Battery problems from non-use
 

I haven't been driving my car much for the last 4 months. Got hit with some severe vertigo mid-January and I'm finally getting back into things now.
Started my car up twice during that period of time. First time took it out for a short drive but long enough to warm it up good. It started fine on initial start up and any starts I made during that trip. I think I went to the beach so may have started/stopped a couple of times to take pictures.
A week and a half ago I started it but only moved it out of the garage to let it warm up, then back into the garage.
Yesterday I went to go get some things at Goodwill (I won an auction for a train set :D) and it wouldn't do anything except show me a few, not all, of the dash lights. Took the wife's car to get the train and came home to start investigating the problem.
Battery measured 6.6V on my trusty VOM. Not good.
I disconnected the positive cable and hooked up my battery charger. It's an old model that turns on when you plug it in. I switched it to the 2 amp setting before plugging it in.
The meter didn't even move when I plugged it in. Switched it to the 8 amp setting and it started out showing less than 4 amps and slowly over the course of the morning/early afternoon showed 6.5 amps. Left it hooked up all day (9:30-4pm) and disconnected it over night. Battery was showing less than 12v when the charger was plugged in and charging at @11am. It finally showed 12.3v at @2pm.
When I disconnected everything at 4:30pm it showed 12.6v.
This morning after sitting overnite disconnected from everything except the neg terminal it shows 12.3v.
The battery has a 2/21 sticker on it so is not new but not old either IMO.
Think I should just pull it and go to wally world to let them test it?

I do believe, for whatever reason, that battery is toast. It should’ve held that 12.6 V charge overnight.

If it will start as is...I would leave it in and drive to Walmart.
I've done it before and they come out to the truck and put a load test on it. If you bought it there, they will switch it out with credit towards the new battery.

I've been happy with their everstart batteries.

Yeah it's an Everstart alright.
Already got it out an in the CR-V.
I don't like anyone under my hood if I can help it.
Will report back in a few....

The two wear items in my vehicles I have come to believe are the most important to invest in are the tires and the battery.

I will replace either before I get my money's worth, if it means not leaving me stranded on the side of the road.

Even if I have and can change the spare tire - it's still a PITA to do so.

In your case, Scott. Maybe just see if it starts OK each morning for the next couple-few days and go from there.

If it has had a charger on it and is still not performing get another and be done with it.

Glad to hear your veritigo is better now.

Parasitic draw?
Disconnect battery neg wire.
Put multimeter in amp mode.
Jump amp meter across battery to ground.
Record amps

You might want to add this to your rollaway. Measures the milliamps of resistance between posts. Also gives a condition report when you punch in the battery's CCA rating. I thought it was too cheap to do what it does,,but bought one anyway. Have had it for a year or so now. By golly, it works..

https://www.harborfreight.com/digital-automotive-battery-analyzer-66892.html

another possibility:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KF1gijj03_0&ab_channel=EricTheCarGuy

I have one of these on the 911 and my truck. A simple turn of the knob when the vehicle is going to sit awhile and no worries. Turn clockwise when you're ready to run again...

https://www.amazon.com/Post-Battery-Master-Disconnect-Switch/dp/B001N729FS/ref=sr_1_34?keywords=battery+disconnect+switch+12v &qid=1649264555&sr=8-34

OK. Battery checked at wally world and was bad. Don't know how bad as they didn't say. This was the third battery I've exchanged on this receipt so I ended up paying the pro-rated diff based on the 5 year battery I first purchased in 2018. $95 later I've got a new battery that is free replacement for 3 yrs since I paid the pro-rated price. No worries here as $95 won't break the Douglas household.
Now to figure out where the draw is.
I noticed a pretty good spark when I initially hooked up the neg cable, positive already attached. I thought I had everything turned off inside but it appears not to be the case.
I will go back out and try the VOM between the neg cable and post to see how much of a draw there is.
I'm with you Baz, I don't want to be stranded or worse yet my wife be stranded for reasons that could have been prevented with a little bit of foresight or money spent. Tires and batteries are running neck and neck for first place.
New batt measured 12.6v right off the shelf so we'll see.
Now to go check the draw............

Wow, there's a .78m milliamp draw.http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1649268397.JPG
When I have the meter set as shown in the picture.

That's a little high isn't it?

Kinda...depends on the car. How many things draw when car is supposedly "off". The newer the car the more the draw. Maybe a dealership could tell you?

Rather than fight this, I'm going to get one of those master switches.
Thanks for the link @craigster59.

a quick & easy solution. In the video I posted "eric the car guy" says with all off, the most you should see is 50 milliamps. You're damned close...possibly within meter error?

That is what I'd expect. Only thing I've 'added' to the car is a device to defeat the VCM so it doesn't go into ECO mode and drop cylinders. Not sure how much that draws, but it is connected to the positive post so it may be the culprit. I've got sewing machines to service today so have to drop this for now. I might investigate it further when I get the switch and put it on. Should be here Saturday but that's my wife's B-day so who knows what I'll be doing then.

(without googletagmanager or bing javascript being activated, our host website did not return any results..ugg)

Nevertheless:
If you are storing a car for an extended period of time...a battery post cut-off turn switch will help save it.

Natural degradation, radio clock, security features, and other functions will draw amps and drain it down over time.

Most batteries like to be slow charged.
The "smart chargers" add a jolt or three of high voltage to wake it up when it's ready.
Don't use a welder.

I just looked at the picture I took with my phone of the charger yesterday. It's an old Sears model I've had forever, and I think my dad had it before I got it, so it's pretty old. Once I get it forwarded to my computer I'll post the pic.

Hey Scott-

Thx for the followup!

I have a battery tender on my 356. Even though I run/drive it at least weekly, I still like keeping the battery charged up in between.

Just something to consider.

Oh - I also have one on the 914 which resides over in my Mom's garage.

Not sure if this is feasible for your situation but thought it worth the mention.

Also a theft deterrent!

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1649342534.JPG
As promised here's my battery charger. Like I said, it's old, but it works.

I hear you @Gogar on the theft deterrent. The car sits in the garage (too much according to my wife) and I don't think I'd open the hood to engage the cutoff if out in public, I'd rather trust the built-in theft system of the car itself.

Two things worth mentioning.

You might want to check this again. 0.78m milliamp is a confusing reading. Either you mean 780 mA (pretty high), or you mean 0.78 mA (very low).

Also, some cars have some electronics active for a period of time after you turn off the car. You might want to check the reading again after the car has sat for 30 or 60 minutes. Make sure you don't open a door or hit the unlock button before you take the new reading.

Had one on my car at the vacation house, I used to lock the knob inside when I left.

OK.
I just checked this again. Car has sat all night without being connected to the battery. No doors opened nor is there any under hood light. I connected the VOM between the neg cable and post and got this reading:
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1649345437.JPG
This is noticeably lower than what I saw yesterday upon initially installing the battery. I also didn't notice any 'sparking' when I attached the VOM. There was a noticeable spark when I connected the battery yesterday. So much so that the small amount of grease on the cable end smokes a tad bit.
I think 'systems' may have updated in the car during my fooling around with it yesterday and today they weren't drawing as much current.
It's a 2011 Honda Accord with all the options, ie NAV, security etc etc.

I'm not an electrical wiz by any stretch of the imagination so what do you think?
Sorry that first picture wasn't my best effort on the focus, this one is much better IMO. (I see picture resizing has done in the focus on this one too, sorry)
Thanks for any and all help I've received here.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1649346001.JPG
Another try at the picture.

That is a very low reading, 0.28 mA, so less than 1 milliamp.

Now, apologies for the potentially insulting question here. To make the reading above, is the battery disconnected, and you are connecting one terminal to the disconnected battery cable, and the other terminal to the battery? Said another way, is your ammeter connected in series to the circuit?

Yes, the positive cable of the car is connected to the battery + post and the meter is connected between the neg cable of the car and the neg post of the battery, so that is in series correct?

Perfect, yes. I think that you do not have a parasitic drain problem. You should be good to go!

Yeah, I was surprised at that low reading I got this morning. I expected it to be as high as what I got yesterday.
I still think I'll put the switch in when it arrives.
A .28mA drain shouldn't drain a big battery (700 CCA) like that even over two-three weeks of sitting.

I will also add that I agree with the prior posts about installing a battery cutoff switch. I killed my battery once when I didn't completely close the glove box. I didn't notice this until I went to start the car and got nothing. Over a period of a few days, the glove box light killed the battery. I also prefer to have a battery tender on my car with the battery disconnected from the rest of the vehicle.

I concur...one more test though. Check your alternator voltage output with the car running. Then also test with lights, fan, radio on.

https://www.autozone.com/diy/electrical/how-to-test-the-alternator-and-charging-system

Yes, I will do this too. Just as a point of ref, I tested my wife's CR-V when I parked it right after she came home from shopping this morning. I started the car and walked into the garage, got the VOM and put it on the battery posts. It showed 14.2v at the idle speed. This after having been driven @8 miles and shut off when she got home.
I'm waiting on the switch before connecting the battery in my car. Also waiting for the temp to come down........sheesh they said it was going to be hot, but really?
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1649373218.JPG
Looks like I need to advance the time on that readout too...it never ends.

When you unscrew the knob on the cutoff switch, it will be easy to spot check current draw by measuring current across the gap.

This is one of the reasons why I went with Anti-gravity batteries for my cars. Now I don’t worry about them.

In a week and a half went from starting the car to 6.6v. As rbitmchi said, I have also seen a glovebox light stay on intermittently, or trunk/hood light.

I'm dealing with pretty much this same issue with a 2000 Lexus RX300. It has sat unused for a little over two months. I went to crank it up and nothing, dead battery. I jumped it off with a jump box, drove it around the neighborhood and out on the highway, parked it for a couple of hours, went to start it up and again nothing, dead battery. Ugh!!!

Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk

@HobieMarty - From what I've learned reading up on this type of problem, that is the last thing you want to do. Don't expect an alternator to charge up a completely dead battery. They aren't designed for that kind of duty cycle and will burn themselves up trying to do it.http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1649780747.JPG
Here's the switch installed in my hot rod Honda.

My Prelude gets a lot of non use. Four years is about the max for each battery.

^^^ And today was the day that it wouldn't start and a quick charge didn't hold.

A trip to pick-up an Ever Start 4 year warranty battery for $110...I'm on the road again. Good for another 4 years.

I paid $94 for my three year free replacement Ever Start, but it's the first time I've paid for a battery since 2018 when I bought one of their 5 year replacement ones.

My records show I've had my car 10 year now. Wow, it's been that long already...

Happy Saturday! :)