faulty car battery

[bavna]

have a vauxall caorsa-manual which i try to use once a week.got battery changed at the local shop 3 days ago and now with the new battery the car does not start,its dead.They charged me 45pounds when asked what the problem was they say they have to check the whole car.How would I know that am getting my money's worth.

[crete]

bav,,,, youll get a better response o your question if you post in motoring section. beyween media and music

[david11]

you need to have it looked at by an auto-electrician,as it seems that maybe your starter is draining the battery ( earthing out )

[mr rusty]

This is how you check it- or how an autospark will check it....

You need to check that nothings draining the battery when you aren't using the car: for this you'll need a multimeter, if you have one (they are only around a fiver from Maplin) set it to the amps range and connect it in series with the battery + terminal, there should be a only slight discharge for the clock,immobiliser, and radio memory, and you need to pull fuses one by one and see if the discharge changes: when it dies, you've identified a circuit (other than the ones mentioned above) that is draining current and that's where you need to check for a faulty component.

[mr rusty]

for 'dies' read 'does'!!! no edit function on here.....

[Iggle Piggle]

what was wrong with the old battery ?
Rarely even new batteries fail, it only takes one of the six 'cells' to fail to kill the battery.
I would take the battery to another motor factors and ask their opinion.
Car batteries (lead acid) hate to go flat, and rarely recover fully, it is possible that your battery was not fully charged when fitted, and so has gone flat all the more quickly.
A hard one to answer without being there !
Or, if you have the tools, Rustys answer is fine advice.