My husband assured me he could change the headlamp on our 2005 model X-type. He then came in twenty minutes later to give me the good and bad news. The good being he had successfully fitted the bulb, and it worked, but that the battery was dead and the car won't start.

Is there any reason at all why this might happen, and anything I/we can do about it before taking it to a garage, please?

TIA.

 

First.....have a neighbor with a charger charge it up over night/ if that works, drive it up to an autozone or similar for battery testing (it's free and they will remove the battery to test it) to eliminate a simple battery purchase and go from there..

Don't let your husband get near the car anymore.

Bruce

 

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Thank you both. I will do both suggestions!!

 

Hi there,
A few months ago I did exactly the same - did a quick simple job, then later went to start the car and the battery was dead.
If on recharging your battery charger says fully charged after 20 mins or so then the battery is likely dead, but you may have enough charge to start the car once and get to a battery supplier - which is exactly what I had to do.. replaced the battery and not a problem since (touch wood :-))

 

(touch wood :-))

Correction.....Knock on wood

 

:-) Thankyou for the correction there..

 

frennick, you can have 2 issues. A common one is the battery getting jarred and failing inside, resulting in dead battery. The other is the battery cables are known to fail on our cars and since he was working right there at the battery, he may have pushed the wiring some and broken an already weak spot in the wiring.

The check that I would tell you to do is to get your hands on a multimeter and set it to VDC (20 or 200 V scale). Now, remove the cover off of the battery box and stick the probes into the connectors for the battery posts. THe multimeter should read 12.6 VDC at this point. Anything less and odds are you have a bad battery. Now, watch the multimeter as you attempt to start the car. Does the battery remain above 12.0 VDC, does it drop to 11.0 to 12.0 VDC, or does it drop to below 11.0 VDC? IF above 12.0 VDC, then odds are you have a bad battery cable. If it falls below 11.0 VDC, then you have a bad battery (even if it is near 11.0, can be a sign of a bad battery). IF the voltage falls 11.0 to 12.0, then you are looking at a possible starter issue.

HOpe this helps. IF you need any more information, let me know.