Author Topic: Dead Battery  (Read 20850 times)

Offline hondarider188

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Dead Battery
« on: November 27, 2012, 07:15:59 PM »
I have a 1983 Chevy k10 silverado my  battery suddenly went dead after just a couple of days. It has never done it before until now after it has been cold for a few weeks. I cant find anything that is on no light or radio. The battery is new, the last owner put it in a couple of months ago. I traded out the battery for a old one i had and it started the truck right up so i plugged it in to charge overnight, then this morning i unplugged it.When i went back out tonight the battery was once again dead.just barely to push over one small crank and then to just kick on the starter. The battery is still reading a full 12 volts. So any ideas.
1983 K10 silverado

Offline 1979C20

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Re: Dead Battery
« Reply #1 on: November 27, 2012, 10:58:41 PM »
Bad battery. It can have full 12 volts but no amps. It has a bad cell.
1979 SCLB C20 Q-jet 350 SM465 14b F.F. 4.10 G80
1989 GMC Suburban V2500 TBI350 TH400 4in lift 35's 14b SF

Offline hondarider188

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Re: Dead Battery
« Reply #2 on: November 27, 2012, 11:05:04 PM »
really even though its a fairly new battery. And i Replaced it with another one, but the (another) battery is an old one out of my dads truck but still seemed to have a good holding on the charge but maybe not with the cold weather anymore.
1983 K10 silverado

Offline Tx_Phil

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Dead Battery
« Reply #3 on: November 27, 2012, 11:54:56 PM »
Pretty sure that new battery has a dead cell. Vibration, temperature extremes or just a lemon, even new batteries can have bad cells.

Most parts stores and even some places like Walmart can test your battery with a load. Voltage is only part of the story. Without the amperage the battery can do no work. A dead \ shorted cell will kill the amperage.
 

Offline bake74

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Re: Dead Battery
« Reply #4 on: November 28, 2012, 07:07:47 AM »
     The only way to know for sure is have the battery load tested somewhere that can check it.  With a full 12 v charge they can check to see if when a load is applied it has no staying power per say.
     If they check it and say that it checks out ok ( it could be you have 2 bad batteries, but not my guess right now), then something on your truck is draining the batteries.  Direct short, something you overlooked, etc.
     If batteries are good then you will have to do a draw test on your truck when everything is off and see if power is getting drained off somehow, and find out where it is.  Shorts can be frustrating and take some time to find out where they are.
#1: The easiest and most obvious solution to any problem is 99% of the time correct.
#2: There is no such thing as impossible, it just takes longer.
  74 k10, 77k10    Tom

Offline hondarider188

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Re: Dead Battery
« Reply #5 on: November 28, 2012, 03:57:19 PM »
I did do a draw test already and i my test light wasnt sensitive enough so i went to the multimeter and it couldnt pick up anything either. And i Know the multimeter does work , because my tracker does for sure have a draw and it picked it up at half of an amp. For the second battery I didnt have high hopes for it, because it is atleast a year old from when my dad replaced it so it wasnt the beast choice to begin with. So where can i go to have the battery tested and is it free at like checker?
1983 K10 silverado

Offline bake74

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Re: Dead Battery
« Reply #6 on: November 28, 2012, 07:18:56 PM »
     I am not where checker is, but most auto parts places can do the test.  I always start talking to the guys and find out, usually it is free because they want you to buy their battery.
#1: The easiest and most obvious solution to any problem is 99% of the time correct.
#2: There is no such thing as impossible, it just takes longer.
  74 k10, 77k10    Tom

Offline silverj

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Re: Dead Battery
« Reply #7 on: November 28, 2012, 08:37:27 PM »
Just hook the meter to it and turn on the headlights, that should provide enough amp draw to let you know if the battery is good or not. It shouldn't drop much.
87 R20

Offline hondarider188

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Re: Dead Battery
« Reply #8 on: November 29, 2012, 12:03:37 AM »
thanks for the help and i will try the headlight test tomorrow, but how much can i expect to drop. I did talk to walmart and the battery is under a 2 year warranty and they will test it for free, but the only issue i might have as that the last owner bought the battery just a few months before i bought the truck so naturally i have no reciept. Today i went to try and start it with the old battery i had laying around and it to was dead from overnight, so i brought out the original and "new" battery and it started the truck right up with no problems even though i never charged it and it appeared to be dead the day before, the only thing different was that it sat in the garage for the day.
1983 K10 silverado

Offline 1979C20

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Re: Dead Battery
« Reply #9 on: November 29, 2012, 12:19:02 AM »
Hmmmm... May be loose or corroded battery wires.
1979 SCLB C20 Q-jet 350 SM465 14b F.F. 4.10 G80
1989 GMC Suburban V2500 TBI350 TH400 4in lift 35's 14b SF

Offline hondarider188

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Re: Dead Battery
« Reply #10 on: November 29, 2012, 06:09:33 PM »
Well yesterday I spent all afternoon working on the truck while starting and running lights and radio and never seemed to phase the battery especially since I ran radio for quite a while without the engine. Then this morning I went to start it after a cold night of 20 degrees it cranked the engine right over quite a bit until I started it. So maybe I just had the cables loose, but I don't know I'll give it a few days and see if I'm back where I started.
1983 K10 silverado

Offline roger97338

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Re: Dead Battery
« Reply #11 on: November 29, 2012, 11:11:32 PM »
Each cell in a (automotive, starting, lead-acid type) battery is 2.1 volts when fully charged. So, when a 12.6 volt battery gets a cell short (dead cell) it drops the voltage to 10.5 volts. Another defect that will make your battery non-functional is when one of the internal welds between the cells fails. (Broken inter-cell connector.) This is usually a manufacturing defect, but it can also occur in vehicles that see heavy off-road usage, or happen during a wreck.

When you load test a battery with a cell short, the shorted cell will "boil", and the other five cells won't. The voltage drops very rapidly, too. If you have a broken inter-cell connector, when you load test the battery, the voltage will almost immediately fall to zero or near-zero, and there is an audible sound from inside the battery, caused by the current trying to jump across the gap created by the broken weld.

I used to work for a battery distributor, so I thought I'd share a little sumthin' sumthin' that I learned there. :)


Offline bake74

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Re: Dead Battery
« Reply #12 on: November 30, 2012, 07:30:44 PM »
     Sounds like it might be what roger97338 described with one of the internal welds broken.  Might be why sometimes it is fine and sometimes it is on the fritz.
#1: The easiest and most obvious solution to any problem is 99% of the time correct.
#2: There is no such thing as impossible, it just takes longer.
  74 k10, 77k10    Tom

Offline sphinx

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Re: Dead Battery
« Reply #13 on: December 01, 2012, 12:06:02 AM »
I had a van with a similar problem.  Turned out to be a bad diode in the alternator that was leaking enough back current to kill the battery over night.  I found it by putting my multitester on amps and watching the current drain as i disconnected all the electrical circuits.  When everything but the alternator was disconnected i still had about a 2 amp drain.  I picked up a new alternator and all is well.

Offline hondarider188

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Re: Dead Battery
« Reply #14 on: December 01, 2012, 12:28:02 PM »
Well the other day i took out the multimeter and tested the voltage of the battery and it read a full 12.5 volts. Then i flipped on headlights like silverj suggested and it dropped only to 12 volts, but i don't know if that actually means anything because shouldn't i be testing for amps or does it even matter?
1983 K10 silverado