[Shop-talk] Stranded by a bad car battery.

[old dirtbeard]

Hi David,

Yes, I do understand about the lead acid chargers. I have accumulated many over the last 50 years. 🙂

Best,

Doug
mobile
________________________________
From: Shop-talk <shop-talk-bounces at autox.team.net> on behalf of David Scheidt <dmscheidt at gmail.com>
Sent: Wednesday, January 10, 2024 9:17:13 AM
To: Dwade Reinsch <dreinsch at swbell.net>
Cc: shop-talk at autox.team.net <shop-talk at autox.team.net>
Subject: Re: [Shop-talk] Stranded by a bad car battery.



On Jan 10, 2024, at 00:48, Dwade Reinsch <dreinsch at swbell.net> wrote:


This afternoon I was sitting in the 2016 Honda Odyssey van waiting for granddaughter to finish a theater activity and I went to sleep in the front seat.  Had the radio and inside lights on.  When she finished and came out, car would not start.  Completely dead.  Electric seat would not come back to driving position, etc.

Here's the question:  In the old days a weak battery would give notice by cranking slowly, etc., before failing.  This is the car I drive regularly and it gave NO warning.  Luckily, I could call son-in-law and he came to help.  Would not start with good set of booster cables.  Would not start with 15 minutes of charging on cables before attempting to start.  So in the morning I'll take pickup and tools and pull battery, get a replacement, and move the van home.

Does anyone have a suggestion for identifying a failing battery before being stranded?  (Battery is about 4 years old.)


If used properly, the conductance testers work well.  Not cheap, but every auto parts store will test for you, assuming your battery is accessible.  Many cars, starting just a bit later than your ofdesy, have state of charge and battery performance information tracked by the computer.  (OnStar sent me email telling me the battery is low when I left my car on to listen to the ballgame at a campsite. I also get a monthly email, which told me to replace the battery for a couple months before I actually had it replaced.)

Modern cars have much higher loads at start time, and lots of them require a reasonably good voltage to turn the computer on.  Without that, the car won’t do anything (the computer controls the starter solenoid on most cars).  The various computers also control all the other parts, which is why the seat couldn’t move.

This fall, I drove my wife’s fusion to the garage to do the brakes. I turned off and on a couple times to get it spotted in the right spot. The third time I tried to start it, battery was dead. 20 seconds earlier, it fired on instantly, with no slow cranking.  Since I was in the garage, I had a battery charger handy. 10.2 volts or something like that. Putting the charger on lowest setting let it start.  Plenty of joules in the battery, just not enough voltage to turn the ecm on. (I replaced the battery before pulling it out of the garage, it was 4 or 5 years old.)

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