Car won't hold an idle could it be the battery?
Car won't hold an idle could it be the battery? I don't drive my car often, and i have an alarm. So the battery is draining a lot. I have a battery charger so i just up it with the charger and drive it where i want to go, when i get there it starts fine and holds charge for a few days. Yesterday i jumped it and it wouldn't hold an idle, it would go down to like 400 rpm and die. I have a Uni from datamaster if you want to check it out. The voltage never goes over 12.6 and when the rpm's drop the voltage goes down to 10.3.
It was running fine before now it is acting up. Something i realized is that i ran it for about a minute at 200amps on the charger. If i fried something it would stop at the alternator right? Could this jack up the battery?
It was running fine before now it is acting up. Something i realized is that i ran it for about a minute at 200amps on the charger. If i fried something it would stop at the alternator right? Could this jack up the battery?
TECH Veteran
Joined: Dec 2008
Posts: 4,145
Likes: 61
From: Little Rock, AR
If the voltage never goes over 12.6 at any RPM, the alternator is not working. After the battery dies, power is lost to the computer and volatile memory is lost. It is somewhat normal for idle to be affected until it relearns a little bit, but it is not going to run right with only 10.3v.
If the voltage never goes over 12.6 at any RPM, the alternator is not working. After the battery dies, power is lost to the computer and volatile memory is lost. It is somewhat normal for idle to be affected until it relearns a little bit, but it is not going to run right with only 10.3v.
i pulled the battery and had it tested at autozone as well as shucks, tested good, but low charge. I also took off the alt. and had it tested at both, tested good. I then charged the battery to 13.2 and put everything back on the car. Tried to start it and same thing. Any idea's where to go with this? datamaster didn't throw any red flags up to me, but i'm new to datamaster so it could be my untrained eye.
