Dead Battery or worse?
10-11-2017, 09:04 PM
#1
Advanced
Thread Starter
Dead Battery or worse?
Asked my kid to put trickle charger on my battery in 92 Coupe.
Earlier, there was dash and gauge lights but not enough juice to turn it over.
When I looked next morning he had put both clamps on battery terminals, not negative clamp to a ground.
Charger was saying fully charged and in maintaining mode, but car is now dead, no dash or gauge lights at all.
Is my battery done? Or would that hookup kill something else?
Any Help is appreciated.
Earlier, there was dash and gauge lights but not enough juice to turn it over.
When I looked next morning he had put both clamps on battery terminals, not negative clamp to a ground.
Charger was saying fully charged and in maintaining mode, but car is now dead, no dash or gauge lights at all.
Is my battery done? Or would that hookup kill something else?
Any Help is appreciated.
10-11-2017, 09:28 PM
#2
Zen Vet Master Level VII
You can always try and put the cables on the correct posts and see what happens. My guess that your battery is just drained. Give it a shot the "correct way" and see what happens. If your battery is toast, you'll need to get another.
10-11-2017, 09:50 PM
#3
Advanced
Thread Starter
yeah I will try it tonight. Was miffed that the digital readout on the charger was saying fully charged but the car is dead. Was worried that something may have fried by having the charger connected incorrectly.
10-12-2017, 02:13 AM
#4
Safety Car
Your comment about the "negative clamp to a ground" makes no difference! The negative cable can be connected to either the negative terminal or to ground. Same . . . same.
You must have some degree of confidence in your son to have him do this without your supervision!
You may just have a dirty or loose connection of your battery cables to your battery! Or the trickle charger clamps are poor, so you didn't get a charge at all.
The old story about connecting the negative cable to ground relates to "jump starting" an engine from another car, not for connecting a trickle charger.
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alprzy (10-12-2017)
10-12-2017, 06:18 AM
#5
Le Mans Master
Sounds like he did exactly what he should have done with a trickle charger. Sounds like you battery is DOA, a bad battery can appear full to a trickle charger. How old is your battery?
Last edited by bac22; 10-12-2017 at 06:18 AM.
10-12-2017, 07:47 AM
#7
Advanced
Thread Starter
You didn't say the positive and negative cables from the charger were connected backwards, so I'm presuming that the positive cable was connected to the positive battery terminal, and the negative cable was connected to the negative battery terminal. Is that true?
Your comment about the "negative clamp to a ground" makes no difference! The negative cable can be connected to either the negative terminal or to ground. Same . . . same.
You must have some degree of confidence in your son to have him do this without your supervision!
You may just have a dirty or loose connection of your battery cables to your battery! Or the trickle charger clamps are poor, so you didn't get a charge at all.
The old story about connecting the negative cable to ground relates to "jump starting" an engine from another car, not for connecting a trickle charger.
Your comment about the "negative clamp to a ground" makes no difference! The negative cable can be connected to either the negative terminal or to ground. Same . . . same.
You must have some degree of confidence in your son to have him do this without your supervision!
You may just have a dirty or loose connection of your battery cables to your battery! Or the trickle charger clamps are poor, so you didn't get a charge at all.
The old story about connecting the negative cable to ground relates to "jump starting" an engine from another car, not for connecting a trickle charger.
10-12-2017, 07:50 AM
#9
Advanced
Thread Starter
Battery is about 3 years old, so I'm just gonna replace it and start fresh. Thanks for your help.
10-12-2017, 01:10 PM
#10
Race Director
10-12-2017, 05:04 PM
#11
Advanced
Thread Starter
OK so I put a new battery in. Car starts fine.
Now the dash gauges, parking and tail lights flicker and get a clicking sound while car is running. It goes on and off about every 20 seconds. Courtesy lights wont go off when I shut the car off and take key out, the front and rear lights flicker on and off along with the bell sound you would get when you leave your lights on for about a minute. And if I then then try to open the car door, the bells come back on and the front and rear lights come on and flicker for about 10 seconds before stopping. What's going on?
I took out courtesy light fuse just to stop the inside lights from staying on.
Now the dash gauges, parking and tail lights flicker and get a clicking sound while car is running. It goes on and off about every 20 seconds. Courtesy lights wont go off when I shut the car off and take key out, the front and rear lights flicker on and off along with the bell sound you would get when you leave your lights on for about a minute. And if I then then try to open the car door, the bells come back on and the front and rear lights come on and flicker for about 10 seconds before stopping. What's going on?
I took out courtesy light fuse just to stop the inside lights from staying on.
10-13-2017, 06:43 AM
#13
Le Mans Master
OK so I put a new battery in. Car starts fine.
Now the dash gauges, parking and tail lights flicker and get a clicking sound while car is running. It goes on and off about every 20 seconds. Courtesy lights wont go off when I shut the car off and take key out, the front and rear lights flicker on and off along with the bell sound you would get when you leave your lights on for about a minute. And if I then then try to open the car door, the bells come back on and the front and rear lights come on and flicker for about 10 seconds before stopping. What's going on?
I took out courtesy light fuse just to stop the inside lights from staying on.
Now the dash gauges, parking and tail lights flicker and get a clicking sound while car is running. It goes on and off about every 20 seconds. Courtesy lights wont go off when I shut the car off and take key out, the front and rear lights flicker on and off along with the bell sound you would get when you leave your lights on for about a minute. And if I then then try to open the car door, the bells come back on and the front and rear lights come on and flicker for about 10 seconds before stopping. What's going on?
I took out courtesy light fuse just to stop the inside lights from staying on.
Good way to test for a short, vette pulls about 30mA when parked and nothing on. That will obviously get skewed with the courtesy lights on, but you should start here along with checking grounds.
10-13-2017, 03:52 PM
#14
Safety Car
This YouTube video procedure may be okay for a simple car, but our Corvette's are far from simple! When you disconnect your battery then install your amp meter (DVM or VOM, etc.) like the vid shows, all of the computers in the car come alive and your interior lights will come on, so you'll have an initial high current situation. You'll see this if you begin like the vid shows, on the Hi Amp scale, but this is NORMAL!
If you start with a Lo Amp scale, in an attempt to check the current drain after the computers and lights "go to sleep", you'll probably blow the internal fuse in your DVM because of the initial Hi current drain! What to do??
After you disconnect the battery, put a short jumper wire between the battery cable and the battery post. This will activate all of the computers and stuff. Then, with the jumper wire still in place, connect your DVM to the battery cable and the battery post. After you're sure the interior lights are off, disconnect the jumper wire. You'll now read the accurate residual current drain for the system. This should be less than 50 mA.
The residual current drain in my '84 is 13 mA.
If you start with a Lo Amp scale, in an attempt to check the current drain after the computers and lights "go to sleep", you'll probably blow the internal fuse in your DVM because of the initial Hi current drain! What to do??
After you disconnect the battery, put a short jumper wire between the battery cable and the battery post. This will activate all of the computers and stuff. Then, with the jumper wire still in place, connect your DVM to the battery cable and the battery post. After you're sure the interior lights are off, disconnect the jumper wire. You'll now read the accurate residual current drain for the system. This should be less than 50 mA.
The residual current drain in my '84 is 13 mA.
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alprzy (10-14-2017)
10-13-2017, 07:52 PM
#15
Hot Rod Roy is absolutely correct !!! I've measured about 20mA on my LT4 as the steady state draw. It typically takes about 5 minutes or so for the computers to go back to sleep after you hook up the meter.
Higher current draw than that could be caused by any number of things - but I can tell you that a failed door switch will certainly cause a significantly higher drain, and it would explain the symptoms you are experiencing. I can also tell you that disconnecting the connector to said failed door switch stops the higher drain instantly.
Higher current draw than that could be caused by any number of things - but I can tell you that a failed door switch will certainly cause a significantly higher drain, and it would explain the symptoms you are experiencing. I can also tell you that disconnecting the connector to said failed door switch stops the higher drain instantly.
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alprzy (10-14-2017)
10-14-2017, 07:27 AM
#16
Advanced
Thread Starter
The post battery install dash and exterior lights flickering was all tied to the security system. Not sure if it went into a reset mode after the battery disconnect, but once I noticed it mimicked an alarm situation I hit the key fob security disarm button and the problem cleared.
10-14-2017, 03:45 PM
#18
Safety Car
Most DVM's can't switch from the 10 A scale to the mA scale without interrupting to current path, which will cause the Corvette electronics to start their reset sequence from the beginning, so you'll get the high current draw again! (Which may blow the fuse in your DVM!)
10-14-2017, 10:03 PM
#19
You don't need to remove your battery from the car! When you open the pass. door to get to the fuse panel, your interior lights will go on, and your DVM/DMM will register the higher current, not the residual current draw.
Most DVM's can't switch from the 10 A scale to the mA scale without interrupting to current path, which will cause the Corvette electronics to start their reset sequence from the beginning, so you'll get the high current draw again! (Which may blow the fuse in your DVM!)
Most DVM's can't switch from the 10 A scale to the mA scale without interrupting to current path, which will cause the Corvette electronics to start their reset sequence from the beginning, so you'll get the high current draw again! (Which may blow the fuse in your DVM!)
10-15-2017, 03:50 PM
#20
Le Mans Master
When troubleshooting my parasite draw on my 96, I never saw more then 4-5 amps (maybe 6 amps when I had the doors open) on connection of the negative lead to the battery post via my multimeter, the computers do not pull that much power when starting up. What you don' t want to do is try starting the car, that will blow the multimeter fuse for sure!
But an easier method is the Centech Fuse circuit tester...
https://www.harborfreight.com/30-amp...e-fuse-circuit
Anyway, gone a bit OT now since the OP seems to have cleared the problem.
But an easier method is the Centech Fuse circuit tester...
https://www.harborfreight.com/30-amp...e-fuse-circuit
Anyway, gone a bit OT now since the OP seems to have cleared the problem.
Last edited by bac22; 10-15-2017 at 03:52 PM.