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Electrical Failure... help

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Old Aug 11, 2007 | 06:11 PM
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inuissus_cendi's Avatar
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Electrical Failure... help

My car has been sitting for 2-3 weeks without being driven and now I finally got back from a trip and it has no electricity whatsoever. No lights come on, no fuel pump, no starter, nothing. The battery should be fine, only 6 months old optima red top.
The battery has been relocated to the back but only recently and I'm quite sure all of the connections are good.
Supposedly there was a huge thunderstorm a day or two ago while I was gone, could that have burnt out the fusible links or something?
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Old Aug 11, 2007 | 07:13 PM
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Doesn't matter how old a Battery is when it comes to whether it is good or not.
You may have left a map light on(if you have one), or something else. Also there may be a short in the system which drained the battery.

1st thing to do is get the battery charged up and tested. If it tests good and you are positive that you did not leave anything on, then you may have a short in the electrical system.
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Old Aug 11, 2007 | 09:40 PM
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inuissus_cendi's Avatar
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well i hooked the charger up to it and the gauge pegged past 15 amps. Then after I left it for a few minutes the charger started popping and then the gauge dropped to zero, shorted out i'm guessing. Any advice past that? as far as shorts, I hope and think not, cause there have never been any problems before.
COULD it even be the fusible links or something like that?
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Old Aug 12, 2007 | 12:05 AM
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95% of batteries go bad because of a fault somewhere else in the system very few of them go bad because of age or otherwise... most auto batteries can't deep cycle and multiple drains on a battery cell will leave it permanently weak... Also if it pegged past 15 volts your alternator has a bad voltage regulator... too much voltage can be just as bad as too little... I say volts cause I assume thats what you meant; if its only at 15 amps then it is bad as it is supposed to be 55
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Old Aug 12, 2007 | 12:10 AM
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Originally Posted by DanielBlakley
95% of batteries go bad because of a fault somewhere else in the system very few of them go bad because of age or otherwise... most auto batteries can't deep cycle and multiple drains on a battery cell will leave it permanently weak... Also if it pegged past 15 volts your alternator has a bad voltage regulator... too much voltage can be just as bad as too little... I say volts cause I assume thats what you meant; if its only at 15 amps then it is bad as it is supposed to be 55

You misread his post. The battery "Charger" went to 15amps. Meaning that the battery was discharged and the charger went to a full 15 amp charge.
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Old Aug 12, 2007 | 12:23 AM
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ah my bad , thanx doc! Well if the battery was discharged I would suspect the alternator... as I said few batteries go bad of their own error...
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