My battery died. It's not completely dead, but it doesn't quite have enough juice to start. It's currently not being driven, getting some stuff done to it. It was sitting there, tried to start it, battery died. I'd like to know why so I can avoid it happening again. Here's what I've done since it last started: It has a stock stereo set up, with two head units, one cassette/radio and one CD. I took those out, and also gave it a go on accessories with only the CD player connected. I've also taken out the aerial motor. Both stereo and aerial are currently out of the car. Is one of these things draining the battery? Or is there some other issue? It could just be that it's been sitting there with doors open and all that (and interior lights on :\) for a week or two without actually having been driven more than 2 meters.
Depends how old your battery is, how long it was sitting around for (although two weeks shouldnt be a prob). If you did have the doors open and draining the battery, you should be able to charge it back up as long as it wasnt sitting around dead for too long. See if you can jump start it and run it for a bit, other wise i think you can get some slow trickle chargers from Super cheap or somewhere similiar. Other than that, might just have to get a new on
I'm not sure about yours, but i installed a new steering wheel then went away for the weekend. a fw weeks later i noticed my battery didnt have the power to even run the interior lights. when it came time months later to tow it to the workshop, i tried to jump it with another battery and the horn started blaring.... o.0 the connectors in the horn were the wrong type so i never hooked it up, just left them in the hub and put the steering wheel on. seems the wires arced on the metal on the hub adapter and must have tripped the horn until i ran out of battery.. Explains why when i got back from the weekend my car had been egged and the neighbours kept giving me dirty looks : / WaynoZ
Turns out I drove it one week ago. I'm not saying it's dead dead, it's just been discharged more than I would expect. I wouldn't expect the doors being open for a few hours over a week to drain it this much.
Only had the car a few weeks. I still reckon it's more likely all the using the car without driving it is the culprit. I'll get it started somehow and we'll see
Yep Batteries will discharge even without power being drawn. Newer Batteries will hold charge better but there are many factors involved such as Total CCA / Temperature / Thickness of Plates / Specific Gravity etc etc and so a week or two is nothing unusual for a battery to drain. Ideally batteries should be kept on trickle charge at 13.2 - 13.8V if being left for more than a week - this is the float charge point - 13.2 V is the better float point as it will reduce evaporation from the gassing. Batteries should never be allowed to discharge at 11.5v or the battery will suffer some damage/ loss which will never be recovered. Batteries work best at electrolytic temperature being 27.5C. Batteries suffer severely from a temperature different to that and should not be used between 15 and 40C or damage will occur (if thats possible - lol) A guide - A good battery would sit at 12.4 - 12.6V without charge. If the battery is around 12.5V and it takes a while to charge it up to 13.8V then most likely it is a good battery, however if it charges quickly to 13.8V then most likely the battery is not so good. The ideal way to test is via a crank test or by SG test. Batteries can be boosted to 14.8V for a short period of time but this burns the plate and should only be done when equalising the plates (individual cells) Dont add anything to batteries other than distilled water if refillable, do not store on concrete (use wood) and do not hit/ drop the battery or the sulphate will drop off the plates and accumulate at the bottom potentially shorting a cell out. Ideally a solar trickle charger will extend the life of the battery by as much as 90%! A good investment perhaps Hope all that helps you work out whether its ok or not Cheers
Recharge your battery & if it's a cadmium type charge it at a rate over 14.5VDC. Once you're satisfied it is recharged, load test it after removing surface charge. Then check for parasitic drain (that's something drawing current [amps] from the battery). It wouldn't hurt to check the alternator output while your at it.
Ahhhh..look.. some reasonable points from SuperZ. But, somewhat flawed. To suggest that a battery would be drained to the point of compromising reliable starts and should be placed on a maintenance charger, which seems to be the inference here, in the time frame of 2 weeks or so is plain bollocks. This would indicate purely that the battery was completely munted or discharged heavily to begin with, or a parasitic drain in the electrical system as mentioned above.......... The old chestnut of a battery somehow suffering by being placed on concrete is also pretty laughable... As if the battery knows what its sitting on!! The only credible point there is that the concrete might hold a cooler ground temp thereby reducing CCA's to some measureable extent until the battery regains ambient temp. If the temperature point is so critical and the battery will "suffer severely" and "damage occur" (closed statements) due to cooler than 15 Deg or warmer than 40 then most of us in Tasmania at least are in real battery trouble as for better than half the year, rarely will the battery temp exceed 15 degrees, except when actually running in a hot engine bay in which case the temp would regularly exceed 40deg........ errrmmmm.. nah, they are not that pedantic! Battery plates dont "burn" after being charged with voltages exceeding 14.8v. The charge RATE (amperage) is what will affect heat generation and over/fast charging the battery for extended periods of time can result in overheating of the plates and sunsequent distortion leading to internal plate shorting. Now, to the OP, there is not enough prior info such as the age of the battery or its charge condition prior to it flattening to make any real call here. The car might have had numerous cold starts with little recovery time/runs inbetween with high demand electricals running such as lights and heater fans. Coupled with possible old age/ specific gravity/ plate sulphating issues and so-on. Mebbe the battery is just like me, old and fuggered and a couple of odd ('er than usual) circumstances coupled together resulted in the discharge condition. If i dont get at least 3 to 4 reliable years from new batteries then i question the new condition of the battery BEFORE I bought it. Perhaps it sat on the shelf for extended time before I bought it or its just a product of poor workmanship and loose QC???. Ive had my zed for some years now. It still has the same battery innit when i picked it up. I have no idea how old it is as it has not been date stamped. The car is driven infrequently as I have a small runabout as a daily. Altho in its favour, most of the running is extended running at highway speeds allowing good recovery times. After several weeks of rest, the engine will wind over sharply and spring to life effortlessly yet, if I leave the doors open and the rock-box running for more than a couple of hours then it wont even click the starter solenoid................. Now i dont exactly know what the reserve capacity of this battery is but its 600 odd CCA heavy duty thingo so "should" have at least capacity to run the rockbox for at least a day. Again old and tired! As mentioned, just charge it up and test it from there. /rant E
This. I hadn't considered this. I wouldn't say I had high demand electricals running (a little interior lighting brief stints of headlights), but it probably had 5 or more cold starts where it only ran for a couple of seconds (driving it out of/into the car port). I blame that. Anyway, I got the RACV to come jump start it, ran it for an hour or so before turning it off, and today it started fine. Gave it a good solid drive today to be sure, but I don't expect further problems.
Oh, to be honest, if the thing died that easily then you can certainly expect further trouble sooner rather than later. Just keep this in mind. E
Maybe. But, except for recently, I also spend very little time in my car without driving it. It may be half as good as a new one, but it'll keep going under expected use. In a year I'll post back in this thread, I bet I'm still using it
Please Steve, you should know by now that the primary function of the forum is to over analyse simple problems relating to technology that really hasn't changed in decades...
You forgot to mention that this is an "engine out job" as well, and maybe even dash pad..... unless one has one of those hard to find left handed screwdriver sets
Shit, really? Oh god. For sale: 300ZX, cherry red pearl, good condition but needs battery replacement…$1500 ONO
Sold I think, I shall have to part it out though, those batteries are one tuff job, oh whats postage to middle of nowhere - WA....... /[end Idiotism] Yes all I was being an idiot.
mate I think zeds do have a trickle type drain but I just kept it on a charger if I didnt use it for a few weeks and battery lasted for years and it was a second in the first place ie $55 from battery world, still cheaper than a new one if it lasts two years
