weird battery situation

[j5productions]

Hey, first off i have a 98 gs. A week ago my first left my door half way opened and killed mu battery. My alt and battery ar good, just needs a recharge.
So i charged it for a couple of hours and had to Leave for work. Things go well untill leaving work today, omw home my radio stops and my battery light randomly turns on and was slowly flashing (from it being near dead) well i make it home with no dies so im sure my alt. Is good. I turned it off and right back on and my battery light was off and seemed fine. Tonight i go to change shift knobs and the lights are out and it is dead again. I do have an alarm so it could slowly drain it.

Do i need a full day or 2 recharge or could it be another problem? Nothing was left on besides the alarm. Or could it be another problem.
Please help, im sorry for the noob question. Just having problems.

 

[shakeandbake]

I left my car for inspection and the mechanic left the light on. It took a good week for the battery to get back to a full charge through daily driving. Now its fine. Give it another good charge. It should build back up quickly.

 

[j5productions]

I left my car for inspection and the mechanic left the light on. It took a good week for the battery to get back to a full charge through daily driving. Now its fine. Give it another good charge. It should build back up quickly.

Alright i will try it. Thanks buddy.

 

[chrisgarza]

Have you tested your alt? Also have you checked the cells in your battery? If you got the car to start and run after your charge the alt should've brought it back to 12v. Use a multimeter and see what the battery is at while off (12v) and while running (13.9v?) Then pop off the two covers on your battery and look at the water levels. They should all be equal and almost to the top of the hole (about 1/2" below)

 

[j5productions]

Have you tested your alt? Also have you checked the cells in your battery? If you got the car to start and run after your charge the alt should've brought it back to 12v. Use a multimeter and see what the battery is at while off (12v) and while running (13.9v?) Then pop off the two covers on your battery and look at the water levels. They should all be equal and almost to the top of the hole (about 1/2" below)

I went to a autopart store and They tested the battery. It tested good just needed a charge. They said my alt is good but They only asked if it dies while driving I'll look up and see how to test a alt.

 

[shakeandbake]

well if it dies while the engine is on then the alt isn't doing its job. just take a voltmeter to the battery with the car on. if its in the 13 volts then its working.

 

[jasonj92]

Check for loose or broken wires on the alternator

 

[j5productions]

well if it dies while the engine is on then the alt isn't doing its job. just take a voltmeter to the battery with the car on. if its in the 13 volts then its working.

If the battery or car dies? Well I guess if the battery died and the alt didn't work the car would die too.. Haha, Thanks for the help, I'll test it out tomorrow after work

 

[my dreamt dsm]

If your battery is drain down to the max. It doesn't matter it'll keep dying. Check to see if it's leaking acid. Mine did and it never fully recharged.

 

[shakeandbake]

If the battery or car dies? Well I guess if the battery died and the alt didn't work the car would die too.. Haha, Thanks for the help, I'll test it out tomorrow after work

Well if your engine dies and the dash dims out then its the battery. If the dash stays on then your still getting power.

 

[chrisgarza]

oh yea, have you checked for shorts anywhere? You mentioned an aftermarket alarm, how about your head unit. My Cardinal S-1600 had a similar problem, would charge fine alt and batteries where fine. After numerous hours of checking for a short I found nothing and installed and Interrupt switch. Finally spent a night tearing into dash and found it in the factory head unit. Worth a look I suppose.

 

[j5productions]

Update. So I spend a day and a half chargong the battery and other reads 12 volts. They say That's at 25% I put it on and turned the car on. The battery read only 11-10. Sometimes 12. But the terminals read 13-14 volts. So my alt is fine. But when I hurt lights on rpms drop and nearly dies. Is it just a shot battery?

The alarm and gradient were installed by a professional place btw. So I hope it's no shorts.

 

[Operate]

I think Jason, and Chris have a great idea, The battery was tested and if they told you it was a good battery and charged it then it had sufficient amperage and voltage to be deemed a good battery.

Your alternator output is at 13-14 volts so that is working, but when you installed the battery, and ran the vehicle with the lights on it died?

The terminals could be corroded, or like Jason suggested there could be a loose ground cable, or even power cable or corrosion on the positive or negative cables where they connect to ground, and the fuse box?

Just throwing ideas out there, also try removing the fuse that powers the aftermarket accesories that you said you had installed, and see if that changes anything.

 

[Wild Bill]

What kind of charger are you using? Anyway check to make sure battery connections, both posts and connectors are clean. Also make sure the battery fuse connections are clean. Turning on the lights and almost killing the engine doesn't make sense. You don't have an inductive amp meter do you? If it was a short you would see smoke. If your volt meter has an inline amp meter you can pull the negative terminal and measure to see how much of a drain you have. Make sure the under-hood light bulb is disconnected.

 

[j5productions]

What kind of charger are you using? Anyway check to make sure battery connections, both posts and connectors are clean. Also make sure the battery fuse connections are clean. Turning on the lights and almost killing the engine doesn't make sense. You don't have an inductive amp meter do you? If it was a short you would see smoke. If your volt meter has an inline amp meter you can pull the negative terminal and measure to see how much of a drain you have. Make sure the under-hood light bulb is disconnected.

The charger is a tiny little yellow and black cables. No buttons, just charges and has a blinking light . I mean someone said the cher might not have enough power to charger it. Terminals are new and No smoke. But a friend said a small spark happens on the battery positive side. The battery is old and crappy looking though.

Like it worked fine and my battery light turned on and from there it just has a problem when I use anything electrical. And I turned off the car, and tried to use accessories and tried lights or windshield wipers and you can here a faint noise but nothing happens.

 

[Wild Bill]

Well no matter what size it is, it could be a 2 amp trickle or a battery maintainer that puts out an amp but if you can get the voltage up to 13.2 and try again.. Sucks not to have your own test equipment..

How long of a drive do you take it for say driving to work? even an hour idling should get you in the range for an overnight restart if your drains aren't to large.
I would check for drains. Battery testing can't be done properly with an almost dead battery. Have to get that battery fully charged to even test it.
Cheapest solution might just to get a new battery and start from there. Like how ong did you leave the door open in order to kill the battery anyway?

 

[Diamond Star Werks]

If you have a gel battery like an optima no little home charger will work. The battery must be charged with some good amperage. The gel batteries must get warm in order to properly charge.
Took 3 days of driving in a avalanche which has well over 100 amp alt to fully charge my red optima.

 

[j5productions]

Well no matter what size it is, it could be a 2 amp trickle or a battery maintainer that puts out an amp but if you can get the voltage up to 13.2 and try again.. Sucks not to have your own test equipment..

How long of a drive do you take it for say driving to work? even an hour idling should get you in the range for an overnight restart if your drains aren't to large.
I would check for drains. Battery testing can't be done properly with an almost dead battery. Have to get that battery fully charged to even test it.
Cheapest solution might just to get a new battery and start from there. Like how ong did you leave the door open in order to kill the battery anyway?

The battery was never at a full charge and my friend left it half open overnight. So I'd say 8-12hrs of my dome lights on. we have a volt meter and a crappy charger Haha. The drive to work is about 10 minutes if that. School is about the same.

 

[RamenPride]

If the charger you have isn't doing the job, Advance Auto Parts and Autozone will both charge your battery for free.

 

[jasonj92]

If the charger you have isn't doing the job, Advance Auto Parts and Autozone will both charge your battery for free.

Yeh this^^^^ do that every once and a while if I think I have a bad battery they fully charge it then load test it then u can see if a new battery is in your future.
Sometimes if a battery gets really drained down and its already on its last leg that's enough to make it crap out .

 

[Jdabishop]

Had this happen to me luckily the battery I purchased at Autozone has a lifetime warranty so id go check and see if you can get a replacement.