Understanding Your Battery Test results!

Disclaimer ** The following information is for Garages and Workshops who carry the correct equipment. If you are neither of these you can have your battery checked by MVC. If you require further diagnosis you are recommended to book your vehicle into your local repairer as we do not supply this service. All of our technical information is supplied by Yuasa Batteries**

You have used a Battery Tester (Conductance Tester) to establish whether the Battery on the vehicle is Faulty or Not.

Test results can sometimes cause some confusion as to the true fault the battery itself (Manufactured Defect) or something else causing the battery to fail.

But if you don’t ask the right questions it can lead to the battery being replaced prematurely.

For example most conductance testers have the ability to provide the user with Text variations of 5 possible test decisions.

  • Good Battery
  • Good and Recharge
  • Charge and Retest
  • Replace Battery
  • Bad Cell

Now lets visit the last two results.

First of all the easy one.

  • Bad Cell =  The Battery has a Manufactured Fault which is covered by its warranty up to its expiry date. Pretty straightforward.

Now for the second.

  • Replace Battery = This is most commonly misinterpreted as the battery is faulty and under guarantee. Not Correct.

Yes the battery has failed but not through any fault of its own which means it will not be covered by its guarantee.

This is an indication that the performance of the battery has been reduced by external factors and going forward it will not be able to deliver the performance required to start the engine.

This condition is associated with wear and tear or user abuse in service and is not a reason for accepting a warranty claim.

Yes the battery will need replacing but this would involve a purchase of a new battery rather than returning the current one under warranty.

This is the time for further questions.

  • Is the vehicle only doing a small number of miles each day. Not giving the battery a chance to fully charge itself.
  • Are the vehicles charging circuits and Alternator working correctly.
  • Has the vehicle been left standing for a long period of time.

The above are just a small selection of possible causes for the battery to fail. So without attempting to find out the true cause you could end up repeating the same cycle all over again with the new battery.

At MVC we have invested heavily in state of the art Testers to give our customers the quickest and most accurate result possible if they suspect their battery to be faulty.

Due to the nature of our business. We can only test your battery. If you do require further diagnosis we would be only too happy to provide you with a list of local Repair Workshops.

If you are looking for a replacement battery why not try our useful finder tool to make sure you find the correct one for your vehicle.

See the attached article below going into more detail feel free to download and print to help explain to your customers if you are a garage/workshop.