Just nipped to the shops but when I went to start my car, it gave a cough and the clock noisily ran backwards. I have a battery meter which I plugged in and it said 11.5v. Fortunately, a quick call to my friend with a set a jump leads and it was soon running again.

The battery has been slightly sluggish in the cold weather but would too many short trips with heated screens and seats on be the cause?

I’ve just read that the OEM battery was an AGM version. Do I really require this?

Just ordered a Lion AGM, 3 year guarantee. Hope it’ll be alright…

Short runs will definitely run the battery down, especially in this cold weather,,, it never gets a chance to recharge itself. Can you not put a charger on it overnight now and again to keep it topped up. Had the same trouble with mine,, even though it's running now still have in the back of my mind the battery may be a bit weak. 2010 RRS, TDV8
bali Blue / colour coded
side steps / flappy paddles
black perforated leather
22" overfinch
heated everything, TV,fridge ...... now with gold calipers and mud flaps !( black mud flaps that is) !!
Many years ago,,,,, 1955 series 1 landie , sometimes wish I had kept it

My wife reminded me that this happened about 5 years ago. I thought it would be ok after charging it but it failed again. The current battery is out of warranty by about 3 months. Darn!

If it's got down to 11.5V then it's likely to be knackered, especially if it's been run around that level for a while.

If you're doing lots of short journeys, get a smart charger and treat the battery to some voltage love every couple of weeks, especially in colder weather.

The reality is that no car likes short journeys (OK, maybe EVs don't care but anything burning dinosaurs certainly won't thank you for short journeys), so extra care is needed for those vehicles. More frequent oil changes, plugging the battery in to the mains (via a charger), etc., will all help. 2012 SDV6 - it's missing a couple of cylinders
2008 TDV8 - it was a labour of love and is much missed

I always think about charging it now and again but in reality, I just return from a trip and leave it on the drive until next time.

Now that I am retired, the car doesn’t get the long runs that it used to get.

I did phone the breakdown service but there was going to be at least a 2 hour wait until they turned up.

I've just put SWMBO car on the CTek. The battery was showing 12.3V which is about 60% charged. It's doesn't do much running these days and often just does short journeys - although it has had a couple of half hour runs this week - so is prime "target" for a low battery.

As I put a new battery in it last winter, I'd like it to do a few more years.

My RRS drove for about 3 hours yesterday, split in to a couple of trips - usual use for it - so the battery is basically fully charged all the time. I check it about once a month just to be sure.

Interestingly, although the previous battery in the RRS was in good fettle in terms of voltage, when checked by the garage it was down to about 250A rather than its original 850A. So it's worth remembering that voltage alone isn't a good indicator of a healthy battery - although a low voltage reading is not good either way. 2012 SDV6 - it's missing a couple of cylinders
2008 TDV8 - it was a labour of love and is much missed

As I started to change the battery, it began to rain. The new battery was in the boot so I closed the tailgate and went inside for a cuppa. Once it had stopped raining, I opened the bonnet and removed the old battery; went to get the battery out of the boot and of course, the electronic lock didn’t work…sigh! Manoeuvring the battery out of the boot via the back seats wasn’t easy.

Salisburylander wrote:

I always think about charging it now and again but in reality, I just return from a trip and leave it on the drive until next time.

Now that I am retired, the car doesn’t get the long runs that it used to get.

I did phone the breakdown service but there was going to be at least a 2 hour wait until they turned up.

invest in a CTEK trickle charger, they're cheap and worth the money

The worry about getting a trickle charger is that I would use it regularly for the first month or so but then it would just stay in its box. It’s just the way stuff happens…

Yeah I get that. You can make life easy though by fitting a connector to your battery so its just one plug in rather than messing with croc clips.

Salisburylander wrote:

The worry about getting a trickle charger is that I would use it regularly for the first month or so but then it would just stay in its box. It’s just the way stuff happens…

Just so long as you don't come on here in a year's time and complain about your battery...  2012 SDV6 - it's missing a couple of cylinders
2008 TDV8 - it was a labour of love and is much missed