gtroup

So i left my lights on yesterday and of course when i returned to my car i had no battery. I got a jump and charged it up fully but this morning when i went to turn it on, it just clicked. So i pulled the key out and put it back in to try again. On the second try the car turned over but the battery was too low to get it going. I had similar issues like this before and ended up charging the battery fully and faced no issues. Ever since the lights drained my battery im getting these issues. I really have no idea, maybe the alt? but when i charged it back up and ran the car it was no problem until i left the lights on. Please help

FRT_Fun

By charged it up fully do you mean you drove it around for a while? Your alternator is not designed to recharge your battery. On a newer battery it will most likely be enough to give it enough juice to keep you going, and eventually after a bunch of drive cycles you may be back to a healthy battery.

Either way it's not the ideal way to do it. And over time as your battery gets older, or if the weather is cold, it may not work anymore. When this happens you need to bring it to somewhere and have it properly recharged. I think places like autozone usually have them. You can also buy one if you happen to be the type that leaves your lights on often, are have cars that get put into storage (lots of them have a maintenance mode which keeps a battery fully charged when not in use).

Something like this would just fine: http://batterytender.com/

RicerJ

your battery might have dropped a cell causing it not to start or that low cranking how old is the battery

1988RedT2

If the battery is 4 or 5 years old, I might try a new battery. I will also add that my starter still turned over very slowly with a brand new battery. Turns out the 24-year old starter was waaaaay tired. The new starter spins my engine like crazy!

I've owned the same battery charger for like 20 years. I use it surprisingly often. Everybody should have one.

Phoenix

If the battery is already pretty old, draining it fully will send it overboard. Most of the time draining lead-acid batteries past 50%-60% will reduce their life span. I suspect you just need a new battery.

RicerJ

yea a 24 year old starter is kinda bad but surprisingly it lasted that long

gtroup

so it turns out my alts only putting out 13.5 volts. My electronics just slowly took power over about a month. I bought a battery charger and have been using it at night which is keeping the battery full. New alt is on its way and should be on this wekend

Phoenix

13.5v doesn't sound bad at all, but lets see how this works out!

gtroup

well my alt voltage is about the same as my battery and it should be about 2 volts higher than that

Phoenix

where are you taking readings? At the battery or alternator?

so:
(don't worry about voltage directly out of the alternator)
with the car turned on: voltage checked at the battery is 13.5v
with the car turned off: voltage checjed at the battery is....?