im guessing thats what they say.

how they would be able to tell I have no idea, batterys, like clutches and brake pads, typically considered disposable parts so not covered under warranty.

Could always argue that she was never informed to drive the car in a certain way, put the ball back in their court to prove they told her.

o tell her to pop to county batterys or similar, they can give the battery a once over and check for any drains etc prob find they can also advise on dealer warranties etc

iMook

Like a load of things, batteries are normally classed as a consumable, like a clutch or brake disks, pads etc.

I'd suggest she goes to GSF or Euro Car Parts, buys a new battery and then sweet-talks you into replacing it for her

The Joshua Tree

They have already told her that the battery is covered under warranty, the car is only 2 years old, when you buy any new battery you get at least a 3 or 5 year warranty with one anyway. Her warranty with Ford's is with a but though, they said that if the car hasn't been driven properly then it will cost her £110 for a new battery and it won't be covered, i'd like to see how they will try and prove that the car hasn't been driven properly, i've never known any main dealer where you have bought a new car, give you detailed instructions on how to drive the car to prolong the life of things like the battery, it just doesn't happen, very rarely anyway.

iMook

Fair enough

Interesting re how the car was driven. 2 identical cars, same mileage, both 2 years old, same condition inside and out. One has only been used in town and every day and the other has been used a couple of times a week on the motorway.

First one's battery will have had a harder life, but how the hell the garage proves that is beyond me, like you say

Sounds like the garage might be trying to pull a fast one. Is the (typically sexist) "oh it's a woman, let's see what we can get away with".

I don't know why the garage is objecting, because they fix the problem under warranty and then invoice Ford, or the warranty company if it's a used car. Nuts.

Don Clark

Has the battery ever been put on a conditioning charger (eg a ctek) and fully recharged?? May find that that's all it needs...............

Pross

iTrader: (3)

Mother in law got a brand new fiesta couple of years ago, she does maybe 10 miles a month in it!! Twice a month she drives to tesco, and thats about 4 miles.
Never had any battery issues, driving style my ****.

David Lock

Are you able to contact the battery manufacturer and seek their views? dl

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

< cough> does anyone remember the shed load of new age Imprezas with dead batteries? Due to the "Intelligent" Alternator not charging on short journeys. Advice was to drive with the lights on, as the battery wouldn't charge if there was no load on the alternator.

The result of regularly driving round with a partially charged battery is it will shorten its lifespan and reduces its capacity due to sulphation (Google battery sulphation; all lead acid car batteries suffer this, and if found is not warrantied as its a sure sign of neglect by not keeping it above 12.4 volts (resting); lucky for the consumer that most batteries are sealed so cannot be checked for sulphation damage). The majority of car owners have no idea that they are damaging the battery.

So maybe Ford are picking up on this fact. Afterall a "good" battery should last 10years, and I've seen Motorcraft (Ford OEM) batteries last well over 10years, some as old as 15, so for one to fail prematurely would raise my eyebrow (assuming it's a Motorcraft).

Alternators also don't 100% fully charge and equalise car batteries; they never have. They will maintain them though if already charged and not allowed to discharge excessively.


Intelligent charging is now on pretty much all modern cars. Which makes it worse; Especially those with Start/Stop systems. They can have issues with cars used for short trips or when non-genuine/Non-OEM batteries are fitted without proper coding (some cars have the discharge/charge rate of factory batteries coded in which also has aging algorithms, so needs to be programmed and/or reset). Prestige car manufacturers tend to use AGM/VRLA batteries for this reason as they can take higher charge rates, and more tolerant to deep-discharge and sulphation, but even they can fail if allowed to be used in a discharged state for too long.

My advice is to disable the start-stop (keep the A/C on). If you have a Quick-clear front screen raise the revs to 2000rpm when waiting for it to de-ice as these pull a huge amount of current.

Finally, every now and again check battery volts (car off, doors shut, bonnet up and allowed to stand for 15mins so the body-control shuts down), If below 12.5v it needs charging. With a intelligent charger (Accumate or Ctek).