Bettery Issues - how to Jump start MX5?

Mr Morlock · Postby **Mr Morlock** » Mon Jun 30, 2008 7:06 pm

Li21- yes a sparky to check out your car. PS to those using jumper leads there is more to it than just connecting 4 leads- you can damage vehicles including the donor car- take care. Check the web for step by step.

marcusus · Postby **marcusus** » Mon Jun 30, 2008 10:54 pm

JBT wrote:Point it the other way then

Push start in reverse?

bruce · Postby **bruce** » Tue Jul 01, 2008 1:16 pm

As Nike once proclaimed in the 80's,

Just Do It.

namster · Postby **namster** » Tue Jul 01, 2008 8:45 pm

to hijack this thread (thanks! =) )

After jump starting, i drove around for 1 continuous hour, when the car was switched off, it wouldnt start.
Is the battery gone? not the alternator, right?

TieNN89 · Postby **TieNN89** » Tue Jul 01, 2008 9:20 pm

namster wrote:to hijack this thread (thanks! =) )

After jump starting, i drove around for 1 continuous hour, when the car was switched off, it wouldnt start.
Is the battery gone? not the alternator, right?

depends

whats the voltage of the battery when the car is running

and what is it when its off

I'm pretty sure it should be around the 13 - 14V mark when its running

around 12V when off but of course i'd slowly drop from 14V or whatever it is

Juffa · Postby **Juffa** » Tue Jul 01, 2008 11:23 pm

li21 wrote:Looks like I'm going to have to get it checked out sooner that I thought. Went to start the car 2nite and it wouldnt start yet again.
Drained in a day!

Cant tell whats draining it without help of a sparky, but I noticed the light stalk was stuck on high beam while the car was off.. Mrs was driving and couldnt tell me whter the high beam light was on or not (during day) .. but I doubt it make a diff when the car is off?

The other thing I'll get checked is the alarm i guess

As you have an NA the head lights should not be on unless they are up. However there has been a number of cases where due to wear and tear in the headlight/wiper switches that surround the steering column the headlights have been on, and the lights were not in the upright position. I noticed it first when I saw the blue high beam indicator light glowing on the dash and I didn't have the lights on. Someone else noticed when they had their car in their garage and saw the glow of the headlights on the floor of the garage in the dark. Funny enough a work around was to push the headlight stalk forward when not using the headlights. Oh, it only seemed to happen in hot weather.

Two of my original Panasonic batterys lasted over 10 years each.

J

Jimmy · Postby **Jimmy** » Fri Jul 04, 2008 11:57 am

Sorry to suggest something really obvious but i fell victim to this several times in my old five.

Check to see if your door open lights are off. I accidentally didnt close my door properly one night (while it was still light so i couldn't tell that the lights had come on) and then next morning the battery was dead. I managed to roll start it and tried to diagnose the problem but obviously i had opened and closed the door so the lights were now off. 2 weeks later i did it again. Now i leave the lights off all the time.

cshaks · Postby **cshaks** » Fri Jul 04, 2008 10:50 pm

Fatty wrote:these cars are very light and easy to push.... you could just roll start it.

Give it a go.... offer a couple of mates some beers ( much easier...)
As previously mentioned, see if you can get hold of a multimeter.
Check the voltage at the battery with the engine running.
You should see somewhere around 13-14 volts ( not sure what the exact figure is with a 5, but IIRC most cars sit around 13.5V DC as charging voltage.
Anything under 13V DC means that you should probably get your alternator checked out as it is running low on electrical fluid.

Remember.... set your multimeter to DC voltage, not AC or you will not get a reading.

Cheers
Chris