Battery's always dead!!!

[Sway214]

Now, the car isn't really being used, though I try to warm up the engine every two days or so, when i have time. Everytime I do, the battery is dead, and i have to badger my neighbor to jumpstart it.

They told me I left the door open, and now I make sure the door's closed before I leave. Then I tried to start the car again this afternoon. The battery's dead. Again.

Can you guys give me some idea on what's going on?

[mx3TT]

Either its a bad battery, or when its running, the alternater isnt charging it which makes it not start, either one. Also, why is this in the automatic transmission forum?

[honeybabes]

I'm thinking you have a dead cell on your battery. That happened to me too after I drained my battery twice(forgot to turn off headlight). Well after boosting it, its ok but few days after I drained my battery for the second time, I started to have problems starting the engine and couldn't even use my cd player when engine is off or the battery will be drained in few minutes. So I brought the car to Walmart and my buddy used some sort of tester to check it out and once it touches the battery lead the monitor display "bad cell". After changing for new battery everything went ok now. Can even listen to cd even engine is off.

[Sway214]

*moderators, please move this to the appropriate forum.thanks!*

honeybabes, i think you're right. i might probably have to change the battery. who does this testing and how much did it cost you to have a new battery installed?

(ugh, i'm so ignorant, but i am learning a lot, thanks to this site).

[Custommx3]

Moved to General Mazda

[honeybabes]

I paid $76 cnd for motomaster battery and I just installed it my self. Took me 15 minutes to unistall the dead one and install the new one. I just thought they might charge me more than hundred bucks if they will install it for me that's why I did it myself. If you want to do like what I did, just go to any autoshop or Walmart(don't know if you have it there) and check out the automotive area(if they have any) and ask them if they have battery for your car model. They could either help you look at it on their battery book or just tell you to look for it yourself on the book. Now its going to be your choice if you want to do it yourself or have them install it for you. Don't worry I'm ignorant on these stuffs too but I want to learn how to work on them. Goodluck

Oh yeah before you buy a new battery ask them if they can check it for you. so incase that your battery just needs to be charge(they have charger) or just loose connection...you save money.

[jplar]

I had the same problem over the summer. At various points, I had to replace the batter, alternator, and the belt. I'd suggest getting the alternator checked and to see if there is still a belt on it.

[r1cer4l1fe]

Originally posted by honeybabes:
I paid $76 cnd for motomaster battery...

Theres your future problem right there.... You need an Interstate Battery. Maybe I'm just partial because I work for them...

If you have bought a battery from a shop then they will usually test the battery for you free of charge. If they dont then you know that you picked the wrong place to get your car serviced at.

Only true way to test a battery is to load test it. There are electric handheld units that can check your battery and then the charging system at the same time. Even so, it wont always tell you the full story on the battery.

Honestly though, motomaster and sears batteries are know to be horrible. I see probably 10 a day that are junked at only 1 yr old or less. Avoid anything Exide as well. There are places that you can buy reconditioned batteries at, and even if an exide battery checks out okay, they throw them out. Probably the only decent batteries I've seen besides the Interstates are the Energizer batteries. They seem to be decent in comparison. Or the optima deep cycle batteries (but they cost alot).

<small>[ October 12, 2003, 03:51 PM: Message edited by: R1cEr4L1fE ]</small>

[Andrew_Pakula]

Maybe I am just lucky but my motomaster battery has been pretty good, its lasted me several years and I have even killed a few times by leaving the lights on and its still running strong.

Back to the topic, go to Canadian Tire and ask them to test if your battery is dead, quite often they will check it for you for free.

If the battery is fine then it could be your alternator either not charging your battery or the alternator could even be killing the battery.

What happened to me about a year ago was the alternator was actually draining my battery.