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New battery?
Posted: December 15th, 2005, 12:40 am
by JPEG
I think I need a new battery, but just to make sure it's not the alternator, I wanna ask you guys.
Winter just came in, and the starter is running the engine way slower than in summer. It's still starts, but it's just a week of two before I'm stuck at home or at work. If the engine hot, the engine will start like a brand new battery. And the headlight is brighter when the car is on. Do you think the alternator has the capacity to load the battery and it just dosen't want to keep the amps for a whole night?
Thanks a lot,
JP
Posted: December 15th, 2005, 1:17 am
by jschrauwen
The excessive cold will take away from the "cold cranking" (no pun intended) ability of a battery or simply put, reduce it's cranking ability. A very cold frigid engine in winter will always be harder to turn over if the battery gets to be about 3+ years old. There are a few things one can do to mitigat some of these winter effects of extreme cold weather. One qould be to install/use a block heater. Basically a small heating core that's placed into/on the engine block by punching out one of the frost plugs. When plugged in, it will keep the engine coolant up to a certain ambiant temperature. This ambiant heat in the coolant will inturn prevent the engine oil from getting to thick and gummy which makes the engine a little harder to turn over/start. If the block heater is turned on/ plugged in (to house current) for a couple of hours before your first morning start, you should be able to mitigate those difficult morning starts. There's also the battery blanket possibility where in essence an electric blanket is wrapped around the battery to prevent from getting to cold which will maintain it's peak cranking ability. There's also the inline water heater where you tap into the interior's coolant return line house in the engine bay and insert an in-line water type heater/pump which will even work better if accompanied with the block heater in combe.
Hope these ideas help.
*John*
Posted: December 15th, 2005, 1:48 am
by JPEG
Wow, still awake?
Yeah, I could use the block heater, but I heard if you start using that, the engine is really hard to start without it, like, the engine is getting addicted to the block heater, if I can say it that way.
Posted: December 15th, 2005, 9:11 am
by PATDIESEL
I would think it is the owner who gets used to easier starts, not the car getting used to the warm water
To make sure your alternator is working: crank the car and remove the battery cable from the battery. If the car stays running then the alternator is working.
This is b/c the alternator supplies all the power after the initial cranking. After you start the car the battery supplies an excess of power to help with current draw (turning on the heater or stereo) and the lights won't dim too much or draw power away from other important electronics like the ECU.
However, if you live in a cold weather climate J-Beef has all the answers ot help the morning cranking. If it is not htat cold in your area and your alternator is testing fine you might need a new battery. A batery over time looses its ability to hold a charge and the first sign of a battery wearing out is it is hard to crank. Get one with a high cold cranking amps or a gell cell battery. I've always found that spending a few extra pennies on a good battery is a good deal. I'd rather know that I'll have no problems with my battery. (Plus I'm really bad at forgetting to turn off my headlamps since they are now on a second switch and not on the column anymore
)
Posted: December 29th, 2005, 8:08 pm
by FlyVFR
Are you running a diesel engine? What's with the block heater? I thought heaters were only used on diesel engines!
I guess it would depend on how far north one lives eh
Oh! Hi John!
My blazer began cranking slowly at the beginning of fall. Three weeks later my wife got stuck in the parking lot at work. I had in mind to replace the battery before winter, but it did not last that long!
I'd replace the battery if it's cranking slowly after verifying the altenator as Pat pointed out.
Re: New battery?
Posted: December 29th, 2005, 8:25 pm
by FlyVFR
JPEG wrote: Do you think the alternator has the capacity to load the battery and it just dosen't want to keep the amps for a whole night?
JP, As good measure, it takes about of 15 minutes of driving to restore a good battery to fully charged status after each start.
Age, cold temp and charge/discharge frequency will eventually wear it down so that it will not hold a full charge anymore.
On the other hand if the battery is new and it drains over night I'd start looking for something that may be draining it.
Posted: December 29th, 2005, 8:26 pm
by mitmaks
how old is your battery?
Posted: December 30th, 2005, 5:27 am
by MEXTHREE
Hey, JPEG so i see that you have start up problems,
well in my own experiance with a mx-3, in cold temps my car wouldnt start. the battery was weak so i just got a new battery and even at that when it gets VERY VERY VERY cold my car wouldnt start or when it did start it sounded like it was chugging, so i just plugged in my block heater {atm my plug to my heater it melted a hole, i guess the previous owners set the cord near the manifold so it has a hole right now dang it! lol. i am gonna fix it on sat}
If you dont have acess 2 an outlet for your block heater cord, set up a auto command start via remote if you get viper or python same thing i think it has a setting where u can automatically start your car every 3 hrs .
i hope this helps.gl
Posted: March 16th, 2006, 1:17 am
by JPEG
Had my alternator and battery replaced since the Charge light came on, didn't have any problem since, except slow start during cold times (below -20), but I guess it's juste part of livin in Canada.
But still, I don't understand why a I had a heated-easy-to-start engine, and when it came to the next morning, completely drained, like, can not even light up the dash or my deck.
Weird stuff ... but I still love my car. Last repair that I had to do before that alt/bat was like in May.