Total battery failure - a first

[John Larkin]

I go out to start the car to warm it up, first time in a while. Car has no interior lights, no power. I check the battery, 11 volts. Put it on the charger, gets to 13.7 in a few hours. Put it back in the car, same story. Check ground cable at block for continuity, cable good. Jack up car, check for power at starter, get 11 volts and fusible link feels tight not stretchy. Go under dash, ECM fuses are good. Check bat terminal on fuse block, 3 volts. Ah ha. Hook up the jumper cables to my wife's car, now I have power and car starts.

Total battery failure. As soon as I shut off the car, no power. Had to have had an internal short inside the battery. Almost 2 years past warranty, oh well. I was thinking my trickle charger took a dump, at least I don't have to buy one of those too.

 

[GNVenom]

Open cell, which is unusual. It could be an internal jumper but either way, time for new.

 

[DavzGN]

Had the same problem about 2 months ago. Got the new battery for about half price because I was a little over halfway thru the 7 year warranty

Sent from my XT1650 using Tapatalk

 

[313badbuick]

Had the same problem about 2 months ago. Got the new battery for about half price because I was a little over halfway thru the 7 year warranty

Sent from my XT1650 using Tapatalk

What battery (Brand/Model numer) do you have

 

[DavzGN]

Farm and Fleet, it a Midwestern farm supply store

Sent from my XT1650 using Tapatalk

 

[RmvBfrFlght]

Be careful, I've seen batteries explode from an intermittent internal connection. A load on the battery can cause the connection to spark which can set off the mix of hydrogen and oxygen.

RemoveBeforeFlight

 

[TURBOELKY]

Grab an odyssey extreme battery and call it a day...or several years

 

[earlbrown]

From what I can tell the last few years, battery life really seems to be right around 4 years.

Even if you take good care of them.

 

[TURBOELKY]

From what I can tell the last few years, battery life really seems to be right around 4 years.

Even if you take good care of them.

If you're lucky!

 

[GNONYX]

Living back in NY, I had my next door neighbor explaining to me her car won't start. She claimed it started the day before with no problem.
The next day she went to start the car up, and it wouldn't start, and then claimed it didn't gave her any warning sign.
I told her yes it did, it didn't start up for you. She had the battery for about five years and I told her you're very lucky you got 5 years of usage. She then proceeded to buy another battery

 

[TurboDave]

Living back in NY, I had my next door neighbor explaining to me her car won't start. She claimed it started the day before with no problem.
The next day she went to start the car up, and it wouldn't start, and then claimed it didn't gave her any warning sign.
I told her yes it did, it didn't start up for you. She had the battery for about five years and I told her you're very lucky you got 5 years of usage. She then proceeded to buy another battery

That's exactly what happened to me recently with my Lincoln and 4 year old Motorcraft battery. No warning whatsoever. I understand it's fairly common nowdays.

 

[earlbrown]

Yep, same. I had to jump start my mom's (exactly) 4 year old Mercedes a while back. Fired up fine, drove to work, dead as fried chicken at lunch. Worked perfect for about 3 days, then dead after sitting about 20 minutes.

Bad part is I installed a $175 replacement battery, kept the old one and she traded it in on a new MB about two weeks later. With a heads up, I would have stuck the old battery back in.


It seems QC has really went to shit on batteries.