PLEASE HELP! Did big 3 and now battery is dead!

[afrakes]

Just saw the last couple responses and shade tree, great idea and that's exactly what I was going to do if I had a noticible discharge reading on my dmm. Another way I found out to do it from the mechanics I was talking to earlier is to keep the dmm plugged in constantly, you will see a continuous reading of discharged amperage when there is issues from what I'm told, and unplug each fuse one at a time (so you don't lose track of any/placement/pull more than you have to) until the dmm reading drops. You then know what circuit is hot and go from there.

Not trying to discredit your idea with the light at all, just thought I'd share what I had picked up on today.

[afrakes]

You should really do a slow trickle charge for about 10 to 12 hrs to fully get that batteries life back . Hope it all works out . A rule I've always been told by old techs is you can fully drain and recharge a battery 3 times before its done.

Yeah, I'm strongly considering jut running to Walmart and picking up a cheap charger. I'm assuming a cheap one will still work fine, maybe just not last as long?

Btw what's the difference in using a trickle charge vs a higher amperage charge? Guys I was talking to today said the trickles are designed for smaller atv/motorcycle batteries.

[Ron36]

Slow charge doesnt shock the battery as hard slowly warms up the cells ,you can get a 25 dollar small charger at Walmart good to have even if u plan on adding batteries in the future . I always try to charge slow over long period of time to save the battery just less stress other people have different opinions I'm a machanic and I know if u ask 3 techs the same question you get 3 different answers.

[CleanSierra]

Your battery is expired by 3 years dude, replace it.

[ericholmes408]

sounds like a dead cell. you could have a load test done but at 7 volts that battery is toast!

[afrakes]

Slow charge doesnt shock the battery as hard slowly warms up the cells ,you can get a 25 dollar small charger at Walmart good to have even if u plan on adding batteries in the future . I always try to charge slow over long period of time to save the battery just less stress other people have different opinions I'm a machanic and I know if u ask 3 techs the same question you get 3 different answers.

Fair enough. Ended up borrowing my dads trickle charger. Put the battery on it and within 2 minutes it says it's charged. Charging at 2 amps. Really not convinced this battery is toast. I'm going to take it off the charger and sit overnight in the garage. If the battery is done it won't hold its charge overnight, correct?

[Kyblack76]

Your battery is expired by 3 years dude, replace it.

BUY AND PUT A CELL IN.

Christ.

Edit - 4 pages of a dude needing to replace a battery that's a decade old. Lol fuck

[Kyblack76]

Never mind.

Bat went dead when you did the "big 3"

Remove said "3"

Bat will work forever

[Ron36]

It may read good in the morning but really need to do a load test to see if it comes back to good voltage after u put a big load on it .thats where auto parts store can help they should test it for free. maybe in the morning put the battery in and key it up with out starting it , turn on all the power u can lights,radio,heater on high wait a bit then try to start it .

[Bayuk89]

Thanks for all the responses guys. Spent about an hour talking to some old retired mechanics down at Napa, and they pushed me in the right direction for how to go about this. Haven't had any voltage issues since I jumped it this morning, but it hasn't sat for more than 3 hours without being turned on.

Got home and disconnected the ground, set up my dmm between the negative battery post and negative wire to see how many amps my battery was discharging. The highest it ever got was .3 amps, which is normal from what I understand. I then cleaned up all my wiring with zip ties, retightened everything, made sure any loose copper strands were taken care of. After all that I retested the amperage upon discharge and got a reading of 0.0. Now I'm not sure if this is normal? This entire time the battery was disconnected and resting at 12.62. Once I reconnected the battery my voltage read 12.42. Could be my meter though.

I'm going to closely monitor my voltage as the night goes on and see what happens. I don't have a battery charger at home but there's one I can use at work tomorrow. I'm going to ride this wave for a minute and see what my battery does with a charge.

Sh#t man since u were at napa you SHOULD HAVE had them load test the battery while u were there, that way u would know FOR SURE if ur battery is still good or not. Just because ur voltage is 12volt or above doesnt mean u still have the amperage left in the battery. Many many years ago when i worked in a lube shop i had a battery load tester and load tested a customers battery it showed 12.4 volts resting but on a load test it only put out 180 cca out of 550 cca..... he was in for a battery within a week.

Its easy for me (and everyone else) to tell you that u need a battery, but the fact is not all of our wallets are the same.

As you know if u have any car audio upgrades u need to make sure ur battery is up to par or u could be putting ur ALT and amplifiers at risk.

IMO there was a mistake made when u did ur big three, all the big three does is help ur current flow. If ur problem wasnt there before ur big three then it seems to be an install problem. Batteries dont usually shell out then act fine outta no where it either works or it dont.

load test ur battery if it turns out ok then check ur big three install, if it test bad its obvious it needs to be replaced... still double check ur install.