Is my battery bad?

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testes

Member - Posts: 29

Joined: June 21, 2003

Location: United States

Posted: June 30, 2003 at 8:25 PM / IP Logged

Last week i had to get a new alternator for my car and now it seems better. Only problem is voltage drop when using my turn signals or brake lights. It drops to around 12 volts. My battery is 3 or 4 years old according to the shop. Im thinking that the alternator going bad put a lot of stress on the battery. Is 3 to 4 years old for a battery mean its about time for a new one?

mobiletoys2002

Gold - Posts: 1,050

Joined: April 12, 2002

Location: United States

Posted: June 30, 2003 at 9:23 PM / IP Logged

well it all depends i have seen batteries that are four years old runiing great but when a car has an alternator problem due to a high powered system then it is verry possible the battery would have a substantial amont of damage.A battery can go bad many ways one way is that the battery has died and once a bateery dies it has most likely lost almost a quarter of its life.Just rember one thing when a vehicle is running all your voltage and current comes from the alternator not the battery,so if this voltage lose happens when the car is running have the alternator checked.

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chuck_tempe

Copper - Posts: 58

Joined: June 21, 2003

Location: Arizona, United States

Posted: June 30, 2003 at 10:52 PM / IP Logged

the alternator in the car in most instances does NOT charge the battery if you're idling and have the car in gear (auto trans).

the alternator is only designed to charge the battery back up when the vehicle is above vehicle idle (i.e. moving). if you are running the air conditioner, lights, jamming your tunes real loud, your alternator is NOT charging your battery. a factory alternator is usually just large enough to run the stock electrical system in the car/truck.

what is happening is your battery's SLOWLY discharging and you are not giving the alternator a chance to charge it back up.

the hot weather here in phoenix tends to kill batteries within 3-5 years. batteries that have vents that are not removable tend to die very fast here. did you check the battery to see if there is enough water to completely cover the plates?

regular car batteries are not made to deep cycle unlike boat or rv batteries. when you deep cycle a battery, that means you drain a battery down far enough to require a jump start the vehicle to life. the battery never fully recharges to it's previous state. you definitely shorten the life of the battery that way.

my general rule of thumb is 1 battery to every 500 watts of power. when you do have more than one battery, you must use a heavier output alternator to charge both batteries, otherwise, you have two batteries draining slowly.

if you don't go with a heavier alternator, just drive around every once in a while without a heavy electrical load just to charge the battery back up.

ex 12 year car stereo, alarm techie.

now in res/com low voltage,voice/data

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chuck_tempe

Copper - Posts: 58

Joined: June 21, 2003

Location: Arizona, United States

Posted: June 30, 2003 at 10:58 PM / IP Logged

you never did mention what kind of car or truck you have.

if the battery is the one that came with the car/truck, i would buy a new one.

make sure it's got a good cold crankin' amp rating and a good reserve.

if you could afford an optima, that's what i would recommend.

ex 12 year car stereo, alarm techie.

now in res/com low voltage,voice/data

donate HERE

CutDog504

Silver - Posts: 637

Joined: May 14, 2002

Location: Louisiana, United States

Posted: July 01, 2003 at 10:16 AM / IP Logged

Why do so many people reccomend optimas? Personally, I've been thru my share of them, and all failed within 12 to 18 months! My first failure, was a yellow top. I had a red top in place of my stock battery, and I had a yellow top wired to all my amps, and both were connected to the alternater thru a 200 amp stinger isolater. Exactly 13 months after I installed these batteries, the yellow top went bad(And it only has a 12 month warranty!!). According to the salesman, i should have had two red tops installed, since i had them both wired to the alternater. So I bought a red top to replace the yellow. 6 months later, my other red top optima went bad. It was under warranty, but they gave me a bunch of bullsh*t about honring the warranty, saying that I voided the warranty by hooking up two batteries in my car, WTF??? About another year or so later, the other red top went bad, and they then refused to honor the warranty claiming "this is the third battery you fried, we aint givin you no more free batteries" . I gave up and bought two sears die hard gold batteries, and I have going strong ever since. Its been about 15 months now since i purchased the diehards, and no problems at all. Also I might add, two of my brothers had similar problems in their cars with red top optimas. They each went thru 3 batteries in less than 3 years, and they only had one battery(not two like I did). And as for those of you thinking I made the batteries go bad by undercharging them, I also upgraded to a 130 amp high output alternater when I first wired my car for 2 batteries. Personally, because of all my past experiences, and all my brothers and friends experiences with optima batteries, I wouldnt use one again if you gave it to me. I think they are a pile of sh*t, literally. thats just my 2 cents.

chuck_tempe

Copper - Posts: 58

Joined: June 21, 2003

Location: Arizona, United States

Posted: July 02, 2003 at 11:33 PM / IP Logged

i'm surprised you had that many battery failures. i personally use interstate batteries myself.

living here in the desert, you have to have batteries that you can add water to it. i don't trust ANY battery that you cannot add water.

also, you may have better luck with your sears batteries because you replaced them both at the same time. you should NEVER replace one battery at a time.

what happens is the weak battery slowly draws down the new battery and then you end up with 2 bad batteries. the batteries must also be identical or you will also have problems.

ex 12 year car stereo, alarm techie.

now in res/com low voltage,voice/data

donate HERE

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Is my battery bad?

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