Omega Owners Forum
Omega Help Area => Omega General Help => Topic started by: nixoro on 07 November 2006, 10:58:50
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Basically my Dads Black omega which I have been doing up seems to have a problem where the battery drains after 2-3 days the car itself is not being used as just yet as its been slowly getting serviced ready for its MOT retest.
Each time I have worked on the car its been run to help keep the battery charged does it sound like a duff battery or could it be the alternator is on its ways out.
More than likely its due to lack of use but i'm abit concerned it could be the battery or the alternator.
Any suggestion would be much appreciated
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Could well be the battery is knackered.
Check the alternator with a meter.
Check for drains - eg interior lights or boot light on...
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Could well be the battery is knackered.
Check the alternator with a meter.
Check for drains - eg interior lights or boot light on...
Cheers Theboy felt silly for asking really
I have already checked for interior lights and the bootlight and they switch off as they should.
The car battery has been charged a few times now so wondering if it is the battery, supposedly the pevious owner fitted a new alternator so that should be ok.
Shall have to get my hands on one of the multimeter jobbies to try resolve the problem although i am tempted just to get a new battery and see how that works out.
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Deffo sounds like the battery is duff. My Omega is used fairly infrequently and the old bettery used to go flat in a few days.
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Much cheaper to get a multimeter............
At the end of the day, its not being used, it will be idling most of the time when it starts and hence the battery will be barely charging....
It would be better to get it running, check the battery charge voltage and use it a bit......
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Much cheaper to get a multimeter............
At the end of the day, its not being used, it will be idling most of the time when it starts and hence the battery will be barely charging....
It would be better to get it running, check the battery charge voltage and use it a bit......
Cheers Marks DTM its going to be MOT'd asap as all the minors it failed on have now been sorted.
So hopefully it will be in daily use very soon.
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Deffo sounds like the battery is duff. My Omega is used fairly infrequently and the old bettery used to go flat in a few days.
Thanks for the response x25xe shall be looking to get a new battery asap.
I am assuming the Vx Go batteries are the ones to go for now.
Its been a while since I was last in halfords so not sure what they sell or recommend.
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The Vx Go batteries are very good....and cheap on trade club......if going to Halfords then remember that the Omega uses a Calcium battery (calcium batteries have a slightly higher charge voltage!)
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Roy, Vx Go bstteries are most certainly the way to go. :)
But.... listen to what Mark said first! ;)
Go buy a multimeter, from £5 up wards (mine cost £15 and is excellent).
Don't go randomly changing parts until you KNOW they are faulty (quoting Mark again).
That approach gets very expensive, and confusing.
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Roy, Vx Go bstteries are most certainly the way to go. :)
But.... listen to what Mark said first! ;)
Go buy a multimeter, from £5 up wards (mine cost £15 and is excellent).
Don't go randomly changing parts until you KNOW they are faulty (quoting Mark again).
That approach gets very expensive, and confusing.
Cheers for the advice Laidback
I am assuming Halfords do the multimeters so shall have a look. Better to confirm whats causing the power drain first as you say.
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I agree, get a multimeter well worth the outlay.
Another thing to check, if you have the sunvisors with lights next to vanity mirrors in them check that these lights are going off. Had a cavalier a few years ago that battery went flat on every few days, eventually traced to the sunvisor light not going off. You should see the light on these go off before the flap covering the mirror is fully closed.
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I agree, get a multimeter well worth the outlay.
Another thing to check, if you have the sunvisors with lights next to vanity mirrors in them check that these lights are going off. Had a cavalier a few years ago that battery went flat on every few days, eventually traced to the sunvisor light not going off. You should see the light on these go off before the flap covering the mirror is fully closed.
Cheers for the tip salty shall have a look on my way home from work. :y
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Nixoro,
I fully agree with what Mark says about the charging and the fact that the car is not used much. However, batteries should be able to hold their charge for more than 3 days (assuming that it is fully charged of course).
Yes, the vauxhall Go batteries are the way to go and this is the very type that I fitted.
However, the multimeter approach is a worthwhile way of moving forward. If you have not go a multimeter, I have a number of multimeters around that I do not use - one of them could be yours for the price of postage. They are good, general purpose meters, measuring volts amps resistance etc.
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For automotive use, I never pay more than £3.99 for a digital multimeter.
For real electronics,I pay proper money for, but accuracy to that level is not necessary for automotive...
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Nixoro,
I fully agree with what Mark says about the charging and the fact that the car is not used much. However, batteries should be able to hold their charge for more than 3 days (assuming that it is fully charged of course).
Yes, the vauxhall Go batteries are the way to go and this is the very type that I fitted.
However, the multimeter approach is a worthwhile way of moving forward. If you have not go a multimeter, I have a number of multimeters around that I do not use - one of them could be yours for the price of postage. They are good, general purpose meters, measuring volts amps resistance etc.
Cheers for the advice x25xe
The car battery was left on charge over night using a brand new charger so I would hope it was fully charged when we put it back in.
The car itself has been sat for a while on my dads drive whilst getting it ready for the MOT but has been run at the weekends and midweek..
The car was last run on saturday and last night was almost dead as the central locking only just worked.
Thankyou for the kind offer of the multimeter i may still take you up on the offer but having spoken to my dad who is at home today he has got a mate coming over that has one, they are going to try find what the problem is so fingers crossed.
Thanks again
Roy :)
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No worries.
Based on what you have said about it being fully charged and the fact that there are no lights left on, and what you say about being run and the central locking - this was exactly how mine was.
New battery time me thinks.
Whatever you do, good luck and keep us posted as to how you get on.
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Try having a word with one of your local battery depot specialists. Thoughth i had a duffy battery in my last car, took it to them battery place where they connected a fancy testing device and declaired it well, and then, and only as a last thing did the nasty drop test with the big resistor thing - still ok, so they wouldn't sell me a battery. Top marks to that place :y
Starting problem went away on its own.
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Try having a word with one of your local battery depot specialists. Thoughth i had a duffy battery in my last car, took it to them battery place where they connected a fancy testing device and declaired it well, and then, and only as a last thing did the nasty drop test with the big resistor thing - still ok, so they wouldn't sell me a battery. Top marks to that place :y
Starting problem went away on its own.
Cheers for the advice am tempted to do as suggested as there is a similar company close to me near home. :y
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Well never got the car tested yesterday but I did get it running again as a temporary measure I ran it around the block a couple of times and tick over was fine.
Obviously still got to get it tested to find the power drain but atleast i got it running last night.
Checked all the lights were going off properly as suggested ie boot light, internal light and vanity mirrors.
The headlights were replaced as the old units were an MOT failure could this be contributing to the problem although will never know without testing.