On friday I headed over to a friends place - car started good. After around two hours later when leaving my friends the car would not start (various lights a flashing) - checked the battery (installed Sept 2016) was reading 10.8 volts.

Charged the battery with my friends charger, started the car and headed home. Picked up a new battery at Lordco for $267 inc. taxes and installed it.

Placed the old battery on charge with a regular charger and charged to full. Left the battery overnight, in the morning read 10.8 volts again. Put my CTEK on it using the reconditioning mode and let it complete it's cycle.

Placed CTEK on regular mode and left it do it's thing. Disconnected CTEK and let the battery stand overnight.

This morning battery reads 12.81 volts which according to tinternet is fully charged. It would be interesting to see if the cranking amps are back to any where near normal.

My old battery did the same kind of thing in 2016 - dead at 10.8 volts.

 

Well, you could do the smart thing and dispose of it (properly), or you could be like me and put it in your junk cupboard with the idea that maybe some day you'll need an all but dead battery.

CC

 

I do this! I think I now have..... five batteries I don't need, two of which operate fine but I don't have a vehicle for them. The other three are deadernshit.

 

You're lucky you managed 8 years out of it.

 

The old one lasted about the same - that's assuming the battery was the original to the car from 2009 and when I purchased December 2015.

In hindsight I wish I'd tried the CTEK re-conditioner before getting the new batt - would be interesting to see how effective the recon mode is.

Might use the old battery on my sail boat for cranking the diesel inboard as a test - loads of room in the engine bay.

Could always use it as a aft anchor.

 

10.8V on a freshly charged battery is indicative of one cell failing. As you discovered, it is sometimes possible to recover the dead cell with a good smart charger but any recovery will be temporary and the cell will fail again very quickly once placed in a high load situation. I've tried it and failed.

Richard