The battery is stuffed. Buy a new one.

Battery or alternator is the cause

either the battery wont hold a charge or the alternator wont charge

The battery is the more likely cause

battery's knackered?
Seems to work once started, suggesting alternator etc are OK.

By "March" do you mean "February"?

Cougar - Yes... woops! Edited it

OK, battery is shot. Will replace it. Thanks folks!

Totally. Oh and 8 years out of a battery is supposed to be good. Same thing happened to my Focus ST (a Volvo in all but name). Was fine once the battery was changed.

If it's ok once running but reluctant to start if left for a day or two then it's almost certainly the battery.

Ashtray full, buy a new one (car not ashtray).
Battery borked, buy a new one (car not battery).
Problems solved.

9.2v !!! I'm surprised the central locking even works!

Start the engine, give it a few minutes and then take another reading.

Should be 13.8-14.4v, much less than that and the fault is either the alternator, or a bad earth strap from battery to engine block. You can test if its a bad earth strap by creating another earth, easiest way is a single jump lead, connected between the negative battery terminal and the engine block (choose a cleanish bit of engine/bolt into engine and give the clamp a good squeeze to get a good connection)

A healthy battery reads 12.7v after the car has been parked up for a few hours.

so looking at replacement batteries. I can do the change myself and the options available are...

- Halfords, Yuasa Battery with Lifetime Guarantee for £180. I need to collect and fit it.

- AA, Yuasa Battery with 4 year guarantee, Delivered and Fitted for £142.

Is the Halfords battery worth the extra expense?

Mrs IRC's 2007 Nissan Micra is on it's original battery. No starting issues but would anyone replace a battery after a certain age as preventative maintenance?

Or just run it until problems arise?

I would look at the battery and find a similar one on Ebay / euro carparts or similar and fit it yourself
Usually only a couple of nuts to undo on the terminals (noting + and -) then a couple of fastenings to stop the battery moving around. Should take no more than 20 mins

There will be a capacity on the battery eg 60 ah 9 amp hours) dont go below the on fitted when new and you should be ok -euro carparts and other parts places have a number plate look up so that you get the right fittings (terminals etc) should be a really easy but satisfying job!

http://www.eurocarparts.com/car-battery

£180 and even £142 seems pretty expensive.
Order from an online place to fit yourself, and you shouldn't really pay more than £60-70.

I think I ordered from here last time - [url= http://www.batterymegastore.co.uk/ ]Battery Megastore[/url] - arrived within 24 hours.

IRC run it until it stops working - the first time it plays up get another

(or if it struggles to turn over - most likely in cold weather)

2009 car? Decent £80 battery should see you through another 5 years
Will a lifetime warranty transfer/fit your next car?

As above it's the battery.

For your car, Euro car parts is 98 for a Duracell (5yr guarantee} and 80 for their own lion brand (3yr guarantee).

Use code SALE30

- Halfords, Yuasa Battery with Lifetime Guarantee for £180. I need to collect and fit it.

😯

Halfords, Yuasa Battery with Lifetime Guarantee for £180. I need to collect and fit it.

Wear elasticated waist trousers to save time when they bend you over while you're paying 😉

Just be careful refitting the battery, some cars have relays in the battery circuit that need connecting in the right order / direction and if you blow these then it'll cost you more than you saved. IANAE so don't remember what the right order is but someone here might.

Alternatively, when i called the breakdown man out to jump start me he told me my battery was borked and to go to ECP to get a new one but leave it in the boot. Then when you need to call them again, they're supposed to do whatever they can to get you going and if you happen to have the right battery in the boot.........

[url= http://www.batterymegastore.co.uk ]www.batterymegastore.co.uk[/url]

These guys are good and sensibly priced - should be about £70 as people have already said.

Sod giving Halfords £180.

Halfords, Yuasa Battery with Lifetime Guarantee for £180. I need to collect and fit it.

You're basically paying for 2 4 year guarantee batteries doing that. The logic is that the battery will last the 5-6 years they usually do then die. If the original purchaser still has that car and the receipt then they get a new battery and Halfords are still up the profit of 1 battery sale. If the original battery dies but the receipt is missing or the car has been sold on then Halfords have made over double the profit from selling the usual 4 year guarantee battery.

I've never had a normal battery last less than 7 years so unless you plan on keeping the car for at least another 10 years just get a standard one.

The battery on my diesel Land Rover used to lose performance after only 2 -3 years and the RAF service record we had for the car showed frequent battery changes and new alternators. I never found out why it killed batteries so quickly.

As others have said, those quotes are outrageous.

My last battery came from [url= https://www.tayna.co.uk/ ]Tayna[/url], recommended by someone on here. Very good service, no complaints.

Alternatively, when I called the breakdown man out to jump start me he told me my battery was borked and to go to ECP to get a new one but leave it in the boot. Then when you need to call them again, they're supposed to do whatever they can to get you going and if you happen to have the right battery in the boot.........

Hmm, when I once called out recovery to jump start my car (just wanted use of their multimeter really to see if it was the battery or alternator), as I declined to buy the battery they had on them (for an extortionate amount) they would return for the same cause of breakdown if I paid an extortionate amount extra.

May then depend who you are with / whether you have limited # callouts per year. I do - 5 or 6 IIRC on my plan but it doesn't say you couldn't have the same callout 'twice'

And as my recovery is actually an insurance rather than a liveried service they just broker the contact to a local garage / recovery service, who came in a big tow truck without a selection of batteries to sell me, so the 'buy mine or sod off' never came into it.

My last battery came from Tayna, recommended by someone on here. Very good service, no complaints.

Tayna want £85 delivered for a Bosch S4 to fit my car, Eurocarparts (not usually too bad on price) are after £165 for the same battery. Free delivery though!

It's definitely worth a bit of shopping around.

I got my battery from Tayna too - £58 delivered (Mazda 3) no problems (other than the engine management system throwing a bit of a fit which took a bit of fiddling to sort, but that wasn't the battery's fault.

Modern batteries don't seem to get progressively worse at holding a charge. One day they're fine, next day they're shot.

Another happy Tanya customer here - good prices and arrived the next day.

As above - a decent run (2-3hrs) won't fix a dead battery. Once they dead, they dead! Fine one day, forked the next...