Strange clicking noise but not starting

[johnnyb44]

Hi and hope you're all.
I've been on furlough now for a good few weeks and my daily driver 75 diesel has been little used. This week I've driven the car twice. Once was around 16 miles and the was barely a mile.
As I've had plenty of time on my hands I've decided to give it a good machine polish and general spruce up in preparation to hopefully getting back to work on Wednesday. I've spent around 1 1/2 hours over three days giving it the cleaning treatment and as the fool i am, i left the boot open during cleaning it, which in turn means the boot light was on. Tonight i was just going down to the local shops, and on turning the key i got the dreaded click click click but nothing else. All the dash lights where working as normal apart from the non starting. My ex brother in law came to the rescue with a jump pack but there was still no joy. The jump pack read around 13 on a volt meter so im now a little concerned it may be something a little more sinister of a problem. I only tried starting it a few times fearful i might corrupt the immobiliser.. Tomorrow the local garage around the corner is going to come round to have a look. Hopefully it's just down to my own stupidity of not shutting the boot whilst cleaning the car and in turn the boot light draining it.

[marinabrian]

Charge up the battery is the answer, booster packs don't always deliver sufficient oomph to start the car if the original battery is in a state of deep discharge

Brian

[johnnyb44]

Thank you Brian for the quick response. I take it with modernish cars nowadays they don't just turn over slower and slower until the battery gives out completely, but more of a case of they either start or they don't. Yesterday day funnily enough i did notice that it felt very slightly sluggish on the starter but i put it down to the aircon being switched on. In retrospect im now thinking the battery was then getting flat and the short journey i did and coupled with the stupidity of me leaving the boot open today has seen the battery off.
The battery in question is varta/bosch Silver seal and is around 7 years old.
I hope you're all well buddy and many thanks for giving your time in helping ��

[Yorkshire GOC]

And as battery experts on here such as Colvert would advise you need to charge the battery for 24 hours to understand its level of health -

[johnnyb44]

Hi again,
Just a quick update on the car.
The local garage came round today and jump started the car. It fired up first turn of the key. As the battery is knocking on 8 years old, its safe to say its on borrowed time so i took the plunge and bought a replacement.Its looking likely in going back to work on Wednesday after being furloughed for 15 weeks, and the way things are at the moment with job security, the last thing i want is to have a car that might let me down. Hopefully the new one will provide a sterling service like the old one did.
Many thanks again and hope your all well and safe in these strange times were going through

[COLVERT]

You did well to get around 8 years out of that battery.

To help get something similar out of your new battery then a couple of charges during the winter months each year will help it along the way.---


PS. The boot light. It should automatically switch itself off after a while.-Like the inside lights and probably the radio if the engine is not running. All built in battery savers by Rover.---

[johnnyb44]

Hmmm thanks for the invaluable info @COLVERT.
If the boot light switches off after a certain time ( which i never knew or noticed) it makes me feel a little more happier in that my purchase of a new battery was for the right reasons, as it was flubbered instead of abused by my carelessness.
Ironically straight after getting it sorted, i got an email from work in that my furloughed holiday was being extended. Typical and such is life, but at least the old car is running happily again.
This car has been the longest car I've ever owned and done over the 80k in it ((130k in total) and its presented very few problems, apart from the usual ware and tear items. Second hand prices of them have seemed to of bottomed out now and values seem to be getting stronger for good one's..Hopefully it will continue to soldier on trouble free, as i really don't like the awful humdrum new cars out there at the moment. They just didn't have that certain "feeling" i get with my old 75

[bl52krz]

High John, nice to see you are still in the fold. Batteries are a funny thing if they don’t get any work to do as well as the charging process. As Colvert said, give them a charge in the winter time a couple of times and they are normally ok.See you around sometime hopefully again after this damned virus thingy.

[johnnyb44]

Hi David, Good to hear from you buddy and hope you're all well. Yes I've still got the Rover and still enjoying it, even though i don't visit this site enough as i should. I've been looking today at the mileage I've done since being put off work in March with this Furlough and I haven't even done 500 miles. What journeys i have done have been ridiculously short runs (shame on me) and think it's highlighted the first signs of a weak battery. I think i may of said before (i forget nowadays) but I've taken up cycling in a big way over the last few years. Ive been clocking up to 6000 miles a year and only last month i did my highest amount of 1000 miles. As you can imagine my main interest is now cycling orientated and the car has played "second fiddle" but saying that i still keep it in fine fettle and look after it.
During the lock down i,ve used the time wisely in getting some niggling jobs done on the car. All the brakes serviced, including brake pipes and a replacement fuel pump as the old one was getting noisy. These jobs weren't essential, but they were things i could see that needed doing in the not to distant future. It now feels like new again and feels nice and tight. Anyway enough of my ramblings and wish you all the very best Buddy