Technical Car/Motor Issues > Vauxhall Zafira A - 01 1.8 car battery failure modes Accessories and Parts
Thread Author: spamcan61 Replies: 7
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New Wed 7 Apr 10 20:24 
 Vauxhall Zafira A - 01 1.8 car battery failure modes - spamcan61
evenin' all;

This is just idle curiosity really, but wondered if anyone knew what kind of failure could cause a car battery to behave in the following way.:-

Battery suddenly dead on Zafira - 11.9V no load, swapped out for spare battery and Zafira starts fine.


Trickle charge old battery in my shed up to 12.7V.

Leave for a couple of weeks and virtually no voltage drop.

Put battery on my lovely Vectra to test, absoluteley no sign of life, not even solenoid click.

Check battery voltage, still 12.7V???

any ideas anyone?
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New Wed 7 Apr 10 20:35 
 Vauxhall Zafira A - 01 1.8 car battery failure modes - Zero
probably unable to provide sufficient current, check the voltage when under load (ie stick a voltmeter on it when someone cranks it over)
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New Wed 7 Apr 10 21:05 
 Vauxhall Zafira A - 01 1.8 car battery failure modes - spamcan61
Thanks; yes I thought about that just after I'd taken it off the car again :-/. Might try and experiment with a couple of headlamp bulbs to see how long it lasts. I assume it is indeed dropping voltage big time when asked to draw significant current. The 'magic eye' on it still shows green!
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New Wed 7 Apr 10 22:02 
 Vauxhall Zafira A - 01 1.8 car battery failure modes - sherlock47
AFAIK the 'magic eye' only shows the state of charge of a single cell.

My money would probably be on a very high resistance 'crack' in a link between two cells.

In the old days when you could get at individual cells you could have found it and either repaired or bridge out the defective cell.

Keep the meter on it and just turn on lights ( interior, side and then main) to increase the load, and watch the volts drop.
Last edited by: pmh on Wed 7 Apr 10 at 22:03
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New Wed 7 Apr 10 22:13 
 Vauxhall Zafira A - 01 1.8 car battery failure modes - spamcan61
This battery is almost certainly the original one, over 9 years old, so it's had a good innings. The high resistance certainly sound plausible, would explain why the no load voltage is OK. Will see if I have time to have a poke around tomorrow, cheers.
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New Wed 7 Apr 10 23:36 
 Vauxhall Zafira A - 01 1.8 car battery failure modes - Screwloose

I'd go along with that too - a broken cell connector.

Such batteries can be fully charged and able to produce small currents to their full rated capacity - but ask them for starting current and they just drop to zero.
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New Thu 8 Apr 10 09:57 
 Vauxhall Zafira A - 01 1.8 car battery failure modes - spamcan61
Thanks for that, looks like we have consensus here. Might keep it in the shed for powering radio / laptop then if it is likely it can still handle an Ah or two of current drain. Me being the type that doesn't like chucking stuff away like...
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New Wed 7 Apr 10 22:10 
 Vauxhall Zafira A - 01 1.8 car battery failure modes - percy
Even an AC Delco battery has to give up some time! Zero is probably correct, a high resistance joint has developed somewhere within the casing. The magic eye indicates the specific gravity of the electrolyte, which is fine, but can't tell you about the ability to deliver current. Modern cars appear to draw quite a lot of amps even before you attempt to operate the starter motor. Probably time to re-cycle it (battery, not car!).
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