Battery or Alternator?
Thread Starter
On The Tree
Joined: Nov 2010
Posts: 184
Likes: 0
From: Atlanta, GA
Battery or Alternator? So I left my phone charger (that lights up) in the cig lighter for several days without driving and it killed my battery. Got a jump, drove around for about an hour, get home, battery's still dead. Get another jump, go to autozone. They test the battery and say that the battery is fine, but dead. So they stick it on their charger for about an hour and 10 minutes. We put the battery back in the car and it hesitantly starts (had to give it some extra gas to start), take a 10 minute drive home (because the battery is supposedly fully charged, even though it hesitated to start), and the battery is low (~8v on the dash gauge). So today I'm gonna jump it and disconnect the battery afterward to see how it runs with just the alternator. I'm thinking the battery is bad even though Autozone said it was fine, or the alternator is going out and just isn't providing enough to charge the battery?
Thoughts Tech? (looking at you Whitebird
)
Thoughts Tech? (looking at you Whitebird
) what does your gauge say? how old is your battery? if battery over 5 years i'd just replace it. i just had alt problems from adding a under drive pulley and after 20 min my gauge was dropping to 12 into the danger zone. new mechman 150 amp alt from TSP plus an overdrive alt pulley cured my issue.
im no mechanic, and you didnt tell me how old your battery was but if you start your car and the gauge isnt at near 14 im GUESSING alt problems. some people here think the best fix is a gm 140 amp truck alt for around $135. my mechman 150 amp was $200. do a thread search for alternators. goodluck!
Last edited by DANOZ28; Sep 10, 2014 at 11:35 AM.
Thread Starter
On The Tree
Joined: Nov 2010
Posts: 184
Likes: 0
From: Atlanta, GA
Whoops, thought I had edited that post. The battery has been in since I bought the car in February 2013, but the car sat in a car port most of it's life when the previous owner had it. So who knows how old it could be?
Your alternator isn't designed to charge a depleted battery, trying to do so can fry your alternator. Try hooking up your battery to a trickle charger and charge it for a couple of days and see if it will hold a charge after that.
To test the alternator get a volt meter and measure the voltage of your battery before and after your car is on.
To test the alternator get a volt meter and measure the voltage of your battery before and after your car is on.
Thread Starter
On The Tree
Joined: Nov 2010
Posts: 184
Likes: 0
From: Atlanta, GA
We charged it at Autozone but then when I went home, it was already dead again. Went back yesterday after jumping the car, tested the alternator, which was fine. Tested the battery again, said it was fine, but it was losing voltage consistently. So I bought a new battery, everything's been fine since. Turns out, the old one was 5 years old.
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