Five minutes now, no airport evening later
Before you drive to France: the battery checklist
Holiday driving is a stress test for batteries: a long motorway run, then a week or two standing still, often somewhere hot, cold or far from help. The good news — almost every battery failure we attend was predictable. Here's the five-minute version.
Check before you leave
- Age. Over four years old? Have it load-tested (any garage, minutes). Over six? Consider replacing before the trip on your terms, not during it on the battery's.
- The Start-Stop tell. If the engine has quietly stopped switching off at red lights, the car is protecting a weakening battery. Test it.
- Cold-morning crank. Slower than it used to be is data, not mood.
- Terminals. White-green fuzz or a clamp that wiggles by hand: clean and tighten — free, and a surprisingly common cause of "dead battery" calls.
- Gadgets. Know what your dashcam's parking mode draws, and how to switch it off for a long park.
If the car will stand for weeks in France
- Switch off parking-mode dashcams and any plug-in accessories; check no boot or glovebox light stays on.
- Long-stay car parks: photograph the level/row (you'll thank yourself) — and if the battery is marginal, a pre-trip replacement beats a return-night rescue.
- Second homes: a mains trickle charger is the difference between "starts every Easter" and "call someone every Easter".
If it happens anyway
Then it's the other pages of this site: the safe jump-start procedure if you can self-rescue, a technician to your car if you can't, the parked-car page if the car stood too long, and the hire-car page if the keys aren't yours. All in English, all 24/7.