Have you experienced a flat 12 volt battery with your Mk 4.

[richardfrost]

I cannot understand spending over £20,000 on a car and doing less than 1,000 miles in it in a year. I have been amazed at the tendency for some Jazz owners to replace their cars every 2 years. When I bought my last Jazz, there was an old dear having her perfectly fine 2 year old red Mk2 being replaced by an almost identical brand new one. The dealer just smiled at me when I asked why she would do that.

If you are doing really low mileages, just use taxis, ask a friend to take you or hire a car, if public transport is not practical for you!

[davejazz]

Let's try and clear this up once and for all.

Don’t know if I am setting the bar high or low with my experience!

Jazz, ,May22, EX, Manual gearbox, (I lied about that bit, but at least I have your attention) , 3200 miles.

Arrived back in the U.K. a fortnight ago, having left my car, parked up, on my driveway, for 29 days.

Looking at the Manchester weather, from sunnier climes,( as you do ); I saw that they were having the equivalent of, The Beast from the East. It’s difficult not to feel smug, but I try.

The bones of all this...

I always park the car in the drive at home, with the electric handbrake off. This saves that annoying clunk, when you first drive away;  the pads having glued themselves to the discs.
The only other thing, that is not automatic for me, is that I switched off the keys. (Thanks for the tip on here)
I always turn off the headlights last job, to save that last 15 seconds depletion of the 12v. battery.

So there we have it. A month in bitterly cold weather. (The car, not me!)

Without any hesitation, pushed the launch button, YES, and reversed out of the drive, cleaning the rust off the discs as I went. 

So the only 12v. battery saving, that I am SURE gives a small help, is the lights off.

So there’s my experience, a month in the bitter cold, without the starting handle, or the AA.

Just love the car.

[Lord Voltermore]

The following site gives some of the reasons modern cars drain their  battery so quickly when left idle.   The drain may be small but its a drain car batteries did not have to supply only a few years ago.  and its 24/7  - Thats 720 hours of drain at maybe 0.1 amp in  30 days.    It adds up.

There is also a chart that shows how quickly  this can happen even on quite large lead acid batteries.  The results may shock you  (excuse pun).   
https://homebatterybank.com/how-fast-will-a-car-battery-drain/

[Jocko]

I am lucky in that I have off-road parking. I park right outside my workshop which has power. Attached to the back of the fixed door is a SMART charger and the plug and cable come through a hole and connect to a socket permanently connected to the car battery. Before I ever open the gate I unplug the charger and as soon as I park the car I reconnect the charger. I have been here 18 months and never had a starting issue, even with my six-year-old Jazz battery. You can just make out the cable in this photograph, coming out below the shelf on the fixed door.

[Bristol_Crosstar]

What type/make of Battery Charger would you guys recommend?

I have a NOCO GENIUS2UK (ie 2volts) which sells on Amazon for about £42. It's got a clear green/amber/red light display to show where it is in the charging cycle, I usually leave on for about 6 hours depending on what state the battery was in to start with - I use a Motopower Digital Battery tester (also from Amazon) to check the current voltage.

[5thcivic]

What type/make of Battery Charger would you guys recommend?

The standard recommendation is CTec, they are good but expensive around £80 or so. Personally I have a Maypole 4A which is basically the same spec but half the price and has been fine on 5 Civics and now the Jazz.  A bargain is the Lidl charger when they have it back in, I got one for £13 for the E. It is fully  electronically protected and can do AGM batteries (and 6V too). The only disadvantage the Lidl only has croc clips, the Maypole has alternative SAE connectors for permanent connection, so I bought some SAE leads on Amazon and crimped them on the Lidl (and the E) so the chargers are interchangeable between cars. An advantage of the permanent lead is you don't get the tiny spark sometimes when clamping the croc clips. Both chargers automatically stop current when full and can be left on for automatic trickle charging.

[Jazzik]

Perhaps a separate topic "What is the best battery charger?" and stick here with "Have you experienced a flat  12 volt battery with your Mk 4"?
Since 91.4% have not experienced that problem (so far), it does not seem interesting to me to mix this topic with chargers...

[Lord Voltermore]

I agree the figures tend to show its not such a major issue,  although some  will be taking precautions with a charger.  But it is a pain in the  bum if it happens to you , but then again  victims may be more likely to add their voice than those (the majority) who have never had a problem.

Those who's low mileage makes them vulnerable  but dont have  easy access to mains power for a smart charger  could keep the car permanently  connected to a solar charger. In the winter months these may only output about 0.1 amp or so  but it may be enough to keep the 12v battery topped up. .   (But not the High voltage one) 

I think Robsterboy and all the other "low mileagers" (is that correct English...?) should keep in mind what our Lord Voltermore wrote:

Yes its  correct  but quite awkward.  'low milers 'might be better.  But top marks. Far better than my Dutch and Polish skills (which are non existent  )

[peteo48]

I cannot understand spending over £20,000 on a car and doing less than 1,000 miles in it in a year. I have been amazed at the tendency for some Jazz owners to replace their cars every 2 years. When I bought my last Jazz, there was an old dear having her perfectly fine 2 year old red Mk2 being replaced by an almost identical brand new one. The dealer just smiled at me when I asked why she would do that.

If you are doing really low mileages, just use taxis, ask a friend to take you or hire a car, if public transport is not practical for you!

It's a decision for the individual but I've often mulled over my car usage - less than 3,000 miles last year. I could almost certainly manage without a car with a bus stop in very short walking distance and a train station 10 to 15 minutes walk away. We have regular supermarket deliveries although we always seem to need to top up.

For me, this afternoon is why I keep a car. Ad hoc trip to a local garden centre (to buy clothes!!!!) and have an afternoon tea. I also do the very occasional school run. Both these more or less impossible without a car.

In short having a car, for me, is a luxury but one I am happy to pay for. Take your point about the way people change their cars every 2 years - that said some may be on motability deals?

[Jazzdriver]

As mentioned previously, my Crosstar was written off after a head on collision with a car that was on the wrong side of the road.  My insurer eventually replaced the car with a new one, but my leg had to be rebuilt with titanium and I am not yet able to drive.  Every now and then my wife uses the car to give it a run.  I hope to be able to drive soon, but when the car comes round to its first service, it will have done very few miles.

[Saycol]

On the flat 12V battery topic, I fortunately have never experienced this. Car is 18 months old, 7000 miles. Typically max interval between driving it is one week so would not expect battery problems.

My wife’s car is a Mini with an AGM battery. She doesn’t use it a lot and I find it needs a monthly top up with the ctek charger. If I don’t do this, the “low battery “ warning regularly appears.

[Kremmen]

If I don't use mine for 2 weeks CTEK can take up to 8 hours to fully charge so I reckon it's worth it.

On the occasions I've used the CTEK after just one week it often completes in just over 3 hours.

Also keeps the battery 'conditioned'

[Jazzik]

Repetition:

Perhaps a separate topic "What is the best battery charger?" and stick here with "Have you experienced a flat  12 volt battery with your Mk 4"?
Since 91.4% have not experienced that problem (so far), it does not seem interesting to me to mix this topic with chargers...

[peteo48]

One of the things I do occasionally to partially mitigate the very low mileage is go the long way round to the supermarket. The 3 miles return journey becomes a 9 mile return journey with some dual carriageway. This keeps the battery in a decent state of charge I would argue. I've certainly had no issues so far.

It's nice to have a bit of a drive.

[Robsterboy]

Following on from my previous post I left the car with the dealer to experience the non starting/flat battery situation, he rang the next day and said we have started your car no problem...doh!!! I told him to leave it 3 more days. The next call I got was to say they had tested the battery every day for 3 days - their testing displayed Good battery - recharge, next day Good battery - recharge, 3rd day Replace battery, completely flat. The battery has now been replaced under warranty as they concluded a cell had failed and the battery had been faulty.