Car not starting, help please?

[marshadee]

Hi All,


I've got an issue with my car, now I've never had this issue before so just wanted some advice before I go to the dealership.

I haven’t drove my car for about 2 weeks and yesterday when I started it all was good. Then I got to the petrol garage to get some petrol. When i got back into the car my friend was listening to the radio and when I tried to start the car, nothing happened. So I presume I have a flat battery, I mean I can hear the connection, but not the normally turning over of the car sound. The only way I can describe the noise was like an electrical noise. So in the end I had to bump start the car which wasn't easy for my friend lol, good job the garage forecourt was on a slight hill (my car is a S5, 58 plate, manual V8).

So I drove the car for around 30 minutes up and down the motorway and finally stopped at the shops thinking the battery would be ok now. Well I was wrong, car wouldn’t start again, same issue as before. This time it wasn’t so easy to bump start. Anyway in the end I managed to start the car and drove it home and parked her up on my drive. I thought I’d try again once I’d turned the car off to see if it would start. To my surprise it did. Then I turned her off again and tried once more, this time it didn’t start.

As I said earlier, I’ve never had this issue before, ever. Do you think due to this cold weather my battery is just knackered? I mean it could be the first battery the car has ever had.

Would appreciate your feedback guys.

Thanks in advance

 

[NHN]

Stick the battery on a ctek charger & finish the 8 step cycle, then it should be ok, unless the battery is faulty, try this 1st, if battery is faulty, get a new one & make sure you charge fully with ctek 1st or when home & then use it, as batteries new are not always optimally charged.

 

[marshadee]

Thanks for your prompt reply NHN. Are the batteries genuinely good then, so a recharge should solve my issue?

Other than Ebay, where can I get one of these charges from (I’m from London)?

Also, I had a quick look under the bonnet yesterday but couldn’t see the battery, where about is it?

 

[cav1]

Battery is in the boot under the spare wheel.

Do you have a multimeter? It sounds like you alternator is ok but this is a quick way to check your charging ok too.
Select the 20 DCV scale and connect it to the battery terminals.
A healthy battery should show around 12.6 volts and when you're running it should show 14 -14.8 volts. this should stay steady or increase slightly as you load it with Stereo, heaters, lights etc.
If that shows Ok then it sounds like just a battery and next step is either test and recover it like NHN's post or a replacement.

 

[NHN]

www.tayna.co.uk are good for batteries.

 

[marshadee]

Unfortunately I dont have a multimeter, but I may have a friend who does, so Ill go down that route first. thanks for your input Cav1, very helpful.

NHN - having looked at that link, from the audi option it only states S3 S4 S6 and S8 but no S5, is the S4 battery the same then?

 

[cav1]

yeah should be the same.
UK battery code is either
017 - 353mm L x 175mm W x 190mm H around 800cca (cranking amps) 95 amp
019 or 020 (a heavy duty 017 basically) which should be around 850cca 110 amp

 

[marshadee]

thnaks mate, appreciate it

 

[marshadee]

one other questtoon, if the battery does need replacing, is it just a straight swap of old with new or does it require more technical stuff to allow all the MMI and stuck to still work?

 

[cav1]

not done it myself but this is a good write up : http://www.a5oc.com/forums/a5-s5-topics/42834-battery-replacement.html

 

[marshadee]

thanks mate, seems I'm better off buying a ctek first and charge it, that way i dont have to mess around with taking it out and having the possibility of the MMI system not working.