flat batterys

[mick19691]

went to start the surf after work today and batterys were completely flat managed to get someone to jump start me drove home left surf for a couple of hours then she started straight away got up this morning flat batterys again alternator is charging batterys but when left over night or all day thay are flat any ideas would be great
thanks
mick

[dave.j.robbo]

Sounds to me like you might need a couple of new batteries..

Might be just one knackered which is dragging the other one down as well..

[joker??]

new battery time methinks

[namira]

I would have the batteries properly checked at a garage as they can do a load test there but if you have a volt meter set it on DC volts and measure the voltage with the engine switched off. You should have 12.5+ish across the terminals.
Start it if you can and run it for a while to charge it. Turn the engine off then get someone to crank it for you and see if the voltage drops back to below 11.5 ish (10.5 is flat) while the starter is turning over the engine, if so your battery is not holding its charge.
If you can borrow a hydrometer (they are cheap to buy) check each cell, the reading should not vary by much, fully charged is 1265 ish . Not all have specific gravity markings on just the colours red (flat ) green(charged) and amber so what your looking for is for the float to settle at about the same place for each cell. If it does not then you have “a cell gone” which means your battery is kaput.
Don’t dribble the acid onto yourself that you suck up to do the test and put it back in the same cell you took the reading from , don’t discard it.
If your batteries are newish ,not more than four years old and have caused probs before it maybe that your system is overcharging them.

[Wild Thing]

went to start the surf after work today and batterys were completely flat managed to get someone to jump start me drove home left surf for a couple of hours then she started straight away got up this morning flat batterys again alternator is charging batterys but when left over night or all day thay are flat any ideas would be great
thanks
mick

Probably is the batteries fubared, but it is possible that something is draining them ie interior lights

[mick19691]

flat batterys

cheers fellas it was one of the batterys that was k-nackered draining the other
thanks again
mick