What's making my battery die after a week of driving? I've charged the battery back up over night but then a week later, it's flat agin. I've had a new alternator belt fitted as the old one was worn and according to an auto electrician, the alternator is putting charge back into the battery, but after about 10 days the car wouldn't start again. All the interior lights extinguish (a check that I've just recently done) so I can't get my head around it. Any ideas?? or should I just purchase a brand new battery and hope for the best?

anthony, February 2009

I'm kind of hoping that its the battery. I've charged the current one (one that came with the car) back up and connected it back up on sunday evening, took the car car out for a run which was runing ok. I started it back up monday night and run it for 5 mins with no problems, then today (tuesday) after all the snow went to start it up and it was dead again.

anthony, February 2009

How old is the battery? The cold weather will knock it out if it's old. Will the head lights work or are they dim?
The Auto electrician can do a current drain test. To see if any electrical component is draining the battery.
To check for a drain shut all the doors and wait for the interior lights to go out and see what the amps reading is this will tell you if anything is draining the battery.To narrow down which circuit is draining you will need to start removing fuses one by one to see if the reading changes.
It should be done with Digital Volt Meter set on the amps scale and connected in series on the battery negative. You should not have more than 0.03 Amps parasitic drain.
http://www.mwautos.webs.com/

Martin @ MWAutos, February 2009

my father had the same with his 106, and all it was is the new car cd player i had fitted, when i bought it from halfords the red and yellow wire was the wrong way round turned them round and is ok now,failing that when he had the battery tested thay said it was ok,when he punched the battery code into his computer it came up with fault, new battery hope this helps

michael findlay, February 2009