A couple of weeks ago, I mentioned on the ‘battery care’ thread that I had just bought a Bosch S4 battery for Mrs H’s Focus. The battery in place was the original Ford Motorcraft Superstart – it was 11yr 4m old and I had decided that while there was a special offer on the Bosch S4, then it was time to stop tempting fate. There hadn’t been any starting problems with the Focus, though the battery’s ‘magic-eye’ was showing red which I understand means ‘the battery is discharged’.
I had been told that the new Bosch had been charged, and that it was ready to go on the car but, just to make sure, I hooked it up to the Lidl battery charger; this indicated an incomplete charge, and spent the next 6 hours getting it to ‘fully-charged’.
I swapped batteries, re-set the radio code and turned the ignition key ……… now, I don’t know if this was psychological, but the dashboard seemed to light more brightly and the engine fired up with great gusto. My wife drove to town and back and reported that the car seemed to be ‘generally going better’ and even pulling away more willingly.
Whilst I was happy that the original battery had lasted so long, I just wonder if there had been an almost imperceptible dropping off in performance and if there really is something in electively changing your battery at, say, 5 years??? Anyone got any views? I must admit, I had never thought of a ‘tired(?)’ old battery as having any effect other than giving poor starting.
When I put the old battery onto charge, a full charge was indicated after less than an hour – though the magic eye was still showing red. I wonder if the battery was on its way out and if we had just swapped it in the nick of time.
BTW, I note that the price of an S4 has gone up again with EuroCar Parts, but Carparts4less still have them at less than £40; best to shop around.
Last edited by: VxFan on Mon 9 Dec 13 at 12:50
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