Jump to content
SAU Community

Recommended Posts

Ok, here's my issue. Yesteday when I was working on my car, I left my car in ignition to play music (should have put it into ACC) thinking my battery is good enough to last a while..

4 hours later, the music just died and I realised I've just drained my battery... So I had to get the car jump started. It starts with no problems at all and end up going for a 5-10mins drive to dinner. But after dinner, battery went flat again.. So I used a jumper pack to start the car.

Once started, I went for a 1-2hr cruise, and what I notice is, everytime I put my highbeam on or even fog lights, it would drain so much battery that it will restart my headunit and also stalls the car...

And today, I started the car a few times, a couple of times it took a few secs to start, but didn't have to use the jumper pack, but the highbeam problem is still there...

But what I don't get is, my battery was 100% healthy before I drained it out and never had any of those issues above, which I'm guessing my alternator was fine before that...

So what can cause these issues? And the battery should have been fully charged by a 1-2hr drive right? And is it true that once the battery is drained, it won't hold charge again?..

Any help would be appreciated! :D

Link to comment
https://www.sau.com.au/forums/topic/386795-battery-alternator-issue/
Share on other sites

  • Replies 42
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

Top Posters In This Topic

Posted Images

Once started, I went for a 1-2hr cruise, and what I notice is, everytime I put my highbeam on or even fog lights, it would drain so much battery that it will restart my headunit and also stalls the car...

And today, I started the car a few times, a couple of times it took a few secs to start, but didn't have to use the jumper pack, but the highbeam problem is still there...

So what can cause these issues? And the battery should have been fully charged by a 1-2hr drive right? And is it true that once the battery is drained, it won't hold charge again?..

1-2hrs should be fully charged. after 10-15 mins should have enough to be able to restart the engine without assistance,

not true about flat battery not being able to be recharged. was prob down to 7-8v when the headunit turned off. that story comes from batteries that go flat and are left for a period of time which causes chemicals to change in the battery.

batt terminals arent loose from where you clipped jump leads on? maybe you twisted them a little causing them to come off.

need a multimeter to compare voltage at battery and alternator to see if its not charging correctly anymore or if not getting to the battery anymore.

could potentialy be the battery or alternator from having to work harder than normal charging back up too but i wouldnt buy anythnig until you test it

1-2hrs should be fully charged. after 10-15 mins should have enough to be able to restart the engine without assistance,

not true about flat battery not being able to be recharged. was prob down to 7-8v when the headunit turned off. that story comes from batteries that go flat and are left for a period of time which causes chemicals to change in the battery.

batt terminals arent loose from where you clipped jump leads on? maybe you twisted them a little causing them to come off.

need a multimeter to compare voltage at battery and alternator to see if its not charging correctly anymore or if not getting to the battery anymore.

could potentialy be the battery or alternator from having to work harder than normal charging back up too but i wouldnt buy anythnig until you test it

The terminals are definitely not loose, but possibly a bit too dirty lol.

erik - yeah I might try that first and see what happens.

Just hoping I haven't killed my battery :S

Check the water level inside the battery as well. And as above check your terminals. If everything was 100% before hand then I wouldnt expect the battery or alternator to be completely dead afterwards, especially the alternator

Just check everything, start at the battery and work your way to the alternator

I just had a good look in the engine bay, checked all fuses and connections, they seem to be all good.

Then took the car for a drive, took a couple of seconds to start but still started, the voltage on my MFD was reading 14.5v or so, but when I use highbeam, the voltage drops to about 13v, headunit restarts, car almost stalls, then after I turn highbeam off, everything becomes normal again....

Hmmmm it shouldnt drop that much when turning the high beams on. I had to put a new battery in mine yesturday and thought the charging voltage was low so was turning lights on and off. It only dropped momentarily (only by 0.4v or so at the most) and then went back to its charging voltage.

Check the wiring for your high beams if its only when using the high beams it seems to cause the problems. 13v shouldnt cause anything to drop out either. Id expect that to happen more around 8v or so.

Somethings wrong there. Check your water level in your battery, and check your wiring, especially around your head lights

If it helps here are some voltage readings I took from the battery terminals earlier today...

R32 gtst auto

resting volts = 12.91

idle volts = 14.15

idle + headlights on = 14.03

idle + high beam on = 13.98

I went for 300km drive on Wednesday so the battery should have been well charged.

Cheers

Mike.

Edited by Missileman

Hmmm.... Does it have a window type thing with a colour indicator showing the condition of the battery? If it truly is maintenance free then you cant check the water level, what sort of battery is it?

There's no window, no nothing...

Here's some readings that I took down just before.

When driving, my voltage is between 13.8 and 14.2.

When idling, it goes to about 13.8 with headlights on.

When driving, I tried high beaming, everything seems fine, no drop of voltage like before.

But when I was idling and tried high beam, voltage drops and car almost stalls.

So would it be my battery or alternator? I've lined up a optima yellow top for pick up tomorrow, so I hope it's not my alternator...

Sounds like your alternator is working fine for the voltages while driving along. You can get your battery tested at an Auto Elec's shop using a carbon pile tester or whatever they use at that shop. Will tell you if the battery is stuffed or not.

what is your idle RPM? It seems a bit weird that it only has the issue when idling. I wouldnt assume that the alternator is spinning to slow at idle but if your RPM is really low, it might be a problem. Still not convinced though

so when your idling and turn the high beams on it stalls? or does it nearly stall? try sitting in neutral giving it a few revs and turning the high beams on, leave the revs up for a bit then let it to return to idle.

Just to see what happens, if its the sudden load at the low RPM or if its just not producing enough amps at that speed to charge the battery.

I just picked up an Optima yellow top 750CCA from my friend today, he used it for like a year.

After I installed the yellow top, the same thing is still happening :S

And I idle at about 700?

So can this be the alternator?....

Are there any fuses I should be checking too?..

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now



  • Similar Content

  • Latest Posts

    • -10 is plenty for running to an oil cooler. When you look at oil feeds, like power steering feeds, they're much smaller, and then just a larger hose size to move volume in less pressure. No need for -12. Even on the race cars, like Duncans, and endurance cars, most of them are all running -10 and everything works perfectly fine, temps are under control, and there's no restrictions.
    • Update: O2 sensor in my downpipe turned out to be faulty when I plugged in to the Haltech software. Was getting a "open circuit" warning. Tons of carbon buildup on it, probably from when I was running rich for a while before getting it corrected. Replaced with new unit and test drove again. The shuffle still happens, albeit far less now. I am not able to replicate it as reliably and it no longer happens at the same RPM levels as before. The only time I was able to hear it was in 5th going uphill and another time in 5th where there was no noticeable incline but applying more throttle first sped it up and then cleared it. Then once in 4th when I slightly lifted the throttle going over a bump but cleared right after. My understanding is that with the O2 sensor out, the ECU relies entirely on the MAP tune and isn't able to make its small adjustments based on the sensors reading. All in all, a big improvement, though not the silver bullet. Will try validating the actuators are set up correctly, and potentially setting up shop time to tune the boost controller on closed loop rather than the open loop it is set to now. Think if it's set up on closed loop to take the O2 reading, that should deal with these last bits. Will try to update again as I go. 
    • More so GReddy oil relocation kits, sandwich plates, etc. all use 10AN fittings. And same, I've only used 10AN and my car sees track work (circuit, doing laps, not 10 sec squirt business).
    • street use or race track, what hose size and why? what factors change with the hose size options ?   see most comon is an10. when you see most oem external coolers are closer to an12? does high volume oil pump like nitto need an12 or 10 be just fine
×
×
  • Create New...