Sigh! Still not right

Hey guys you have been wonderful in answering all my questions and now I have another. We ended up buying a new alternator, will recondition the old one, husband installed it all but the battery had gone flat. Recharged the battery and it has been running fine for the last few days but went to drive it this afternoon and it wouldn't start. Same old clickety click and no go. Col is thinking the battery as its a few months shy of 3 years old. His concern is that there could be an underlying problem as it seems strange to have both alternator and battery go within such a short space of each other - or we could just be plain unlucky right now when it comes to cars.

Probably unlucky at a guess

There are a things which draw power even when keys are off but that's shouldn't drain battery over a few days. Months maybe not days.

One thing you can do is pull the battery out and charge it on the bench.
When fully charged let it sit for a few days and then check voltage.

Sometimes a battery will self drain when damaged. So it's quite possible its fubar...

I would say the three year old battery is probably stuffed. Failure may or may not have been caused by the faulty alternator but to be honest, I haven't read your other thread.

Manufacturers usually only warrant their batteries for 1 to 2 years, an RAC guy once told me batteries will usually last around the three year mark, anymore than that and you're doing well...... I've had batteries only lasting 2 years, then others have lasted over 4.

When your unlucky enough to have an Alternator fail and not realise it the poor old battery gets a hiding.

Given the age of the battery and circumstances you can get it capacity checked but I am tipping 95% chance it is dead.
You may get another 6 to 12 onths if you use a very good quality charger that will desulphate but, again, probably not worth it.

New Alternator (already) and new Battery should get you motoring again no worries.

Thanks guys. You have put my mind at rest. Was worried we may be up for some more nasty surprises 😳

You can check the new alternator is charging the battery properly with your multimeter......

Check that battery terminals are tight and there is no white deposits at the terminals(or minimal corrosion at least)

A good battery at rest, that has been well charged and is holding charge should be around 12.6 V, even the next day.....

An alternator that is charging properly should be putting around 14 V into the battery at around 1200 - 1400 revs.

If the alternator is charging properly, but the battery is not holding charge, then the battery is most likely stuffed...

If the terminals are loose/corroded this can be preventing proper voltage transfer, either charging or starting so make sure these are ok first

Mic

when you install your new battery wipe the terminals with a green scourer,
dont forget inside the battery leads as well, when all nice and tight and tested
Spray some terminal protector on both pos and neg terminals

check all the fittings for poor connections, there may be one or two that need
re-doing