Ok.....I suppose this question is more a general question, rather than Mini related, sorry in advance, but can someone tell me why your battery loses some of its "oomph" if you leave your car out in the cold overnight??

Or am I about to buy a new battery????

I dont know how old this one is but it was in the car when I bought it just over 3 years ago.

Thanks kids

_________________
Rod
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v607/Rodney/

We have big frosts here - down to -10 or so. We must have good batteries in the cars to be able to start them. Its just not on starting cars with either a boost start or a jumper lead.

batteries on average last for about three years. Some last much longer but once you put it in a car its on a down hill slide.

Your battery is begining to have the lead strips coated with suphates. It produces the voltage but less and less amperage. This is particulary so when the battery has to work harder in the cold mornings.

There are battery reconditioning products out there but I have little experience with them. At the first signs of a battery failing we simply buy a new one.

If price is an issue, most wrecking yards sell ("reconditioned") batteries with a 3 month warranty fairly cheaply. Some work well, some dont but with a 3 month warranty its easy to change a battery.

thanks Mike - I thought a battery had a life of approx. 3 years. I charged it up overnight and took the Mrs's car to work last night so I'll have to see how it is tomorrow morning. Wow...you get -10 where you are.....I suppose 2 or 3 degree mornings is a heat wave then.

Hooroo

_________________
Rod
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v607/Rodney/

I have often wondered too if the really cold mornings also thicken up the oil and make the engine components "tighter" causing the starter to need higher amps to crank ? Possible or just the battery not liking the cold . By the way Mike , you can keep your -10's bit too chilly for the rest of us ....

_________________

Up to -10, the record is -16 but that was unusual and staggered us all with us having no water at all until after midday. No coffee, no showers, no flushing toilets, no brushed teeth and fortunately no burst pipes.

Commonly, from late April to mid August we get frosts on clear nights and mornings. Down to about -4 is the norm.

Yeah the mornings that are 2 and 3 degrees (when its sunny) are t shirt mornings.

here here... my good man here here lol. reminds when my cousin told me that +3 day was like a summer day. Mind you he does live in Germany. Apparently that day weather range was -14 to +3. Guess you just get used to it and adapt but far too cold for me.

If we have a big big frost then you know its going to be a nice sunny warm day. We have had a very mild winter. Lots of frosts but with wonderful warm days. However, its just eight days into august and the paddocks and fields are greening up with spring growth. Nearly a month early.

I am sure the Canberra and Goulburn members would say the same thing.

Our daily minimum and maximums have routinely been from -4 through to 20 degrees on the same day.

Yeah, i would agree Mike, hasn't been a really cold winter, a few cold nights but then not too bad. 20 degrees in the day sounds good, i don't think we have had a day over 15 for a few months. Also saw some blossom trees already blooming. Bring it on.
Steve.

I spent a winter in Goulburn in the early 90's while working on the Cullarin Range deviation , 40 k's south and unknown meters higher ..... It's the one place in Australia you don't want to break down in ..... One chainman got frostbitten fingers and we had horizontal hail the size of marbles hitting us . Many concrete pours were suspended because it was way too cold .

_________________

I went to a wedding in Bowral and couple of winters back - we travelled down via Oberon through to Black Springs and down into Goulburn from there.

It had snowed the night before and we were only the second vehicle to use the road from Black Springs down to Goulburn. All we could do was follow the tracks made by the previous vehicle and hope that it knew where the road was. It was just a carpet of white apart from the car tracks that we were following.

Fortunately we got to Bowral okay and did not follow the car tracks into some farmers dam. The snow finished some 20 km short of Goulburn.

Four weeks ago I was in 55 degrees, so Sydney winter, although on 10 degrees feels like the arctic. I have never been so cold my life.

Minus 10 would see the brass monkeys joining the Vienna boys choir for sure.

-8 to +17 today....lunchtime was beautiful warm and sunny

_________________
"Show me the Mini!"

Just for interest - despite my claims of good weather - here is the weather station photo at 7.31 am this morning.



just crisp thats all

The middle value is what your looking at

The slash on the far left is a minus sign

Loosely translated , it means the weather station is saying "GET ME THE F**K OUT OF HERE" .....

_________________