[T3] Re Battery Mystery

[J. Jonik]

Took the battery...which I had charging for a couple hours...to an Auto Zone....again with all cells showing "good" on the bulb battery tester.
  Auto Zone's serious high tech  battery tester came up with "Bad Battery".  Don't know what that actually means...but battery is under warranty at Pep Boys where it shall be duly returned tomorrow.  It was new in November...just 5 months ago...and I have receipts.

Now to see if some charging does enough so the car can be moved to a no-ticket zone before Monday .  Charging worked twice before.  Fingers crossed.

Message: 2
Date: Fri, 08 Apr 2016 22:14:21 -0500
From: "Jim Adney" <jadney at VWType3.org>
To: type3 at vwtype3.org
Subject: Re: [T3] Battery Mystery
Message-ID: <5708738D.19666.229EEB3 at jadney.VWType3.org>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1

On 9 Apr 2016 at 1:42, J. Jonik wrote:

> Battery only about a year old.?? Car sat for about 4 days...cold out,
> but not below freezing and all.? Wouldn't start today.? Horn and
> lights test said Battery Faded.? Last time that happened I left the
> radio on for a couple days...volume off.??? Charged battery and all
> was well again. But this time, no lights, battery or anything on.? The
> squeeze ball batter check thing had all the battery cells right up
> near the top.??? Charged it for a few hours and, voila...car started. 

It's most likely that your problem is one or more bad connections 
somewhere. If this is an AT car, wiggle the shift lever while you 
turn the key. Make sure the clamps are ALL the way down on the 
battery posts, but don't hammer them down. Spread them with a couple 
screwdrivers, slip them down, then tighten. Check all the high 
current connections: battery (plus & minus), starter, tranny ground 
strap.

Watch the idiot lights when the starter doesn't work. Do they stay on 
or do they dim out? That tells a BUNCH about where the problem is. 
It's not at the VR.

> .Is there any way to test to see if there's anything in the car that's
> "on"...draining the battery when the car sits for some days??? Some
> wire problems? 

Doesn't sound like this is a drainage problem, but if you have a DVM, 
you can remove the ground connection and insert it there, reading 
amps. Careful, if you're not familiar with what this means.

> Question 2:?? Can all battery cells test OK but the battery still not
> doing its job properly? Then...found that the battery ground strap was
> very frayed...more than I noticed before...it being kind of hidden.??

Could have been the connection at either end of the ground strap. 
Both are equally important. I'm afraid that modern battery wires are 
mostly junk, so take a good look at your OE ground strap. A bit of 
fraying doesn't hurt anything. What counts is how many strands make 
it intact from one end to the other. More than half is probably okay.

-- 
*******************************
Jim Adney, jadney at vwtype3.org
Madison, Wisconsin, USA
*******************************
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.vwtype3.org/pipermail/type3-vwtype3.org/attachments/20160410/597a4c96/attachment.htm>