hello.i just put in a new battery,and if i let the car sit 2 days ,it's starts ,but you can tell the battery is not fully charged.if i disconnect the battery and re-connect it ,i get a small spark.i'm used to older vehicles,so i don't know if this is normal.i put a meter on the battery while running ,and i'm getting 14.0 volts.after i shut the car off i get 13.2 volts,but it starts dropping to around 12.8 volts in a few minutes.
on start up,the volt guage reads around 14.5 volts,but after running 30 minutes or so i get 13.2 volts.i'm thinking i got a bad battery,because if i take the battery out the car, it discharges just sitting from 13.2 volts to 12.8 volts.i'm going to get it load tested.just wanted some input on this.the battery is a sears 75 series battery on my 2001 b4c camaro.any input would be appreciated .thanks guy's.

 

a spark means that there is a load on the battery somewhere

why did you replace the battery in the first place?

12.8v is pretty normal for a battery.. i have two sitting here, one is 12.5 and the other 12.6

 

thanks for your post.the battery was 5 years old and if i let the car sit one day,it was hard to start.so i figured the battery was shot.i thought maybe the spark was from maybe the computer needing a constant draw,and that's where i was getting the small spark from.i'm new to computer controlled cars.so can you maybe tell me where to go from here?start pulling a fuse one by one and see where i getting the draw from? again thanks for your help.appreciate it!

 

I had a small spark also when I reconnected the positive cable. So this means I have a power draw from somewhere?

 

aynone else?

 

hah, sorry but i really dont know much about the computer related stuff in these cars.

well, the spark can be somewhat normal.. like just the computer trying to get some power.

i may be totally wrong though, i have a 69' camaro, and when i accidentally leave the key on the on position, and connect the battery, it sparks, which im assuming is from a load being put on the battery

the two other cars i have, one will sometimes spark, its a random thing.. and i dont recall if my camaro ever did, i only changed the battery once, and i got the **** scared out of me when the alarm started going off

 

I have the same problem, but my car won't start after letting it sit for a few days and I bought a new battery not to long ago. So something must be drawing the power out of my car. How can I check it ?

 

well,i brought the battery to get load tested,and it failed the load test.cost me 13.00 for another battery.so far ,so good.

 

where did you get the battery load tested ?
there's a good chance they performed the load test completely wrong !
it probably failed because they wanted you to buy a new battery.

fyi, the typical lead-acid car battery when at 100% state of charge (i.e. fully charged) should be at 12.65 volts and 80F ambient temp. If it's colder, like 20F then that voltage will be lower.
A battery at 50% state of charge, or half drained, will read 12.24 volts, 75% = 12.45v, all at 80F.

you're car- the computer, the alarm, the radio, will constantly draw power, this is the little spark you see when you reconnect the battery. It is normal. The normal draw is around 0.050 amps, less than 1/10 of an amp.

i posted for somebody else not too long ago explaining car batteries and why they go dead or do what they do.
https://ls1tech.com/forums/general-m...ng-winter.html


Just because you by a new battery does not mean it's at 100% state of charge when you get it, and depending on how you operate your car and the condition an apparent new battery is in the new battery can go bad in a short while.

you can also read up at www.batteryfaq.org
navigate through the site by clicking next at the bottom of the page.

also, you're alternator when you first start the car should output 14.0 or more volts, and as the car runs and the battery charges back to near 100% the alternator output voltage will drop to around 13.5. This is the voltage regulator regulating to prevent overcharging the battery, causing the water in the electrolyte to boil off and ruin the battery.

And after you just shut the car off, or finish charging a battery, there's what's called a surface charge on the battery. This will make the battery have a higher open circuit voltage than it should, you can read the details at batteryfaq.org. So after you shut the car off and the alternator was just outputting 14 volts, the battery will measure in the 13 volt range for a while. You have to either let the surface charge dissipate, such as waiting overnight, or put a measured load on the battery for a specified length of time to get rid of the surface charge, then you can accurately measure open circuit voltage on the battery to determine its state of charge.