Shorted battery
Thread Starter
Instructor
Joined: Dec 2009
Posts: 239
Likes: 5
Shorted battery
Hi all,
I have a 2009 vert that I bought new in 2009,in 2012 the battery started running down if I left the car for a few days without driving it. Took it to GM dealer they said no parasitic drain was fouind and battery tested fine. I bought a new battery and untill yesterday everythig was fine. I got in the car yesterday to move it out of garage (had battery tender on it for couple weeks) started fine. Left car outside for about 4 hrs while installing new garage door opener and when I went to open car to set homelink the door wouldn't open. I thought it was the fob I pushed the unlock button and then I pressed the trunk open button and it started working. I set the home link and a little while later went to move car into garage and the door wouldn't open like the battery was dead, tried different fob and same problem. Left car outside for an hour while I ate dinner and car started like nothing was wrong. I have had this before and believe it to be an internal short in battery. My question is if I take battery in and it happens to be working when they test it they will not want to replace in under warrantee, but I don't trust it ....any advice?
Stosh
I have a 2009 vert that I bought new in 2009,in 2012 the battery started running down if I left the car for a few days without driving it. Took it to GM dealer they said no parasitic drain was fouind and battery tested fine. I bought a new battery and untill yesterday everythig was fine. I got in the car yesterday to move it out of garage (had battery tender on it for couple weeks) started fine. Left car outside for about 4 hrs while installing new garage door opener and when I went to open car to set homelink the door wouldn't open. I thought it was the fob I pushed the unlock button and then I pressed the trunk open button and it started working. I set the home link and a little while later went to move car into garage and the door wouldn't open like the battery was dead, tried different fob and same problem. Left car outside for an hour while I ate dinner and car started like nothing was wrong. I have had this before and believe it to be an internal short in battery. My question is if I take battery in and it happens to be working when they test it they will not want to replace in under warrantee, but I don't trust it ....any advice?
Stosh
Thread Starter
Instructor
Joined: Dec 2009
Posts: 239
Likes: 5
How am I relying on others? The problem I have will not be found by load testing, as I said when it works it starts the car fine, thats a load of several hundred amps. It is an intermittant problem I thouoght maybe someone else had encountered and they could share their story.
Thread Starter
Instructor
Joined: Dec 2009
Posts: 239
Likes: 5
Thanks for the Ideas, but not interferrance have had it in the same place in the garage for years and no problem, also tried two fobs and battery. I am convinced it is the battery, I checked connections cleaned and measured for voltage drop when car does start. Will let you knoiw what the outcome is.
Pro
Joined: Nov 2010
Posts: 602
Likes: 32
From: Old Bridge, NJ
Thanks for the Ideas, but not interferrance have had it in the same place in the garage for years and no problem, also tried two fobs and battery. I am convinced it is the battery, I checked connections cleaned and measured for voltage drop when car does start. Will let you knoiw what the outcome is.
Heel & Toe
Joined: May 2011
Posts: 18
Likes: 0
From: Clay NY
battery problems
I know I'm really late to this discussion but here's something that happened to my 05 coupe. When I had dead battery problems I pulled the old one and set it on my garage floor. After installing the new one I picked up the old one and noticed a small wet spot on the floor. Inspecting the bottom of the old battery I found a tiny hole and a drop of acid at approx. the middle of the case. I pulled my new battery back out and found that the battery tray had worked its way down on the steel mount that is bolted to and through the middle of the tray. This is a roughly square oddly shaped steel piece (with slotted holes) mounted vertically that has edges sharp enough to wear through the bottom of a plastic battery case if it has not been adjusted properly. I caught it early before much acid drained down on car parts or --worst case -- shorted out and caught fire.
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Thread Starter
Instructor
Joined: Dec 2009
Posts: 239
Likes: 5
Thanks for everyones input, replaced battery under warrantee, it checked weak and was less than a year old. Problem continues, have found a couple other problems that I will share with you. The first one was the battery clamps that have special nuts that have a tapered skirt on the bottom this acts as a wedge that tightens the clamp on the batter post when they are tightened up. Didn't notice this when I install battery tender pigtail under these nuts. I don't think this was the problem cause after I removed pigtail problem was still there. Second problem is key fob battery low, one checked 2.77vdc it was dead no reaction from car at all. Second fob measured 2.88 vdc the only response from car was the door lock led was lit like normal but when actuating door unlock switch the led flickered and nothing happens. I am going to replace fob batteries and try that will let you know. Reason I didn't do that before it acted like the batter voltage in the car was the issue, my logic thought that if led was on the fob was telling car to enable, if fob was low wouldn't think the led would light at all. Because the led is powered by car battery not fob battery. I will let you know what hapopens, thanks again!
Thread Starter
Instructor
Joined: Dec 2009
Posts: 239
Likes: 5
Thanks for everyones input, replaced battery under warrantee, it checked weak and was less than a year old. Problem continues, have found a couple other problems that I will share with you. The first one was the battery clamps that have special nuts that have a tapered skirt on the bottom this acts as a wedge that tightens the clamp on the batter post when they are tightened up. Didn't notice this when I install battery tender pigtail under these nuts. I don't think this was the problem cause after I removed pigtail problem was still there. Second problem is key fob battery low, one checked 2.77vdc it was dead no reaction from car at all. Second fob measured 2.88 vdc the only response from car was the door lock led was lit like normal but when actuating door unlock switch the led flickered and nothing happens. I am going to replace fob batteries and try that will let you know. Reason I didn't do that before it acted like the batter voltage in the car was the issue, my logic thought that if led was on the fob was telling car to enable, if fob was low wouldn't think the led would light at all. Because the led is powered by car battery not fob battery. I will let you know what hapopens, thanks again!
Melting Slicks
Joined: Jul 2010
Posts: 3,001
Likes: 243
From: Surprise, Az
Just to point out, conventional car batteries run about 2.1v/cell so if a cell goes bad or is shorted, you will have only 10.5v total. A battery with a shorted cell may take a charge but if left overnight disconnected, will discharge to 10.5v. HTH