My car battery is the sealed type that has a little spy hole with a green light in it. Until yesterday the green light was clearly visible but today it seems to have gone out
Does this mean the battery is dying? The car still starts and everything seems to work ok but I don't want to be dumped powerless on the motorway one day.
If in doubt, and you are concerned, take it to a battery supplier and ask them to check it for you.
Obviously you will have to trust them not to lie to you, but not all of them just want to rip you off.
Its unlikely that the car will just stop on the motorway without some warning signs, like turning over slower than normal in the mornings, or lights getting dimmer etc. But get it checked by someone who knows, just for your peace of mind.
Dont take it to Kwik fit or Halfords though, most of these big companies will tell you it is buggered even if it isnt. Find a small "family run" company for some honest advice. Smaller companies dont tend to rip people off because they rely on "word of mouth" for repeat trade.
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.....unless to offer a hand, to help them up
Thanks...there's no dot at all at the moment. The window is just black. I took the car for a drive today and checked it again when I got back to see if it had come back on but it is still black. The car starts and runs fine with no warning lights anywhere so a bit of a mystery.
I have a good raport with my local main dealer so I will pop it in there on Monday and hopefully they will check it out for me.
Quote: Originally posted by trottster on 15/3/2014
The green is for when they are in storage from New not when they are in service
Thanks for that. The car is coming up for 5 years old but I have only had it for a year. I don't know how old the battery is but the green light has been showing all year until today. I don't drive a lot so the car sits around doing nothing for 2-3 days at a time sometimes which might cause some drain on the battery.
I have looked online and some people say the battery needs changing and some say they have run batteries for 10 years after the green light went out so it's a bit confusing.
I think there was a comment about it being there to give an indication of the state of the battery while in storage so hopefully the battery is fine.
I suppose if it was an ordinary battery without a light I wouldn't know any difference and wouldn't be worrying about it, would I - lol
The Magic Eye® (originally designed by motorcraft) that is used in batteries provides 4 stages of indication, they are: 1. Green: battery is charged and the acid level is good. 2. Yellow: Battery is partially dis-charged and the acid level is good. Re-charge the battery or drive the vehicle. 3. Red: Battery is dis-charged and the acid level is good. Charge the battery. 4. Clear and bright: Acid level is low!!! Add distilled water if possible. If not, change out the battery. Do not charge or jump start the battery!!!
While the Magic Eye® is only located in one cell, it is still quite accurate for indicating the state of charge of all cells as they are within 95% of the same condition. If there is a catastrophic failure such as an internal short circuit, the battery would be bad, but the eye would still show green as the density of the acid is still technically correct.
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If I have understood that correctly...if there is no colour showing in the window (just looks black) and the battery is sealed and cannot be refilled, I need a new battery?
Quote: Originally posted by Hacksaw Bob on 15/3/2014
Think it means your battery needs a new LED (or whatever that Magic Eye® thingy is)!
That could well be the case - lol - but I will get it properly checked out on Monday. Although my car is only a micra it is a top of the range and has electric everything so needs a good battery.
I have done more research online and there are so many different opinions that I am coming to the conclusion that unless the electrics start playing up or the car gets difficult to start then the battery is probably fine...after all, not all batteries have magic eyes.
A friend of mine who owns a motor accessory shop, which he took over from his father, so has been in the business for around 40 years, tells me that he sees customers changing batteries at around 5 to 6 years old.
Found this out recently when my Son's Ford Connect Van 2006 vintage was having a problem turning the engine over on cold mornings.
We had a few goes at giving the battery a number of 24hr charges using a intelligent charger, the battery was OK then for a few days, but soon started to play up again.
From what I could tell the battery was the OEM MotorCraft battery, but who knows.
ATS quoted £97 for a replacement, my mate at the accessory shop did it for £55 but there again there are so many brands.
Point is the van starts fine now, and the new battery has been on for 6 weeks.
I have just remembered that I have a voltmeter somewhere so I can check the battery charge later today although that won't tell me the state of the cells of course.
It probably doesn't help that my micra is the type which has sloping back headlights and water drips down between the headlights and the bonnet straight onto the negative terminal of the battery. Water also runs off the bulkhead below the windscreen directly into the cups where the shock absorber nuts are. These cups are usually full of water but surprisingly aren't showing any signs of rust yet.
This model is no longer produced and it doesn't surprise me...really bad design faults around the engine compartment area.
I contacted the garage this morning and they said not to worry too much about the green light as they are not reliable. They said if I took the car in they would test the battery for me. This they did and apparently the battery is holding a good charge of 12.4v but could do with charging up. The reason is that the car isn't usually driven enough to keep the battery fully charged.
I was told that if I drove the car for about two hours with the headlights on, that would cause the battery to be charged up. Doesn't sound right to me but I have no plans to drive for two hours anyway...probably cheaper to buy a new battery than use two hours of fuel
So...result is to forget the green light and keep driving but check the voltage now and then and if it starts getting too low charge it up...the garage said they would do that for free. However, the battery is probably 5 years old so may need replacing soon anyway.
if the battery is only 12.4v then it sounds like its coming to the end of its life even though a car has a 12v battery the reading should be 12.8 any less than 12.5 is half charged, check when the engine is running it should read about 14.5v any higher and it could be alternator /regulator probs. when a battery is 12v that means its flat. sometimes you will get no warning one minute it starts gets you to the shops next ready to go home and it won't start. just for peace of mind i would change the battery.
Thank you kbcalypso. I was told by the garage that 12.4 was 75% charged. They didn't check it while running but I will do that tomorrow with my own voltmeter. I am a member of the RAC if the battery fails when I'm out...about time I got some use out of them
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Topic: Car Battery
