help! battery wont hold charge
 

when i jump start it at night my t2 87. i leave on for an hour. then when i try to start it up in the morning it wont start, its completely dead. dont know jack about car batteries so im wondering if u guys can help out.

you may want to take it somewhere to get checked...my battery did the same thing...turns out the battery was messed up and i had to get a new one

clean the terminals see if that helps.

if not look at the top of the battery. are there raised square "caps" if so pry them off carefully with a screwdriver. look in the holes and see where the level of the water is. dont touch it its acid. if its close to the top u neede a new battery. if its low buy some distilled water at the store and fill it up. if this doesnt fix it u need a new battery.

ps if there are no caps then its a sealed battery and you're sol buy a new one.

thx guys. i went to check it at autozone and they told me it was fine. so then i drove to sears and they told me the alternator was fine then i managed to get home. i start it up the nect morning it wont start up. and i dbout its the cold weather

then its not the battery....does it actually crank? or is it quiet

If you have to get a boost every morning then there is a problem with the battery. The problem with having it tested after you ran the car is there will be a charge on it, but it wont hold the charge for a while. So take the battery in after it hasnt been on the car running for like 12-24hrs. Check the water resivour like someone else said, if its low fill it and then run the car for a while. If that doesnt fix it buy a new battery.

You may also have something that's draining the battery when it sits overnight - there might be a current draw somewhere.

Dale

Maybe. I have a battery on my car thats like 1/2 the size it should be and it dies randomly for no reason :D Not really worried about it though... Its on there so I can test eletrical stuff with out worrying about killing a good battery :)

yeah, I agree with Dale, the first thing that you check should be the current draw with a digital multi-meter

If you don't know jack about batteries(your words), then you most likely don't have a digital meter. So how about shutting the car down after running it for a hour or so, then take the negative lead off the battery. Go out the next morning and put the battery lead back on and see what happens. If it starts, then you most likely have a light left on somewhere in the car. Or it could be a blown diode in the alternator drawing the battery down. So, if no lights are on, the next time instead of taking the battery lead off, take the lead off the alternator. Its the big black wire held with a 8mm nut. Don't short it to any ground while its off. Then go to bed, get up the next morning, hook up the alternator wire and try starting the car. If it starts, then the alternator has a bad diode in it.

Buy a digital meter. You'll need it in life, time after time if you keep this car. Learn as you go.

dude if u dont have a meter u can check the draw by just taking the neg terminal off and tapping it against the terminal. if it sparks theres a draw.

NO NO NO... do not ever do that.

That is a good way to smoke any CPU/ECU/ electronic device that has a constant feed to it like the CPU/ECU/Radio/Clock, etc.

That would only work on one of those old car from the 60s that didn't have any sort of solid state electronics, or caps and even then is a dangerous and inaccurate method of testing for a draw.

I had a similar problem recently. My car would start and I would drive somewhere and then turn off the car and when I came back it would die. I found out it was my alternator that was dyeing and my car was running off of my battery a lot. I got a new alternator and it runs even better now!

Since then, I installed a volt meter gauge in my TII to see if power is being drawn.

Later.

:eek: The things people will do in ghetto mechanics 101, not that I do everything right (and yes I've been trained, and am back in school...AGAIN). Anyway did you get the battery charged at a store for one of those 1 hour charges??? If find a place to give you a SLOOOOOoooooo....oooow charge! That's the only real way that you can find out if the battery is any good (the electrolytes levels might be too low or have a damaged cell inside). Get them to charge the battery for as LONG as feasible (I don't mean a few (3) hours...I'm talking SERIOUS time), with the lowest amperage as possible. The slower the charge and the lower the amps/current the better the charge. If it doesn't work after that you need a new battery, that's the best way to find out because a multimeter will only tell you how many volts you have in the battery...not the condition of it.

No that is not true... with a digital multi-meter it is very easy to test condition/load, voltage, and amperage of a battery, draw of the vehicle, resistance of the wiring, etc.

But a simple way to test condition or load test a battery without a load tester using a digital multi-meter:

Read the voltage without anything on.

Then turn the head lights on for 5 minutes
after the 5 minutes read the voltage again. It should not have dropped more than 1 volt. if it has dropped more than 2 volts the battery should be replaced.

The battery should be replaced if there has been more than 10 times drained flat as well; unless the battery is a deep cycle/marine type battery.

If the battery is all good, just get a 3rd gen alternator.

I have a tiny battery in my TII also. After driving it I can sometimes hear the battery boil! :eek: It's been sitting for a while b/c I got wrecked and I tried starting it the other day and the battery is dead. I should probably just replace it with a larger one.

hey guys i think i got the battery workin. i jumped started it yesterday and i left the car on for 3 hours hopefully chargin the battery. i go to my car this morning and it starts up! yeho now i got a ride to get :beer:

thanks alot by the way!

welp never mind the battery is still messed up. im just gonna get a optima yellow top!