Alternator?

Alternator is new. Been in for almost 2 months and the test confirmed it was good.

if you drove 10 miles and the car didn't die then i would say that it is charging . you have to check to see if you have a draw . something is on and draining the battery .

I've already mentioned all that. I drove 10 miles to charge it and it was fine. There are NO parasitic draws and the tester verified that in addition to my new alternator working properly.

I had the same problem in my spyder. I also had a new alternator. It was a pepboys bosh. Turns out the first two I got were F'ed. They put out no amps and both had an internal issue and were draining my battery. I never put the third one on my car I was done with pepboys at that point. I fixed the issue getting a Mitsubishi reman Galant alt. I no longer have an issue and I have a few extra amps.

You could possibly have gotten a battery with a bad cell. Not very often, but a couple times I've put a battery in a customer's vehicle, only to have them come back and say its still not working right after a replacement. Try getting a spare battery from the junkyard or a friend and see if the problem continues, or if its just our batteries. Its hard to find someone to admit to it, but parts do come off the shelf bad. Check all of your wires for loose connections or corrosion, and make sure the connector on your alternator is plugged all the way in. I had a problem similar to this with my Cavalier after a new alternator and it turned out Sears (before I started working on my own vehicles) didn't plug in my alternator correctly. Simply pulling the plug out and plugging it back in fixed my problem.

I don't let anyone else touch my car, so any errors would be on me. I just got my battery back from being charged so I'll see how it goes in the morning after sitting all night. Gonna go for a drive.

A common misconception is to assume the alternator will fully charge a dead battery.
Or at least one so weak as to not to be able to turn the motor over.

You really need to use a battery charger to fully charge the battery back up completely.
You alternator will thank you for it too. < it will build up a lot of heat going full/near full field to charge a dead battery. Good way to shorten it's life for sure.

Once you get it charged then you can properly test it.
Like said before it must be charging if it stayed running. But you cant assume in 10 minutes of run time it will bring the battery back to normal/full charged service state. The alternator wont alone.

Get it charged completely, check the charging system make sure it can supply proper voltage & amperage.
Then you have to test for a parasitic draw key off.
There are plenty of threads here on parasitic draw testing with a volt meter on an amp setting.

^^^ I appreciate all the replies and suggestions, but it is counter productive to tell me I need to do something After I've stated I've already done it. My battery is fully charged as stated in post 8, I have never assumed and do fully know an alternator will not recharge a dead battery. I had the battery tested and the voltage was 12.61v, the CCA was at 290 when the battery is rated at 450 CCAs. Back to my original question back in post 1, what could cause the CCAs to drop when the battery is running over 12 volts, and the alternator is new and charging the battery properly? This has happened with 2 different batteries and I have NO parasitic draws, and haven't left anything running that would cause electrical draining.

$20 says your battery isn't fully charged. I can cook a battery on a 40amp fast charge and make it produce voltage and not amperage. That's what the retail store that offer free battery charging do. A fully charged battery will produce solid voltage for an extended period of time. Chances are, if you were to let your battery sit for a few hours, completely disconnected for any cables, you could revisit it and find that the voltage has dropped.

I used to have to explain to my customers that charging a battery was much like pouring a soda into a cup. You can poor it fast (slam it with high amperage), it will foam like crazy (representing voltage), and will fizzle down to almost nothing in the cup (lacking amperage). If you pour the same soda slowly (charge it slowly with low amperage), your beverage will not fizz like crazy (cook the batteries internals), and you'll have what you intended (amperage).

Either charge your battery the right way (slowly) or disconnect it whenever you park somewhere. People here are trying to help you. Copping a poor attitude will not win you many people willing to help. You can either take our suggestions and use them or continue to blame your twice failed battery on a fault that couldn't possibly be due to an issue with your car, but an issue of manufacturing.

Clearly you are doing the parasitic draw test wrong if you aren't finding any draw as you stated in your first post. Stand by memory of things like your radio, ECM and such will produce draw in the range of .20-.40mA. If you haven't seen this and continue to insist that you don't have draw, that is solid evidence that you didn't perform the test properly. If you'd like to argue this point, we'd like to hear what the difference in amperage draw was while the interior light fuse was installed versus when it was removed.... how much did it drop?

The store offered a quick charge and I said no, do a full charge. I have a degree in this field and do know a lot about these. I didn't do the draw test since I'm not allowed to use their equipment. The voltage never dropped. Is has been a consistent 12.61v. I'm only wanting to know how the CCAs could drop within 8 hrs of the car running and charging just fine. I'm not looking for info regarding voltage, or parasitic draws. Only CCA drop. I'm not arguing with any of you, just looking for an answer to a specific question.

Is the alternator a parts store reman? Frankly, it sounds like an intermittent alt problem. I had one that would slowly quit charging under load. Basically, I couldn't drive the car at night but it would function perfectly fine during the day. Used a great(and very expensive I might add) load tester to verify it was functioning. Convinced I had a wiring issue, I rewired the alt. Didn't solve the problem. Eventually, it just gave out completely. Yanked it and had an alt/starter repair shop run it. Came back dead as a door nail. Bought a used 90 amp alt from miller for $40 and been happy with it since (13+ months).

The system are pretty simple. If you can verify that you have a normal drain, your only other options are the battery, alt, and the wirse/fuses in between. Again, my money is on the alt. I've seen plenty test good at advanced/autozone only to finally shit the bucket completely at the worst possible time.

Can a moderator please just delete this thread since all these replies are erroneous. None of it is helping me with the question I asked???

I'm not asking about alternator charging, or functions, or anything involving a brand new, not remanned, properly operating alternator. I am looking for a simple question. Forget the car, forget voltage, forget parasitic draws, and forget the alternator. I just want to know about cold cranking amps. What can cause CCAs to drop when everything else is working properly???

OR, you can listen to what was given to you. When in doubt, test again. You clearly have an issue killing your battery. Find someone with a real load tester(ie Midtronics or the like), not autozone/advanced. CCAs are low when a battery has been discharged or a cell is damaged.....if you are POSITIVE it was recharged correctly, the battery is bad or the alternator is outputting enough under load to get you to your destination. Again, I had a similar issue. Car would drive relatively hiccup free to destination but would fail to start or struggle to stay running. Battery was brand new from a local shop. Voltage would read around 12.2 with largely decreased CCA....I.E. drained. Even died on me requiring a tow. Started right back up in the driveway when I got it home. Electricity and it's associated vessels/generators are a strange bunch.

You have an issue. It's either the battery, the Alt, or the wiring in between. You came here for ideas and you got them. Test it all again. I really do hope you can narrow it down. It sucks and can be frustrating, but again, its a simple system. Just do your best to narrow it down.

It's more likely to be an alt issue if this is your second battery. Just keep in mind my personal past experience on the matter being similar to yours. Take it for what it's worth.

BenjiXBass said:

You could possibly have gotten a battery with a bad cell. Not very often, but a couple times I've put a battery in a customer's vehicle, only to have them come back and say its still not working right after a replacement. Try getting a spare battery from the junkyard or a friend and see if the problem continues, or if its just our batteries. Its hard to find someone to admit to it, but parts do come off the shelf bad. Check all of your wires for loose connections or corrosion, and make sure the connector on your alternator is plugged all the way in. I had a problem similar to this with my Cavalier after a new alternator and it turned out Sears (before I started working on my own vehicles) didn't plug in my alternator correctly. Simply pulling the plug out and plugging it back in fixed my problem.

Click to expand...

I work at Advanced myself, and have batteries on the shelf that have been there over a year, but we test every one we install before hand at my store - primarily to prevent warranty issues like this.


If I know for a fact that battery was good when it left or after I installed it and you bring it back drained, something else is the issue.

I've tested alternators, starters, that tested good twice in a row, but the third failed. From customer cars, and off the shelves.

You want to know about CCA, This is essentially the power the battery has to start a car at 0°. The number of cold cranking amps you need depends on the setup and where you live, specifically the temperature of your area. The two factors are that the colder an engine is, the more power it takes to turn the engine over to get it started. The other factor is that the chemical reaction in the battery that creates electrical energy is less efficient in the cold.

So the colder it gets, more power is needed, but the available power drops.

Now on to reserve capacity: It's a measurement of the number of minutes of reserve power the battery has at a given load. The number is more important these days because of parasitic drain. Parasitic drain is the battery energy that's used when the key is off. So, the power drawn by the security system, the remote start system, even the power the computers require to maintain their memory.

Reserves are also needed when you make very short trips. You're not driving long enough for the battery to recover the energy it used to start the engine.
Which is likely to happen on an alternator that may be putting out, but not enough to account for what the battery is taking.

"Low charge leading to sulfation and acid stratification is a common cause of failure."...Battery univ.

some type of condition which contributes to capacity fade

If you insist that you do not have a parasitic draw, tell us the results in milliamps.

How many milliamps does the car draw with the key off?

I want to see you post the actual number.

spyderdrifter said:

I have a degree in this field and do know a lot about these.

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Jesus.... There is a lot of bullshit in this thread. If you have a degree in this field, why are you even posting? Every bit of advice given has been Busch League.

Cox Abele said:

Jesus.... There is a lot of bullshit in this thread. If you have a degree in this field, why are you even posting? Every bit of advice given has been Busch League.

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Yes, I have a degree, but I know i don't know everything which is why I've asked. I know there is a lot of bullshit here, which is why I KEEP reiterating my original question. I don't give a damn about anything here except my question, which yet again, is WHAT CAN CAUSE A DROP IN CCA WHEN ALL ELSE REMAINS NORMAL? I can type bold too. So since no one except this guy can give me any kind of answer:

pacn91 said:

"Low charge leading to sulfation and acid stratification is a common cause of failure."...Battery univ.

some type of condition which contributes to capacity fade

Click to expand...

I have asked a straightforward question that requires a straightforward answer so I'm done trying to ask about my question. Nothing else here was relevant to it. I know what CCAs are, among everything else mentioned, but since everyone wants to point me in directions other than what I need and then get defensive after I make a rebuttal, I quit.

Might give this a read
How to Measure CCA (Cold Cranking Amp) &ndash; Battery University

States in the article that almost all places cannot test CCA 100% accurately, and end-of-life can be down to 40% of original capacity, but still pass most tests.

And here's another forum talking about it. Since you are maintaining 12.61v, your car is charging fine and maintaining a 100% charge on the battery. That's just as good as it'll get.
http://forums.anandtech.com/archive/index.php/t-324695.html

Sorry, hard to believe NO draw at all. Radio presets, clock, anything with memory needs a micro amount of draw to keep the settings. As you know, anything over 1 amp would pull a battery down over night or during a sit while you are at work. Make sure your hatch is closed and the light is off. I sure can be wrong but sounds like something is pulling it while it is off. Is the alternator putting out 13.5+ volts when running. I am sure you checked that but just asking. Do you have milliamp draw when the car is off? Hate to tell you that its another battery and have it be something very simple which it probably is. I am also an Electrical Engineer so all of this is probably redundent for you but will put it out there just as a reminder. Good luck.

If you got a new battery in November, and it's already causing your car not to start about 6months later, I'd say it's the battery. It sounds like you have the AutoCraft group size 26 battery from Advance? That's like the cheapest one they have, and it's only 450 CCA's vs the 550+ from the stock group size 86 battery. I would spend the money on a better battery first, and then go from there.

I'd still like you to post the mA draw results from your parasitic test. So far, you haven't.

Have you found the source of your issue?

Still waiting for results.