Battery

alerocar01 · 12-23-2005, 03:59 PM

Ok so I left my car sitting for a week and a half and when I went out to it and the car won't start. The battery was dead and I needed a jump. Now I know for sure that there was nothing left on. So I can't figure out why the battery keeps on dying. This has happen before. I tested the amps drawn when every thing is off, or they same way I leave it every time it is park for awhile, it was drawn about 0.15 amps. My question is, is that normal amps running when the car is off and what could be draining my car battery?

Redog · 12-24-2005, 12:09 AM

First, how old is the battery? If it's the stock Delco, they are only good for 2 years, at least in my experience. You could try a new battery, that could be it.

I also see you're up in WI, cold weather kills batteries, esp if the car sits for a while. My batt died in Dec 02, It was going, didn't drive it for one day, next day wouldn't start.

Did you hook anything up lately? If so maybe you have an open circut somewhere that is draining power. It's possible.

I doubt it's your alt, but I wouldn't rule it out just yet. The alt draws power to start the car, but then recharges the batt while you drive.

alerocar01 · 12-24-2005, 03:37 AM

my battery is about 5 years old and it is the stock one. i do have a system hooked up to the battery but it has been hook up to the car for about year and a half and no problems before. Plus when this problem started happening my system was out of my car. i took my car to a batteries plus today and they tested my battery and alt and they said that they were still good. so idk that doesn't make any sense.

12-24-2005, 11:10 AM

yeah same here if you jumped your car they could have read that and said it was ok, but an alternator to get a FULL charged battery takes like 4-5 hours of driving and then if you have your amp even turned on, thats draining it too

BlackJack · 12-24-2005, 11:16 AM

well, there's your problem then, I'm going to guess. Redog's right about commonly 2yr span, I had a factory battery in my '03 and it just took a crap also, but then again, it sat for nearly a year with only the occasional start while I was in Iraq. You got quite a bit longer out of yours, so you're lucky

Just to make sure, jump start it, and pop the cable off (carefully) the battery. If it stays running, your alt should be fine. If it dies, then your alt is suspect as well.

Since you're running a system, and I'm not sure how much power you're drawing, I'm going to recommend that you replace it with a Optima (brand) "Red-Top". The correct size will have plenty of cranking amps for the cold weather, and also a significant amount of deep-cycle reserve for those "key-off" jam sessions.

Redog · 12-25-2005, 01:03 AM

Yeah I just had to put a new battery in today.

Get the Optima red top, size 75, that's what I just bought today

$153 (included 6% PA tax)

Cyber Knight · 12-27-2005, 10:46 AM

Sounds like the same symptoms I saw, my battery just couldn't hold a charge for much more than a day. My factory Delco just bit it a month ago, got a bit over 5 yrs from it which impresses me now that I've heard others only got 2-3 yrs (even though it says it should last 6 yrs on the battery). I thought my car was just a bit groggier at the time cuz the temp here was below -20 for about a week. When I took the battery out it was bulging at all sides which means the battery is screwed. The new one works great, got a 9 yr Energizer ($95) from Wal-Mart and on my way to pick it up I found a $20 on the ground and got $5 for taking my old one back to Wal-Mart

. That was their best battery, if you want one to get you by for a couple of years you could probably get one for around $50.

alerocar01 · 01-28-2006, 12:42 AM

Wow finally figured out what the problem was. It turns out that I have a bad capacitor that was draining the car battery even when the system wasn't running. I put a new one in and i can let my car sit for a while and have no problems with it starting up.