Battery problem... in a car.... odd.

[Snaggletooth]

I've seen some strange things happen to batteries but never this one. Heard of it, but not experienced it... until today.

 

My daughter found a car she wants. Was supposed to go by and pick it up today to be checked over. She drove the car for a coulple days last week and had no problems. Everthing looked good to her.

 

But I got a call today that when she ariived the car wouldn't start. Dead. No lights, no radio no cranky. Sounds simple right. Dead battery. No biggie.

 

By the time I got there her BF had showed to and had a charger on it. Getting no reading at all and deader than a door nail with even with the charger running.

 

I hit it with the mulitmeter and got a 0 reading. Yep, dead. I was pulling the cables off and noticed the fusible link on the connection was blown. Now it makes sense. I figured the BF crossed the cables and shorted the fusible link. Grabbed another liink and as soon as I plugged it in it blew out, With a DEAD battery. Yeah right!!

 

Took another meter reading and watching closely the meter needle was pulling completely to the left side way past dead. Not right,

 

Ran it down to NAPA and had them run a load test. After three seperate tests with three different guys involved they annouced that it was indeed, NOT dead at all. The polarities had reversed. With all the opinions and observations onky one giy had ever seen it happen.

 

Using the multimeter backwards got a reading of 5 volts.

 

So new battery, new link, a complete inspection of cables and connetions I gently tapped the conncetion to the post and yea!! no spark, no blown link and it cranked right up and charged as it should,

 

Now from this I can only assume from my experience that the battery had discharged, for whatever reason that IF the BF crossed the cables trying to jump the battery may have well flipped the polarity from the stronger current.

 

So am I on track here or am I missing something going on a little more dramatic with the cars behavior?

 

Everything appears to be fine now, No warning indicators, not faults and charging fine.

 

I left it with the current owner for the night much to my daughters dismay. I'll see how things go tomorrow armed with a little more information.

 

So what happened and what caused it?

Edited July 12, 2013 by Snaggletooth

[cowpuc]

Ok, here is my guess,, the battery was flat dead from setting. The jumper cables got crossed and took out the fusable. The battery took a reverse polarity charge and that popped the fusable a second time..

At any rate, hopefully the fusable was able to protect any and all computer circuitry,, maybe you got fortunate..

If you have gremlins in the future you may have found the secret to producing them

Puc

[jonesy]

Just on this problem with my dodge ram truck, battery would die just sitting in front of house. Ended up being what they call a seat belt module [$150], was draining the battery and killing it.

[djh3]

My son has a Scion 05. Ever since it was new if car sat for like a week or more flat battery. Would jump off but if it sat again would go flat. Dealer checked it out twice on warrenty and found nothing but dead batt. So twice they replaced the OEM battery. 3rd time it went bad son replaced with good quality Autozone battery. Worked fairly well but still like 3 wk would be dead. Alternator died and I replaced that and figured maybe we were rid of charging problems. NOPE still say thing. Now the seat belt thing does make sense, its probably charged with key off and is hung "on".

[Flyinfool]

I would start by trying to figure out why the battery was dead in the first place after just a couple of days sitting. Did she while driving an unfamiliar car leave a light on?

When I was selling my truck I had that happen, someone turned on the interior lights and being in the day time I did not notice it, 3 days later when the next person came to look at it, the battery was dead flat.

 

It is not that hard to find the draw.

Disconnect the neg battery terminal and hook a 12V test light between the cable and the battery. If it lights you have a draw. Start pulling fuses till you find the one that turns off the light. Some cars have more than one fuse panel, don't forget any after market stuff that was installed. I will be normal for the light to be lit very dim. there are some things that must draw a small amount of power at all times. Things like the radio presets, clocks, alarm systems, possibly even the computer. But you should be able to park for a month and not even notice slow cranking even with those slight draws.

 

This same procedure work to find a draw on a bike also.

Edited July 12, 2013 by Flyinfool

[Huggy]

Reverse polarity is not a big mystery. I have seen it at work on a fork lift. What happened there is one of the maintenance mechs did not pay attention when he was charging a dead battery:stickpoke:. He reversed the cables and turned on the charger and charged the battery. It took the charge. only now Neg was Pos and Pos was Neg.

 

[Snaggletooth]

The folks that have this car have had it for about two years with no issues with the battery. They installed a brand new one, from Wally World, about 1/12 according to the tag on the battery. So a year and a half old and one of the cheap ones.

 

They only drive this car maybe once a month as the dad drives his pickup for work. The car is a spare more or less.

 

Like I said my daughter drove it for a few days before the 4th of July while she was working up in Norfork with no problems.

 

Maybe the battery just hit the end of its life. I'm thinking they had left a light on and drained it down. They parked it on July 5th and haven't used it since so it had time to run down.

 

I'm stuck on the idea the cables got crossed trying to jump it and caused the battery polarity to flip.

 

But none the less I'm headed over later today to check the battery after sitting all night. If it's still showing a full charge and better than 95% I'll figure there is no heavy parasite drain.

 

The owner of the car already contacted me this morning and says he will cover all parts costs for what it takes to get the car right for her to my satifaction. He'd rather have me do the work than taking it to a shop, unless it's really needed. Fair enough.

 

Lil history on this deal. We have known this owner and his family for several years. Decent folks. Anybody else and I would have walked away and let him deal with the problem yesterday.

 

My daughter has been driving a 1986 Olds Cutlass Supreme for several years and has racked up some pretty good miles, about 130K with her 60 mile a day commute to work and back. Car is showing its age and needs a lot more work.

 

The dad......loves that car. He has talked about wanting to do a full restoration on it or one like it for quite a while.

 

So he offered a straight up trade. The Cutlass for his spare car. A 1997 Infinity Q45 with 170K on it, but in outstanding condition. He'll take the Cutlass as is and make sure any problems on the Infinity are taken care of for her to my specs.

 

Either he is totally nuts or really, really wants to restore the Cutlass. Either way it's an interesting trade.

 

So hoping there are no gremlins in the Infinity today.

[JohnT]

Snaggletooth, that is simply a deal you can't pass on. 170,000 on a quality import is chump change for mileage. With care, and no road salt, there is at least another 150,000 miles in that Infiniti. Had a 93 Cutlass that I loved. Might still be driving it if it weren't for NY road salt. I had 187,000 on that car and it ran like a top. Rode and handled well too. The only issue I had with that car other than the salt cancer was quirky. In the rain the electric trunk release would release all on it's own. Not often, but once and again. And when it did it the dome light would also come on. I guess to let me know my trunk was open?

[Huggy]

The battery at work we just drained it flat dead and recharged it the proper way and it and the polarity went back to normal . BUT it does not always work most of the time the battery is just dead. When I have a car/truck/boat battery that will not take a charge I put my trickle charger from the motorcycle and put it on the battery and it will then take a charge.

 

[Flyinfool]

The Wally world battery could be the issue by its self. I bought their cheapest one during a cold snap where it was the only battery left in the city in my size. It would often go dead in a week of sitting even though there was no significant draw. It did this in less than a year. The replacement can sit for a month in that same truck without being started and it cranks right up even at 3 years old.

 

But I would still do a draw test to be sure there is not an issue.

I have found things like a trunk light or clove compartment light that would not turn off or other weird things that should shut off but did not and were not easily noticable.

[Snaggletooth]

Snaggletooth, that is simply a deal you can't pass on. 170,000 on a quality import is chump change for mileage. With care, and no road salt, there is at least another 150,000 miles in that Infiniti.

 

Yeah, I'm not concerned with the miles at all after looking the car over and taking it out for a drive last night. It's been taken care of. I've got about 190K on my Lincoln and no serious concerns there.

 

The first time I really looked at the car was when I went over yesterday to deal with the battery. First thought was there has to be some BS involved to trade that for the Olds. Yeah, I have some trust issues.

 

But he's got three boys and they are looking forward to a project together. Plays in my favor to. Might help keep the boys from chasing my daughter.

 

Shall see how this goes.

[Snaggletooth]

The Wally world battery could be the issue by its self.

 

But I would still do a draw test to be sure there is not an issue.

I have found things like a trunk light or clove compartment light that would not turn off or other weird things that should shut off but did not and were not easily noticable.

 

I've never been a big fan of the WW batteries. Heard of and seen too many early failures. My buddy owns an auto shop and alot of what he replaces are WW.

 

Draw test will be done today when I get over there for sure.

 

The one dumb move I made yesterday was before hooking up the new battery I went though the car and made sure all the light switches were off and checked the doors to make sure they were all closed. If I'd left that alone I would have known right away if they had left a light on when the new battey went in.

[Snaggletooth]

Well, it looks like it's a done deal. My daughter now owns an Infinity Q45.

 

Went over yesterday and checked the battery before trying to start it. Still showed a full charge and my meter showed it at 95% power after sitting for almost 20 hours. Did Flyinfools draw test and found no problem. Fired right up just fine.

 

Went over the car a bit more and only found a couple of things to deal with. Minor stuff. The remote entry fob don't work. Probably a dead battery in that. No big deal if it don't. Found out the alarm system work just fine.

 

Every other control and switch works as it should right down the seat setting memory. Even the spare tire donut looks like it's never been mounted and the jack didn't even have a scratch on it. The car has had a good life. The only wear in the interior is some on the drivers door armrest and a little on the drivers seat on the edge of the backrest. Gotta look for that spot.

 

Havng owned cars with sun roofs I always have concerns. While my daughter was in Norfolk with it she drove in some serious heavy rain storms and saw no leaks. I checked the power tracks in the roof and it didn't look like there had ever been water getting in. Better than my Mark VI did. Motorized shower stall that one.

 

Talking to the owner he asked me if I found any concerns. Had to laugh. Other than worn wiper blades and one hood lift support felt weak I couldn't find much. Told me to go ahead and replace them and bring him the receipts and he'll cover them along with the battery and the parts I used yesterday.

 

My daughter did the heavy work. She checked the radio and CD system. Watching her I think she checked every speaker in the car for volume and sound quality. I saw her slip in a Meatloaf CD and from the grin on her face I only assume the test drive we took last night was done to "Bat out of Hell." I can't hear so I have to take her word for it that there are no rattles, squeaks or banging noises.

 

Damn car rides and handles better than my Towncar.

 

We stopped to top off the tank from about a half. She was laughing when the pump kicked off at $17.00. (I need to check on the tank size. LOL!) She usually put $30.00 in the Olds at a half. She said she got about 20 MPG when she drove it to Norfolk last week. That's about double what the Olds got on a bad day. Less painful for her with the miles she puts on driving to work every week.

 

The owner and his boys had the Olds surrounded as we were leaving. They looked as happy as my daughter with their new toy.

 

So the kid is happy. She's even talking about waxing it. Weird. Never happend before. She couldn't understand why rain beaded up on my car and not hers.

 

She sent a text this morning that the car started fine and was headed to work.

 

I'm betting money she'll take the long way around today.

 

So one less problem to deal with, one less worry about the kid. I'm liking the grin on her face.

 

So that should be the end of the story that started when she came to see me and said those words no father wants to hear..... "Dad, I may have found a free car."

 

Well in her mind yeah, but as about as close as you can get. Not a bad trade at all.

[Snaggletooth]

Had to throw this in.

 

Hope it handles better on slick winter roads than the Olds did. The AWD should help. I hope.

[Big Lou]

WOW... it is nice to hear all went well for yalll

 

In the junk yard we had people hanging around watching us build hot rods and allways had their hand in the cooler

 

We developed a saying

 

" if you want to get rid of a friend sell them a used car"

 

They all thought we wound do work for free

 

I like the cutlas better,,hope the likes her new car,,now they all have a reason to get together, for the car:whistling:

[Snaggletooth]

" if you want to get rid of a friend sell them a used car"

 

 

Still trying to sell the Lincoln to my ex.

 

Wait, you said friend. Never mind.

[RSTDdog]

Be sure and check the air in the donut spare. most of them take 60 psi and they never get checked. You don't want to have a flat and find out its under inflated, those donuts will over heat rapidly when underinflated.

 

Was the Cultass a bucket seat center console car? If so I can understand the desire. With 60's and 70's rear drive GM muscle cars going out of site, the last of the rear drive GM coupes from the 80's are becoming affordable alternatives and nice ones that are higly optioned will eventually be collectors inspite of the underpowered emission motors of that era.

[Snaggletooth]

Yep, second stop after the fuel pump at the gas station was the air compressor. My daughter is a natural magnet for flat tires so I've got her trained for being prepared for that. She's been prepared for a while with a plug kit (and knows how to use it) and her own 12v compressor for a long time. She's can change a tire faster than any woman I've known. She's changed quite a few.

 

And yea, buckets, center console and even "T" topped.

 

It's going to take some serious work. Motors starting to blow some oil and rear seal was begining to leak. Body wise, well....... let me put it this way. If you put something in the trunk make sure it's bigger that a shoe box. And don't drive through any deep puddles.

 

Body is the redeeming factor as it was straight, but surface rust was having it's effect.

 

It' was starting to have a lot of electrical problems so that kept me busy when she would stop by.

 

It's gonna need some love no doubt. I've seen worse come back from the dead but ya know.....

 

:mo money: