Battery problem?

[Finless]

I have a 2003 A4 Avant B6 2.4 ltr/petro/auto.

The car wouldn't start this morning. The starter motor is turning but not engaging the engine (sounds a bit like a hammer drill).

I'm assuming that this is caused by a low-on-power battery or could it be a starter motor solenoid problem?

Why oh why oh why don't they make a gear select option on autos for bump starting?

[Finless]

I've got a battery charger on it but don't know if it is doing anything at the moment (not been used for 20 years).

[Finless]

I was able to borrow a widget from my Big Bro that jump started the car so that proved it was a battery problem (RIP old battery - I didn't even know you were ill).

I also got given a 'spare & relatively new battery' (poss from a Transit) which is the same physical size BUT was completely flat. I had it on charge for quite a while (not connected to the car) and the charge light never got past the second light (out of five). Does that mean this battery is probably faulty? I should’ve got my multimeter out to check what the charger was putting out.

I've started looking for another battery but there are loads to choose from. Internet pundits say cheap batteries are crap and ......

In short, does anybody have recommendation for a good brand or is there Forum discount available anywhere? I wouldn't say I'm a cheapskate or anything but ........

Is there any way to check if there is unusually high drain on the battery when parked overnight?

[Crasher]

Why oh why oh why don't they make a gear select option on autos for bump starting?

because an auto gearbox cannot work like that...

[Finless]

because an auto gearbox cannot work like that...

Why oh why oh why did they ever get rid of starting handles? :-)

[Crasher]

I wonder how you bump start an electric car.....

[GeorgeE]

I wonder how you bump start an electric car.....

You joke, but the Leaf (and presumably other electric vehicles) relies on a 12v battery to close the contactor on the traction battery, so if it goes flat it can't close the contactor to enable the dc-dc converter to charge the 12v battery..... So the manual does indeed include instructions on how to jump start it! (as an aside, not helped by the fact that the DC-DC converter setup on the Leaf is a bit c*** so doesn't do a very good job of charging it, and the 12v battery fitted is quite small and not very good either.....)

[Crasher]

If you have experience of a Leaf, do you know if the brake discs get very rusty due to high usage of the regenerative braking? A few of my pals in the trade have mentioned corroded brakes.

[GeorgeE]

It can be a problem but i haven't seen it personally, the regen braking doesn't do much when the battery is over 90% charged so if you start the day fully charged you will be using the standard friction brakes to start with anyway and we live at the top of a hill. I think the problem is/will be worse with the 40KWh model as it has massively more powerful regen braking which supports the single pedal driving mode, so the normal brakes will see even less use. There are reports of people with early cars getting over 100k miles from a set of brakes, but then there are others complaining it needs new discs when the pads have loads of wear on them which supports the rust theory - mind you the last person on the Leaf forum who complained about it had 79k on the car so really not unreasonable for a set of original discs and pads!