"Gordon Henderson" wrote in message
...
In article ,
Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
In article
,
Rednadnerb wrote:
I lent my car to my sister who had to call out a mechanic when the car
battery died, he said they can suddenly fail and sold her another one.
There were no warning signs, no sluggishness, always started first
time and she had just driven it 50 miles down the motorway, stopped
briefly, went to restart and nothing, dead.
I've never heard of a battery doing this, has anyone else?

Yes - the original one on my BMW did this just days outside the three year
warranty. Started the car from cold normally and drove to the shops. After
shopping - only about 1/2 hour or so - it was totally flat. I've never had
a battery die like that before. They usually give some warning. In case
someone says there was something up with the charging circuit, it's not
happened with the new battery which is now over 5 years old.

Had this happen aabout 18 months ago - Car (Merc Auto) didn't start
one morning - got a jump start, drove 45 minutes up the M5. Stopped at
a service station for a P break, car wouldn't start again. Got another
jump start- took it directly to Bristol Batterys (bottom of the M32) and
bought a new one. They stuck a tester on the battery (great big springy
resistor and an ammeter!) and one cell started fizzing after half a minute
- so they told me it had gone into reversal (or something). Anyway,
that was good enough for me as I knew the battery was new from the car
purchase (10 year), so I just bought a new one off them on the spot,
put it and and it's been fine ever since...

Gordon

Happened to me as well. The car had done a 200 miles journey. I parked the
car up for 15 minutes and when I went back to it the battery was dead. I
just bump started the car, drove to the motor factors, bought a new battery
(about £40) fitted it and everything was fine 2 years later when I sold the
car. No warnings, no sluggish starts in the morning. The battery just died.

Adam