My battery is about 2 years old. My car sat in a garage for about 6 months from late winter through spring. When I took it out of storage in July, I had to charge the battery for about 20 min before it jumped. Until this week, I have had no problems starting since taking it out of storage.

Yesterday I sat in my car listening to the radio with the engine off for about 10 min, went into a store for 5 min, came out and my car was dead. I had someone jump it. It started in seconds. I drove about 20 min, stopped to eat lunch and my car was dead again. I had someone jump it again...started within min of charging. Unfortunately I did not have time to drive it longer to let the battery charge before I had a meeting. I came out from my meeting and the car sounded like it was going to start and then nothing. SO...I got a jump for the 3rd time, again the car started within minutes. I then drove the car for 35 min on the highway to try and charge the battery. The next morning, the car acted as if it was going to start and then nothing. Now Saturday, another day later I wanted to jump the car again and do an alternator test.

The voltage before trying to jump the battery was 11.8 (low) then I spent over 15 min trying to charge the battery and the car did nothing when I tried to turn it on. Then I checked the voltage of the battery again and it was LOWER......at 11 volts. Not only will my battery not charge it was losing charge. I thought my alternator was bad since the battery did not hold a charge after driving, but now it will not even charge. Is it my alternator, starter, battery, all of the above? My car is parked on the street in a city so I have to do something soon. I was thinking of buying a battery, putting it in, doing an alternator test and if the alternator seems ok...chalking it all up to a bad battery.

 

What you really need to ck it is battery voltage w/engine running; if the alt is good it should be in 14-16v range. Is your alt light indicator on dash working?

And how are you charging the batt in 15 mins? If battery is that low that it won't crank the engine it needs a deep cycle charge that can take hours, or a trickle charge for at least 12-24 hours.

A battery should not go bad in 2 yrs, but leaving it in a static car for 6 months or more is probably the worst thing you can do to a battery.

 

The plan was to check the voltage with the engine running but I can't seem to charge the battery. I am trying to charge the battery using another car and jumper cables. Is 11.8 v....really that low that it should take such a long time to jump it? How is it possible that it lost voltage while I was trying to jump it with another vehicle? Or is the battery just not taking a charge at all and therefore when I tried to start my volvo it just drained the battery more?

 

Are you saying it won't even crank now, even with a jump?

Ck your batt voltage while cranking. If it drops below 9v, then you've got a batt problem. If it's 9v or above but cranks too slowly, then more likely a starter problem or batt cables. If it doesn't crank at all, then other issues...

 

at this point...no crank, there was a crank the first time I tried to start it this morning, then I tried to jump it and there was no crank. The power locks still work and the clock is working.

 

You need to take the battery out and leave it someplace to have it charged and tested. Just doing voltage is like checking half of something. You need to know if at 11.8 volts you have at least 200 amps available for the starter and you just don't have that kind of tester at home. Any auto parts store will charge and test it for free. Once you know if it's good or not you can check the alternator but again it would be best and free if you drove it to an auto parts store and had them use their tester to tell you if the alternator passed. There is also a chance you have a starter that is going out.

Leaving a battery in a car without charging it (connected or not) for six months is how to kill one early.

With most home chargers 15 minutes isn't enough time to get much into a battery and if your battery is dead and you jump start it and take off you are making the alternator and it's regulator go to full output and build a tremendous amount of heat and possible damage or failure to the units. They aren't designed to charge up a battery. If you absolutely have to yes it can but it's the worst way to do it as it not only pushes the alternator and regulator but it's pumping it's full output into the battery and that again causes massive heat that can warp the lead plates inside the battery that produce the electricity.

When charging a battery in a perfect world you would want to do it at the one or two amp setting and it would likely take over night to charge. The faster you charge at a higher amp rating the quicker it charges but the more chance of damage to the battery because the high the amp rate you charge at the more heat you build up inside the battery.

 

Hold the phone. A 2 year old battery is STILL UNDER WARRANTY. Don't waste another minute messing with the thing, take it back to Wal-Mart or where ever you got the thing and get a new one. No questions asked. No money out of pocket.

As Kiss said, the worse thing to do to a good battery is leave it HOOKED UP to a car that is not going anywhere. All cars have something in them that need power and drain on a battery. Once a battery is TOTALLY drained, the constant attempt to pull more power from them KILLS the cells in them. Just get a NEW battery which as I stated, should be free.

Jumping off newer cars is really not good for them. Especially if you are hooking up both cable connections to both of the batteries. This is the proper way, just incase anyone was wondering.

1997 Volvo 850

 

I took the battery in to be tested....dead cell! Great news for me. Bad news was that my battery only had an 18 month warranty and it expired August 1...a week after I took it out of storage. So if I ever have to let my car sit for that amount of time again (attached or unattached) I am taking the battery straight to get tested. This time I have a 3 year warranty!

 

Wow, it should have had a prorated warranty at the least. Surprised and sorry to hear that.

Wal-Mart gives 3 year no questions asked warranties on their batteries, and prorate them to 72 months. They may be cheaper batteries but as long as it has a sticker on it, you are good to go.

 

What you need to do is buy a cheap charger. Likely 20-25 bucks at an auto parts store or maybe 10 at Harbor Freight if you have one near you. If you put a trickle charger on it when it's in storage you can really extend it's life. Warranties are nice but it's nicer not to have to need it and lugging a lead acid battery around isn't fun even if you're doing it to get a new one free
You might want to take it back to where you purchased the battery to have them test the alternator. It's likely ok but if it's free to check it, why not to be sure.

My two cents on batteries:

Value in buying a battery is in getting at least the original CCA (cold cranking amp) rating in your replacement battery and a good warranty. Walmart has a good battery in my opinion and so does everyone else to a point. What you want to avoid is the really cheap ones that are offered as they are made differently and they are crap. Autozone offers a "Valuecraft" that should and is know in some circles as a "valuecrap". Oreilly has the SuperStart "economy". There is a reason they both only have a 1yr warranty and they're 25 dollars cheaper than a decent battery with a good warranty. If you're broke and every penny counts it's adequate but people trying to be thrifty buy them and are very disappointed when in a little over a year or two they die and no warranty. And the way they are built they will fail early. A good battery should offer you at least a five year prorated warranty with the first one or two years being a free replacement. The better the battery, the better the warranty.
That and getting something with too little CCA capacity. You might get away with it in spring, summer and fall but here in Minnesota if you don't have the amps available to that starter at -25 degrees you ain't gettin no fire So when you save 20 or 30 bucks by buying that smaller battery you may end up having something that won't crank your engine adequately when it's really cold or really hot.

That's the reason I substituted a Group 48 battery into my 850. Our cars call for a Group 47 but the 48 is just a bit longer and fits perfectly in the tray. It gives me 700 CCA compared the 47's 590 and they are almost the same cost. I think it was about 5 bucks more.