vauxhall vectra.

[redrunner]

advice please, neighbor has a flat battery on a N plate vectra/ as she has not yet passed her test she gives the car a start up once a week, so probally takes more out the battery than puts back in.
question is, is it safe for me to take battery off and give it a good charge ? or will it mess the car eletrics up/ ..ie- car comp system ,ecu-etc.
or would it be best to leave it on the car and do it ?. which means running extension cable over the pavement . regards.r.r.

 

[breezer]

car radio will need its unlock code, has she got it?

 

[redrunner]

good thinking breezer i forgot about that/ i will check back with her on that.regards. r.r.

 

[stevesey]

I've got one of those.

Apart from radio code - all should be fine. Disconnecting the battery will cause the ECU to forget the history data it maintains (fine tuning adjustments basically) these are re-learnt fairly quickly, but it might feel a bit different after re-connecting (but as she's not been driving it she won't notice anyway).

Assuming it starts well and she runs it for a few minutes - the battery should be OK with this sort of treatment. Might be the first sign of the battery going, but then I don't know when the car last had a proper drive. In my experience genuine vauxhall batteries last 6 years and the dealer price is cheaper than halfords.

 

[redrunner]

thanks for reply stevesey, thats what i was a bit concerned about/ ECU etc. anyway to make sure, i put jump leads onto good spare battery i had and onto the car batt leads so i could take flat one off and just swap em over and do the bolts up again without loosing power/ .
all went great till the neg lead came off, [ if only i had put it to car body /engine/ .] anyway no problems got it on charge now , but good job breezer said about the radio code she did have it so no problems there.
i dont think the cars ever had a good run since they moved in, she,s still taking driving lessons/ so i think a good charge will sort it out. and less starting it for a warm up. regards. r.r.