blondeviolin Posted December 26, 2012 Share Posted December 26, 2012 This is just on my mind and frustrating me beyond belief! I first thought it was the battery...so I took it to an auto store. They said its only 2.5 years old, tested it and said it was still good. After some googling, I wondered if it was the alternator. I tested the voltage on the battery with the car running, and it's just under 15 volts, though... Like it should be... Also, we've not had any flickering/dimming lights, radio works fine, etc. car drives fine except for the battery dying. We drove the car yesterday a bit (not a long drive), this afternoon we tested the car and it started. This evening, the battery was dead. It's been colder the last few days and the car is now less likely to start if its sat in the garage for longer than a few hours... Now I'm wondering if it IS the battery, even though Advanced Auto told me it was good...especially since it was their brand battery under warranty. *sigh* I don't need car issues with our only functioning car! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gracesteacher Posted December 26, 2012 Share Posted December 26, 2012 Sounds like the alternator to me I have had two go out on two different cars. I would call a garage and ask if they can test after going to another auto zone and getting their numbers. Good luck Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jean in Newcastle Posted December 26, 2012 Share Posted December 26, 2012 First thing I thought of was the alternator. The second thing I thought of was something like a light not going off in the glove compartment or other energy drain. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oakblossoms Posted December 26, 2012 Share Posted December 26, 2012 I had this and there is something drawing on the battery. Like a loose wire that is touching metal somewhere. It was such a pain because my alternator did die eventually. I had a switch on my battery to unhook each night because they could not find the draw. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WiseOwlKnits Posted December 26, 2012 Share Posted December 26, 2012 DH says you should replace the battery. It's possible to have a bad battery test OK. That happened to my car this spring - it kept dying, took it and it tested fine, took it back 2 days later and it tested bad. I hope you figure it out! Unreliable cars stink!! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
amo_mea_filiis. Posted December 26, 2012 Share Posted December 26, 2012 Were the battery terminals checked? That's my current problem, although my battery is old. It starts when it feels like it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lailasmum Posted December 26, 2012 Share Posted December 26, 2012 Definitely check the battery connections. One of our cars has a battery that struggled to start it so we gave it a charge and still no improvement, went to change it to another battery we have but couldn't because of different terminal. Anyway in the process we removed the connectors from the terminals and cleaned them and it has made the most massive difference. The battery now charges and starts beautifully. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blondeviolin Posted December 26, 2012 Author Share Posted December 26, 2012 Thanks gals! We're taking it to another shop to have the battery tested again. From my googling, the alternator/battery light would pop up on the dash, and there'd be other signs of electrical issues with the car. BUT, I'm not beyond having it load tested today either. When we had the battery checked last time, they pulled it completely out to charge it, so I had assumed they would've checked the terminals and connections. I'll have my husband double check it, though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lailasmum Posted December 26, 2012 Share Posted December 26, 2012 Definitely check they actually cleaned the terminals and the inside of the connector. It's totally possible they just took them off and put them back on without a clean. Ours didn't actually look bad until they were wiped. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brilliant Posted December 26, 2012 Share Posted December 26, 2012 I'd start with replacing the battery. A couple of years ago my van kept dying. They said the battery was fine and charged me a FORTUNE to replace the alternator. Two days later the van died again. The shop refunded our money (not sure how my dh worked that out!), we replaced the battery, and the problem was solved. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mrs Mungo Posted December 26, 2012 Share Posted December 26, 2012 I had a problem with this fairly recently. In my case, it was the cable from the battery to the ignition that was the problem. My dh replaced it, and no more problems. It was a very cheap fix. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mergath Posted December 26, 2012 Share Posted December 26, 2012 Our car does this too. No idea why. We have one of those jumper cable things that plugs in, so we spend a lot of time jumping our car. *sigh* Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cinder Posted December 26, 2012 Share Posted December 26, 2012 DH says you should replace the battery. It's possible to have a bad battery test OK. This was our problem. Bad battery that kept testing ok but then dying. It was a Toyota battery; they replaced it and it happened again. :glare: Dh had both batteries tested at Interstate Battery. They (IB) were reluctant to sell him a new battery because the old one kept testing ok but since we replaced the Toyota battery with one from Interstate our battery no longer dies at random. Even if someone leaves a light on all night. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Forget-Me-Not Posted December 26, 2012 Share Posted December 26, 2012 I recently had a battery that kept dying but tested fine too. DH went ahead and replaced it anyway and it's been fine ever since. No need for further expensive repairs :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blondeviolin Posted December 26, 2012 Author Share Posted December 26, 2012 Well, we trickle charged it last night. It was 100%, but when we got up this morning the battery was only at 70%. Took it to a different parts store and they said it was the battery as well. Battery is still under warranty so we took it back to Advanced. Their machine now says to replace the battery. Hopefully that will solve the problem! I don't want to have to replace the alternator... And now between all this I know more about car batteries and alternators than I really cared to. :lol: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Baseball mom Posted December 26, 2012 Share Posted December 26, 2012 After the battery tested ok driving the van to the auto store and then it dying again dh took the battery off and took it to the auto store. It tested bad then. Jumping off and driving charged it enough that it was saying it was ok. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dbakepah Posted November 21, 2016 Share Posted November 21, 2016 I have read all of the above that are similar to my issue but not completely. I am wondering if anyone has come across this one and have a resolution. I had a dead battery. I had it tested and it had a bad cell. Being that it was 6 years old I wasn't surprised so I replaced it. About 1 month or less after it was replaced we had a really cold night (around 29) and my car wouldn't start. It is a brand new battery rated very well for cold starts so I assumed a light had been left on or something. We jumped it and all was well for two days. We then had another cold night (below 30) and again the new battery was dead. I went to Nissan to see if there was anyway the alternator was on the fritz. They said, based on my info that it couldn't be the alternator but that my new battery was bad. I went back to Advance Auto Parts where I got the replacement and they did a test that showed the battery was good but there was something showing a drain. They were scratching their head because there was nothing apparently on. They went ahead and changed the battery. This was Friday. I called Nissan and set an appointment to run diagnostics to find out where the drain was. I was told that they couldn't get me in until Tuesday and in the meantime I would have to disconnect the battery each time I drive it to keep it from draining dead. Last night it got below 30. The battery cables were off of the battery as instructed by Nissan so nothing could possibly have drained it. When I reconnected it I didn't get so much as a click. There was a dome light with a very dim illumination prior to trying to turn it over but the power needed to make the start attempt drained enough power away that the dome light was black. I jumped the battery and drove it on an errand, leaving it running while making my stops. Went to Nissan to explain before losing my mind with Advance. They tested the battery and it checked out great but couldn't run a load test. Went to Advance and they did load test. It was perfect! I don't know where to turn. The battery sat in my car disconnected with nothing touching the posts and went dead. How can that not be the battery? And, if it is the battery, why is every test showing a perfect test and how could I possibly be so unlucky to receive two freaky bad batteries in less than a week? Anyone have any suggestions or similar issues? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
luuknam Posted November 21, 2016 Share Posted November 21, 2016 Zombie thread. A car mechanic forum might be a better place to try. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Denisemomof4 Posted November 21, 2016 Share Posted November 21, 2016 BTDT. Alternator. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Denisemomof4 Posted November 21, 2016 Share Posted November 21, 2016 Oh crap. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jean in Newcastle Posted November 21, 2016 Share Posted November 21, 2016 :zombiechase: :zombie: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Baseball mom Posted November 22, 2016 Share Posted November 22, 2016 Our car does this too. No idea why. We have one of those jumper cable things that plugs in, so we spend a lot of time jumping our car. *sigh* This Someone asked me other day if ds knew how to jump a car. Yes he is very well versed in it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Baseball mom Posted November 22, 2016 Share Posted November 22, 2016 Apparently y'all can tell I didn't finish reading before posting or I would have seen I posted on previous thread 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redsquirrel Posted November 22, 2016 Share Posted November 22, 2016 (edited) I had a similar problem last year. It turned out it was the battery. I knew it was, but dh kept telling me it was a new battery etc. Well, we changed the battery and it stopped happening. So, either it was something else that got fixed in the process of putting in a new battery, or I was right. ETA: we had gone though a record cold winter, with weeks and weeks of below zero temps. It just didn't stop. I think that took at least a year off my battery's life. Edited November 22, 2016 by redsquirrel Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sbgrace Posted November 22, 2016 Share Posted November 22, 2016 (edited) Oops--I missed that this was an old thread! We had a battery test ok that actually had a bad cell. It was 18 months old, so a bummer--but better than the alternator! FWIW, the Auto Zone did test the alternator for us too when the car still wouldn't hold a charge despite a, we were told, good battery. They hooked it up to charge overnight and then found the bad cell. They told us that happens sometimes. Edited November 22, 2016 by sbgrace Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lanny Posted November 22, 2016 Share Posted November 22, 2016 Possibly the Voltage Regulator? Are you sure the Alternator is charging properly? When the engine is *not* running, the battery should have a voltage of 12.6 volts. Also, there should be a tag on the battery that shows the "CCA" (Cold Cranking Amps or something like that) and you need to verify that the battery still has that cranking power. There is a small tester that can test that. You set the "CCA" of the battery and then you test and you see what "CCA" the battery actually has. A 2.5 year old battery could be dying, but there are other things for you to check for. Loose cables, bad cables, etc. A short that is draining the battery? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dbakepah Posted November 22, 2016 Share Posted November 22, 2016 Lanny, Today, They did a test when the car was off as well as with it on and loaded. It tested perfectly. As I said, I replaced the battery with known bad cell just over 1 month ago. I had to jump start the replacement twice following cold nights. 4 days ago that new battery was replaced and this morning I had to jump my car again. The battery that was put in 4 days ago was disconnected last night with nothing touching the posts but was dead this morning. Frustrating beyond belief! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
magic Posted November 22, 2016 Share Posted November 22, 2016 This kept happening to our son's truck so we took it to a local shop and had them run a diagnostic test (under $40). They found that the car radio was draining the battery even when it was off. He had the radio replaced and has had no more issues. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dbakepah Posted November 22, 2016 Share Posted November 22, 2016 Magic, I was thinking stereo or security was draining it so I disconnected cables to ensure there couldn't be a drain. Still woke up to a battery that had to be jumped. It was replaced, again, 4 days ago. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Starr Posted November 22, 2016 Share Posted November 22, 2016 That battery has been dying since 2012?? :D 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gardenmom5 Posted November 22, 2016 Share Posted November 22, 2016 I would take it somewhere else to be checked. batteries do go bad. providers do deny their product is bad so they don't have to pay on the warranty. it's possible it's something else - but occams razor of simplest explanation is it's the battery. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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