What do you get if

pawnhandler

General

07 Dec 07

~~Sam The Sham~~

Joined: 07 Feb 07
Moves: 62961

07 Dec 07

1 edit

Originally posted by Ponderable
you could have made the optimistic calculation: 50/5=10 xD

yes, assuming 50 amp-hours and the wimpiest 5 amp headlights, a new fully charged battery would go ten hours until it's devoid of all charge. Certainly wouldn't start a car then. I'll stick with 4-5 hours as being the better guess. But 48?? No way.

pawnhandler

tinyurl.com/ywohm

Joined: 01 May 07
Moves: 27860

07 Dec 07

Originally posted by eamon o
get a day job

It is a day job, but it's not light enough in the morning when I leave for work to drive without lights. But I don't need them by the time I get there, which is why I run the risk of leaving them on.

pawnhandler

tinyurl.com/ywohm

Joined: 01 May 07
Moves: 27860

07 Dec 07

Originally posted by mikelom
You must have an old car! Most car batteries nowadays can cope with full beam being left on for 48hrs and still start the car!

And now you are in my land.....so don't argue! Oh...... please do! 😏

And no, you're not supposed to run the house off it too! Ohms my God!

1995 -- does that count as old?

mwmiller

RHP Member No.16

Joined: 25 Feb 01
Moves: 104442

07 Dec 07

Originally posted by pawnhandler
It had a bad cell. It jumped, and we let the car run for a while, but when he turned it off -- that was that. Dead again. It was three years old. That doesn't seem like much.

If it does have a bad cell, you may as well figure on replacing the battery real soon. Even if you give the battery a regular complete charge for several hours, as soon as the charger is disconnected that bad cell will immediately start draining the battery again even with everything else completely turned off.

In addition, the bad cell could also overload your car's charging system that normally keeps the battery charged up when the engine is running. This could cause the alternator to burn out, and you will then need to replace that too.

I think a reasonably decent battery should last at least 5 years.

Packetman

Just me

By the beach

Joined: 07 May 06
Moves: 21622

08 Dec 07

Originally posted by mwmiller
If it does have a bad cell, you may as well figure on replacing the battery real soon. Even if you give the battery a regular complete charge for several hours, as soon as the charger is disconnected that bad cell will immediately start draining the battery again even with everything else completely turned off.

In addition, the bad cell could also ove ...[text shortened]... need to replace that too.

I think a reasonably decent battery should last at least 5 years.

What if the alternators goosed ? maybe the battery is fine ?

~~Sam The Sham~~

Joined: 07 Feb 07
Moves: 62961

08 Dec 07

Originally posted by Packetman
What if the alternators goosed ? maybe the battery is fine ?

If the alternator's bad he'd have a red idiot light warning indicating battery discharge, unless that's bad too.

pawnhandler

tinyurl.com/ywohm

Joined: 01 May 07
Moves: 27860

08 Dec 07

Originally posted by Packetman
What if the alternators goosed ? maybe the battery is fine ?

The battery test indicated that a cell was bad. I have a new battery and the car seems to be doing ok for now. I really want to replace the car but I can't do that at the moment.