question regarding battery behavior

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d_cymbal

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Hi,

I have a 98 Accord EX.

I replaced the battery 20 months ago with a 72 month battery. Last week I could not start the car without a jump. I put my charger on the battery and it would appear to charge up to 100% fairly quickly. If I tried to start the car I'd get one good kick which seemed almost good enough to start the the car and then it would rapidly just turn to clicking (starter?). As mentioned, car would start instantly with a jump. One thing I thought that was odd was that if I tried to start the car with my headlights on, they would dim somewhat but wouldn't die out completely which was leading me to believe the battery was not completely at fault.

I took the car to the shop and they said the battery was dead. They put a new battery in, checked the charging system and said that it was fine. Car has run fine since, but I still have this nagging feeling that something may not be quite right. Why would the battery go so soon if there are no apparent issues with the charging system? Why was my charger claiming to fully charge the battery? What about the test with the headlights? Are there reasonable explanations for this? Is there any other tests I can do at home (I've got a digital multimeter if that'd do me any good) to verify operations of things?

Thanks for any thoughts.
 
Hi,

I have a 98 Accord EX.

I replaced the battery 20 months ago with a 72 month battery. Last week I could not start the car without a jump. I put my charger on the battery and it would appear to charge up to 100% fairly quickly. If I tried to start the car I'd get one good kick which seemed almost good enough to start the the car and then it would rapidly just turn to clicking (starter?). As mentioned, car would start instantly with a jump. One thing I thought that was odd was that if I tried to start the car with my headlights on, they would dim somewhat but wouldn't die out completely which was leading me to believe the battery was not completely at fault.

I took the car to the shop and they said the battery was dead. They put a new battery in, checked the charging system and said that it was fine. Car has run fine since, but I still have this nagging feeling that something may not be quite right. Why would the battery go so soon if there are no apparent issues with the charging system? Why was my charger claiming to fully charge the battery? What about the test with the headlights? Are there reasonable explanations for this? Is there any other tests I can do at home (I've got a digital multimeter if that'd do me any good) to verify operations of things?

Thanks for any thoughts.
Click to expand...

Hello,
It's possible that the battery was defective. Don't really about it unless the same thing happens to your new battery within the next two months. If that happens, have your mechanic check your alternator and other things (such as wires) that could cause the charging system from working properly. I once had a car that had a wire that was "shorting out" from time to time. When it happened, the battery would go dead. That was a hard problem to find.
Jason
 
I have had the same thing with batteries, in different. I agree with jason@nospam.
 
Just because a battery comes back to full charge doesn't mean it's any good. The real test of a battery is its ability to deliver power. Power is Voltage times current(Amperes). You should fully charge the battery and then do a load test. Only when it passes this... can the battery be ruled out as the problem you're having.

Professor
www.telstar-electronics.com
 
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