How long should a battery last before being flat (Elise)

[PaulB81]

My 111R seems to only be able to go about 5 days of not being driven absolute max and the battery is dead. I know its cold at the moment which really isnt helping. I know the batteries are tiny so I shouldnt expect miracles. Im trying to work out if this is normal or whether I should replace it. I do try to drive it more than just weekends just to keep it charged but dont always have time.

[PaulB81]

Done some research. Seems they should last more like 10-15 days so my battery must be hosed.

Looking at one of these: http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/...

Anyone used them? they seem well recommended.

[Mr E]

I usually can leave her 2-3 weeks before having to plug it in.

[Stephanie Plum]

How old is the battery? I replace mine every three years (garaged) as a matter of course so that I don't get caught out..... when it lived outside I replaced it every second winter.

[PaulB81]

Its an 07 car and to my knowledge this is the orginal battery it came with so its around 4 years old

[Stephanie Plum]

Likely to be past its best then? Put a new one in and look for a CTEK XS3600 conditioner (or similar) to keep it charged when you can't drive it.

[PaulB81]

Cheers then. I will go get a new battery from Halfrauds asap. A conditioner isnt an option for me unfortunately because the car is kept outside

[Thorburn]

You can get solar trickle chargers. Elise parts do one which plugs in to the lighter socket, although I think it means you have to change the socket so it's not isolated when the ignition is off?

[bordseye]

Thorburn said:

You can get solar trickle chargers. Elise parts do one which plugs in to the lighter socket, although I think it means you have to change the socket so it's not isolated when the ignition is off?

It isnt isolated when the ignition is off - or at least it isnt on my bog standard 07 111R

[1981linley]

PaulB81 said:

My 111R seems to only be able to go about 5 days of not being driven absolute max and the battery is dead. I know its cold at the moment which really isnt helping. I know the batteries are tiny so I shouldnt expect miracles. Im trying to work out if this is normal or whether I should replace it. I do try to drive it more than just weekends just to keep it charged but dont always have time.

Hi mate, had the same problem with my 2007 Toyota S2 Elise...flat battery all the time last winter. Bought a new battery online and got a trickle charger which helped, but this eventually burned the battery out in no time and led to it leaking all over the boot - could have been a dodgy battery though. Went to the local motosave who fitted me a new no brand battery for £35 and had no problems ever since and it was sometimes stood a month. I reckon a new battery is your best option, but no need to pay a fortune for one at all.

[1981linley]

The Halfords batteries I priced up were well in excess of £100 exc fitting - no need to spend this. Its tempting to think that because its an Elise parts are going to be expensive, worry like hell and that you need to source a 'proper battery' and that it somehow needs a specialist one - in my experience it doesn't; indeed, the one I got from a Lotus specialist online didn't last 3 months. The 'cheapo' one was far better.

[TIPPER]

I paid less than £50 for a battery for my S1 from Halfords. Don't know what the spec of the 111R battery is but the £100 quoted above seems pricey??
I just bought the cheapest battery of the right spec for my car - came with a lifetime guarantee from Halfords and lasted me 4 years (and going strong before I sold the car). (I did start looking at silly money ultra light batteries after doing my first Sprint though!)
I could leave the car three weeks (longestest it ever stood) and it turned over and started fine.

[PaulB81]

Without seeing the above I went last night and bought the Bosch battery I linked. I will fit it today. I did ask halfords if they would do it but they said they don't do it when it's dark (really??).

Anything I should know when changing it or is it just a case of following the handbook ?

[gashead1105]

The link isn't working but I bought a bosch silver battery from halfords for my exige and fitted it myself a couple of months ago. Took all of 5 minutes, and I'm pretty hopeless with that sort of thing. Just follow what it says in the manual re the order for disconnecting the postive and negative terminals. Car's started fine since.

[otolith]

Mine is the same. It becomes a problem in winter, because of the cold and because the car is used less frequently. I was going to replace it last winter, but when the weather improved it ceased to be an issue. It's now started doing it again.

People saying that the batteries from specialist suppliers are expensive and fragile - are they also relatively lightweight, by any chance?

[PaulB81]

Well the new battery is in. Will report back on how it goes

Next job is to figure out how to get the stereo working again. It says invalid key or something when I turn it on then goes straight off again. I have the code, just dont know what to do with it

[1981linley]

I've heard halfords won't touch S1s...staff are warned off on their computer when a customer asks for anything fitting....anyway...who wants a sixteen year old kid tinkering with their car lol!

[GT03ROB]

1981linley said:

I've heard halfords won't touch S1s...staff are warned off on their computer when a customer asks for anything fitting....anyway...who wants a sixteen year old kid tinkering with their car lol!

Don't blame them, it's a bloody nightmare to change one. I ended up taking the front of the car to bits to change one!

[PaulB81]

Changing in the s2 was mega easy. Undo one Allen bolt then the battery cables are long enough to pull the battery right to the middle of the boot.

[chevronb37]

Word of advice for anyone changing the battery in an A/C equipped S1 Exige...there's a small clamp holding the battery in place. Don't spend ages desperately trying to foist the battery out using brute force only. It won't work and you will swear a lot.

Managed it eventually and the car works again! My battery went flat despite being plugged into a conditioner for several weeks. Now out to pick up a better conditioner...