Battery Read 12.2 V but Won't Start
When your car won't start, the first matter to exercise is check the battery. The vast majority of the fourth dimension when a vehicle refuses to get-go upward, the cause is a battery with little or no juice. However, sometimes it isn't that easy. If the bombardment terminals are clean and properly connected, and a battery tester shows that information technology's in expert shape, y'all'll need to keep troubleshooting to observe the problem.
This diagram is a little basic and out of date, just it roughly explains the components of a typical 12-volt charging system:
The battery is a vulnerable component because it tin be weakened by age, temperature, and even vibration. Simply it's not the but component that needs to be inspected and replaced, and as the years have gone by, information technology's become ane of the more expensive components in the charging system. At that place was a fourth dimension when $75 would buy the best battery on the shelf. These days, you lot're looking at $140 to $200.
You don't want to spend that money unless the battery truly is the problem. We're not only going to describe how to test these components just the social club in which you should be testing, which will uncover typical problem areas and salvage y'all from spending more than than you lot have to.
Equipment
Yous're going to need a few diagnostic tools, just we'll go along it to the absolute minimum.
The get-go thing to consider purchasing is a battery tester with a load tester. This kind of tester non only tests the state of accuse at rest simply also the health of the battery while it's subjected to the load of a start bike.
In that location are fancier electronic testers, but this sometime-schoolhouse analog tester has a couple of advantages:
- You can normally purchase 1 for less than $40.
- Information technology doesn't crave batteries to operate. This thing is going to be hanging in your garage — unused — for years. (Something that requires a fresh set of AAs is going to neglect when you need it to work nigh.)
If you lot don't desire to invest in a battery tester like this, yous tin always bring the automobile — or just the bombardment — to a expert auto parts shop. Almost have a bombardment tester that can immediately tell you whether or not your battery is the trouble.
The other thing to consider is a decent multimeter. You tin can spend a ton of coin on one with features you'll never apply. Discover one in the $29 to $45 range with a large digital readout and yous should be fine.
This Klein Tools car-ranging multimeter is about $fifty and has all the features you'll demand. It's available at large box home centers, and then you lot won't have to find 1 at a specialty electronics warehouse.
One note: a multimeter can test the voltage of a bombardment, just information technology won't run a one-person get-go bicycle on information technology the manner a battery tester will, and so we'd recommend getting both. You can take a second person start the car while you concur a multimeter's probes against the battery posts, just information technology'due south not as convenient.
The other thing every garage needs is a battery charger. Trickle chargers have gotten smaller, cheaper, and more sophisticated over the years. You tin can pick up a Black+Decker charger that you simply plug in and not remember virtually for around $30.
Testing in Order
If you lot want to make this as expensive as possible, just kickoff replacing parts without knowing if they're the problem.
If you desire to go out of this as inexpensively equally you can, you demand to test a few components to observe the root of the problem. We've laid these tests out in lodge of (a) ease, (b) expense, and (c) likelihood of failure.
1. Test the Battery
Even if it'southward new, you need to sympathise what'southward going on with the battery. Adhere the tester to the bombardment. If the needle'south not moving at all, then you've got a dead battery. What's more than of import is its status under load.
By pressing the "Load Test" button, y'all're simulating a start wheel. The battery should be able to agree 8.v volts for 15 seconds at 0 degrees Fahrenheit. If it doesn't, then yous know the battery is at least function of the problem.
If it does, and then you lot need to start investigating elsewhere.
2. Test the Cables
Battery cables get bad all the time. Not only practise the connections get crusted up with corrosion, but that corrosion can creep downwardly inside the cables, rendering them all only useless.
A voltage drib examination can tell y'all if your bombardment cable is the problem. Using the Voltage setting on the multimeter, start, touch the probes to the battery terminals to determine the voltage of the battery. A fully charged battery should take almost 12 volts ready to go.
To perform a voltage drop exam of the cables and terminals, bear upon one probe to the battery post, and and so the other to the terminal. It should read at or virtually zero. If it'southward reading any lower (the numbers will exist represented as negative decimals: -0.07, for case), then y'all're losing voltage in your cables.
Watch this video for a more detailed caption:
3. Bank check the Belt
If the battery is discharged and the cablevision connections are good, you lot'll want to fully accuse the battery and start looking at the condition of the charging system.
The second cheapest component in the unabridged charging system side by side to the cables is the chugalug, and so let'southward look at that next. For decades now, cars have used serpentine belts with idler pulleys that maintain tension. If the belt is squeaking or showing signs of slippage, it might not be assuasive the alternator to work the way it should. If the chugalug hasn't been changed and it looks cracked, it'south time to replace information technology anyway.
It's typically a less than $l replacement, simply y'all also desire to replace the idler pulley at the same time. There'south a bearing in it that will get bad at the least convenient moment. At best, this will lead to a expressionless motorcar. At worst, it could blow your head gasket. This is because this aforementioned chugalug not only spins the alternator, but besides the water pump. They're easy to replace and don't cost much more than than the chugalug.
4. Test the Alternator
Typically, if your alternator is no good, it's going to throw a "Charge" calorie-free on the dash or show y'all that you lot're not running at 14.iii volts. But, you can't always count on your dashboard to tell yous exactly what'south incorrect.
Using your trusty multimeter, you can test exactly how much voltage the alternator is putting out. But adhere the two probes to the positive and negative terminals of the battery, make sure the probe leads are out of the way of any moving parts in the engine bay, and burn the engine up.
The multimeter should show somewhere between 14.2 and 14.vii volts. If it'due south showing less, the battery isn't being charged besides as it should. This volition exist especially apparent when yous're running accessories similar lights, wipers, rear defroster, and the radio. If it shows More than fourteen.7 volts, the alternator is overcharging the battery and will somewhen melt the life out of it.
5. Test for Parasitic Drain
It'south hard to place this test using our hierarchy of ease, expense, and the likelihood of a problem. If you've left a lite on, that should be like shooting fish in a barrel and complimentary to set. If you've got a short in a hidden wire because a mouse chewed through it, that could be difficult and expensive to diagnose and gear up.
In general, though, less-than-obvious parasitic drains aren't as common as some of the other problems on our list. Notwithstanding, if your bombardment is discharging overnight — which you're determining considering you've charged the battery, and so tested the voltage the side by side morn as described in step 1 — then you lot might really have some kind of a constant drain happening.
To perform this examination, remove the negative battery cable from the battery. With the multimeter set to the highest amp scale (read your multimeter's instructions), impact i of your multimeter's probes to the cablevision terminal, and 1 to the battery post.
The readout on your multimeter shouldn't be higher than 50ma (milliamps). If information technology's more 50ma, y'all've got something that's cartoon ability from the battery.
To determine what's causing that draw, you'll demand to follow the instructions in the video below. The process involves removing and replacing every unmarried fuse in the car ane by ane until that voltage depict goes to fewer than 50ma.
five. Check the Starter
If the cables, chugalug, battery, and alternator are okay, and so (and but then) start looking at the starter. Testing it requires taking it out, meaning that you're probably going to end up replacing information technology anyway. Then unless yous're pretty ambitious, yous'll probably end upward at a mechanic store. Just by this point, you'll be able to provide your technician with a lot of information about the condition of your charging system. That means you save the mechanic time which he'd otherwise be charging you for. That's a small win in our volume.
We hope this information helps go you back on the road with every bit much money left in your pocket as possible. And hey, if you decide your current vehicle is more than it'south worth, we know where you can find a new one.
Source: https://bestride.com/research/tips-and-tricks/why-does-my-battery-keep-dying
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