Battery wont hold a charge
11-29-2007, 03:33 PM
#1
1st Gear Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: Milford, MA
Posts: 119
Battery wont hold a charge
Ok so far I've replaced my starter, ICM, battery and terminals. Long story. I bought the new battery because of a bad one in the car before. Never had this problem until I put the new battery in. The car wont start. It started right up with the new battery but a few days later it wouldnt start. I don't know specifically how many days, its not my daily driver, but not more than 2 or 3 days. No it just clicks and my power meter is low in the car, real low. All options work, radio lights etc. Took it to autozone, tested the battery today. It was good. The car has always hesitated a little when I start it so I'm replacing the solenoid anyways just to see if it works but could it be an alternator problem? I dont know what else to try. I read the other posts on the topic and thats all I could come up with. Any ideas? I guess I could try new battery cables, one had a little corrosion on the tip but I soked it in isopropyl alcohol and cleaned it all up.
11-29-2007, 03:41 PM
#2
in limbo
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: Iowa
Posts: 7,300
RE: Battery wont hold a charge
while your cars runs how many volts you at? does it start with ajumper box? possible bad grounding or a ground out somwhere?? loose connections. check everything. is the battery itself holding a charge? get out a volt meter and check it after you give it a nice core charge
11-29-2007, 04:08 PM
#4
D.R. THE PATHETIC DORK
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: West Virginia
Posts: 30,863
RE: Battery wont hold a charge
you need to check for a parasitic drain on the battery by taking an ammeter and hook it in series with the neg battery terminal and there sholuld be no more than a 25-50 milliamp with the vehicle at rest and all accessories off
11-29-2007, 04:53 PM
#5
1st Gear Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: Milford, MA
Posts: 119
RE: Battery wont hold a charge
ORIGINAL: FivePointOhh
while your cars runs how many volts you at? does it start with ajumper box? possible bad grounding or a ground out somwhere?? loose connections. check everything. is the battery itself holding a charge? get out a volt meter and check it after you give it a nice core charge
while your cars runs how many volts you at? does it start with ajumper box? possible bad grounding or a ground out somwhere?? loose connections. check everything. is the battery itself holding a charge? get out a volt meter and check it after you give it a nice core charge
11-29-2007, 06:14 PM
#6
2nd Gear Member
Join Date: Feb 2007
Location:
Posts: 194
RE: Battery wont hold a charge
I'll tell you what recently happened to me, maybe this is your problem as well. Carwouldnt start one morning last week, dead battery symptoms ect.
Jumped it, she started right up. Put a voltage meter on it while running 14+ volts so she's charging,used the car that day she was fine, car started the next day but after that she wouldnt hold charge/start again , alternaters fine, did a load test @ work &it was borderline OK..
Checked all the wires all tight, no corrision or restiance.
Hmmmm, she's charging really good allmost too good...Let me check the water in the battery { all mustang owners should have non maintence free batterys if you ask me } anyways it was dry as a friggan bone, added some distilled H2o and it's been perfect since.
Some high HP cars overcharge & boil the **** out of the batteries, I've owned many outboard motors that did this as well, pretty common.
Check your batteries water....
Jumped it, she started right up. Put a voltage meter on it while running 14+ volts so she's charging,used the car that day she was fine, car started the next day but after that she wouldnt hold charge/start again , alternaters fine, did a load test @ work &it was borderline OK..
Checked all the wires all tight, no corrision or restiance.
Hmmmm, she's charging really good allmost too good...Let me check the water in the battery { all mustang owners should have non maintence free batterys if you ask me } anyways it was dry as a friggan bone, added some distilled H2o and it's been perfect since.
Some high HP cars overcharge & boil the **** out of the batteries, I've owned many outboard motors that did this as well, pretty common.
Check your batteries water....
11-30-2007, 03:00 AM
#7
2nd Gear Member
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: I've been everywhere, man
Posts: 437
RE: Battery wont hold a charge
Sounds like an alternator problem to me. Those things don't give a warning, they just go out. You can take it out and have it tested at autozone. Just takes a lil elbow grease getting it out and in.
11-30-2007, 07:38 AM
#8
5th Gear Member
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Puerto Rico
Posts: 3,926
RE: Battery wont hold a charge
ORIGINAL: eaturls1
start car and pull off neg. batt cable while running if it shuts off it is not charging. if it stays running then the alt. is charging.
start car and pull off neg. batt cable while running if it shuts off it is not charging. if it stays running then the alt. is charging.
ORIGINAL: mjr46
you need to check for a parasitic drain on the battery by taking an ammeter and hook it in series with the neg battery terminal and there sholuld be no more than a 25-50 milliamp with the vehicle at rest and all accessories of
you need to check for a parasitic drain on the battery by taking an ammeter and hook it in series with the neg battery terminal and there sholuld be no more than a 25-50 milliamp with the vehicle at rest and all accessories of
11-30-2007, 04:00 PM
#9
Join Date: Jul 2006
Posts: 11
RE: Battery wont hold a charge
Check the battery in series as stated above and if you find that it has a parasitic drain on it start pulling fuses 1 by 1 to see if that changes the reading. I had a car were the central locking system was draining my battery. The quick fix was to pull the fuse and the problem was fixed. Good luck.
12-07-2007, 07:57 PM
#10
1st Gear Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: Milford, MA
Posts: 119
RE: Battery wont hold a charge
So I replaced the battery cables and while testing I noticed that I had a bad chassis ground. Rewired. It started right up. Also, I had a lot of loss in my cable. They were corroded pretty bad. Its amazing what you can find when you have the right tools to do the job. Thanks for the input everyone!