Thursday, September 22, 2011

Anyone with knowledge on car batteries, please respond..?

I have a 96 toyota corolla. it's not a nice car, so i don't want to take it to a mechanic and pay to get it fixed. the problem is, the battery won't stay charged for more than 10 hours. just got a new battery, it went dead within 24 hours. i am going to try and troubleshoot myself with a multimeter on the fuses. my question is, what do I do once I find the battery leak? I don't see how finding the fuse leak will give enough info to troubleshoot the battery prob further.



if it makes any difference, i recently replaced the radiator and changed the alternator belt. thanks all.Anyone with knowledge on car batteries, please respond..?
Remove the negative battery terminal and place a test light between the terminal and the cable end. If there is a significant draw on the battery, the test light will light bright. (Be sure everything is turned off and all of the doors are closed.)

Now simply remove the fuses one at a time and recheck the test light in the same manner - when you remove a fuse and the light goes out, you have pinpointed the faulty circuit. If none of the fuses shuts the light off, remove the alternator positive feed and recheck the light.



Added: Once you find the faulty circuit, for instance, the interior light fuse - I would start by removing all of the courtesy bulbs. If that doesn't put the light out, you may need to get a wiring diagram and see if that particular circuit feeds any other components (such as a trunk light, under hood light, glove box light, instrument lights and so forth.)Anyone with knowledge on car batteries, please respond..?
you r suppsoe to charge it longer then 10 hours it is a car batteryAnyone with knowledge on car batteries, please respond..?
Take to auto parts store and let them test the alternator, they will tell you wheather it is the alt or not . Make sure all connections are tight and that your belt tenioner is not looseing its tension.Anyone with knowledge on car batteries, please respond..?
Well, the radiator should be a non-issue in this case.

But, when you changed the alternator belt, did you get it tight enough?

Also, the problems you are describing could be consistent with a shot alternator. Is it dying after 10 hours of running or after 10 hours?

Could also be an electrical leak in your car draining the battery while it's off. Especially on a car that age.

Assuming you're right, and the battery is losing charge, then just replace the battery. The way to see if that's the case simply is just to get the car running and make sure the battery is charged up all the way. Then shut off the car and take the battery out. Set the battery on the counter. Next day, put the battery back in and see how it performs after 12 or so hours out of the car.Anyone with knowledge on car batteries, please respond..?
FIRST THING I WOULD CHECK IS ALL THE MAIN BATTERY HOT WIRES TO SEE IF ALL THE INSULATION IS STILL ON THE WIRES THEN SEE IF ANY MAIN HOT WIRES ARE TOUCHING ANY METAL ANYWHERE IF UR WIRES ARE TIED TOGETHER WITH ZIP TIES CUFT THE ZIP TIES SEPARATE ALL THE WIRES AND ELECTRICAL TAPE THEM AND RE ZIP TIE THEMAnyone with knowledge on car batteries, please respond..?
first make sure altentaor is chargeing . . now to check for a drain . a test light . take off pos bat ternimal . put test light in be twin pos . bat terminal an pos cable . if lights up you have a drain shourt . now leve light hook up an pull fuses one at a time till light goeas out . an your drain is in that cirket. if not imporent cirket just leave fuse out or trace that cirket out till you find pos wire that is shorting out or fed backAnyone with knowledge on car batteries, please respond..?
now that you have a meter, the first thing to do is check the voltage at the batt with car running.

if the alt is working it will measure 14.5 volts or above.

if it reads 12.5 or 13 volts , the alt is not charging.



A working alt will charge a new batt in about 10 minuets.Anyone with knowledge on car batteries, please respond..?
It's the alternator. Do a voltage test when running and if its not around 13.5-14.5 volts, then its a bad alternator.