Car Battery or Alternator

CheapRuss wrote: ↑ You can usually buy an inexpensive multi meter at Cdn Tire to do this test. If this test passes, I would next charge the battery overnight, then see if it starts the car. If it does, next is the poor mans load test. Rather than buy a load tester (Cdn Tire does sell them, cannot remember how much), turn on your headlights for 10 minutes with the car not running. Then try and start the car. If the car starts, your battery is probably okay. If car does not start, check the connections, but chances are that your battery is cooked. If the battery and alternator check out, you may have some other intermittent issue in the starting system.

One way or another, you will need to acquire a battery charger and multi meter if you want to try and fix this yourself. Otherwise, take it to a mechanic.

craftsman wrote: ↑ Princess Auto has, what seems like, a decent conductance auto battery tester for $27 - https://www.princessauto.com/en/12v-bat ... 0008943383. According to the website, it will also do the assorted checks on the alternator and starting load testing of the battery.

dirtmover wrote: ↑ How do you come to the conclusion that it's decent? They're providing very little information about it, no reviews and no model information to search for. Sure, PA have a great return policy but if it's not accurate how do you even know with no other reference to compare with?

motomondo wrote: ↑ 10 minutes at idle? Was the car moving?

20 minutes at idle, or was it moving?

You have a battery from 2018. The CAA guy said it is fine. But you are doing a lot of idling and the alternator is not charging the battery.

Is it possible it is the battery?

CDNPatriot wrote: ↑ Update and Resolution (hope it stays this way)

Just wanted to provide an update as this may be helpful to anyone that finds themselves with my situation in the future. I went with a battery charger. My rationale is that I may need it again the future as the vehicle maybe off the road for a couple of more months and the battery charger I purchased had a maintenance feature.

I charged the battery it was at 0% several hours later it was 100%. I let it rest for the night as the battery was really hot (as was the charger). I reinstalled the battery into the vehicle this morning and it started without any issues/warning lights. I was able to drive off with it and spent 3 hours driving around and doing errands with it (turning it on and off a few times).

For those that experience this the other option is to buy another battery as others suggested. But was concerned that I would find myself in the same situation as I don't think even if I were to start the vehicle weekly it would not be enough to maintain the charge. I already used up my once a year free 48 hour insurance coverage without any premiums charged so the next time I call in for temporary coverage to drive the car and have the alternator charge up the battery would come at a cost. Not sure what the cost to drive it for a day is but from a monetary perspective with the information I had was a toss up between buying a battery or a charger.

Will see if this battery holds up in the short term and for another year or two that these batteries have lasted me in the past.

CDNPatriot wrote: ↑ Unfortunately, I did not start my car for about four months.

billford wrote: ↑ Suggest you get one of these battery quick disconnects similar to this if the car sits for months. Once its installed, just turn the knob a half turn, then all power is disconnected and saves your battery.

https://www.amazon.ca/Battery-Master-Di ... B071RHFVLZ

But don't get it from from Amazon, too expensive, get it from a auto parts store or Princess Auto for half the price.

I have on on my pickup truck and it sits for 6 months at a time during spring and summer, starts right away in the fall and winter.

notunknown wrote: ↑ If the battery was fully drained and 4+ years old I doubt it will make it through the winter.

ES_Revenge wrote: ↑ This is the thing the OP is really missing here. You can't leave a battery connected to a car for months an expect it's going to last. OP is lucky it's not winter because they would have froze the battery and it would be game over for it for sure. Now it's probably just sulfated a good bit, but at least it didn't freeze.

If you're not going to use the car for months. Disconnect. The. Battery. (Negative terminal off, is all you need to do.)

craftsman wrote: ↑ Realistically, just disconnecting the battery isn't enough as the battery will start the stratification process where the acid separates from the water and sinks to the bottom half of the battery. That battery needs to have a periodic top-off charge or be tilted every now and then so that stratification doesn't happen.

ES_Revenge wrote: ↑ Indeed the battery will still degrade just left sitting there but it will not discharge and get destroyed and become "dead" as most laypersons would conclude after a battery goes bad in similar circumstances. The battery would almost certainly have started the car had it been left disconnected, not so for the one left connected and left sitting for months.

Proper maintenance charging would be best, sure, but without even needing to buy a charger, the same dummies leaving their batteries connected and draining over months needn't even do that. They just need a small wrench to disconnect the negative and that will go a long ways to helping avoid the issue of a non-starter later on. One caveat of course is that many cars these days are rather hard to lock without a battery connected. If it's inside a garage there are no worries there but otherwise could be an issue.

ES_Revenge wrote: ↑ This is the thing the OP is really missing here. You can't leave a battery connected to a car for months an expect it's going to last. OP is lucky it's not winter because they would have froze the battery and it would be game over for it for sure. Now it's probably just sulfated a good bit, but at least it didn't freeze.

If you're not going to use the car for months. Disconnect. The. Battery. (Negative terminal off, is all you need to do.)

craftsman wrote: ↑ The other issue is that some OEMs need certain things reprogrammed when the power is disconnected - ie Hondas and the factory radio or Subarus and the throttle body position, radio presets, and the auto power window position...

CDNPatriot wrote: ↑ It’s a 1999 Toyota Corolla don’t think it needs anything reprogrammed and locks do not require any power.

hightech wrote: ↑ Since you are in Toronto, you can contact your local Partsource to see if they can do a free battery test. This way you know how the battery condition is. If the health is at 50% or lower when it is +30, I have a feeling that it won't be very reliable in the Winter unless you plan on doing some form of battery repair and monthly battery charging.