Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => The O' Club => Topic started by: Meatwad on February 19, 2006, 06:34:10 PM
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The idiot woman I am unfortunately married to decides to leave her car door open and totally drains her battery (it reads 1 whole volt). Would it best to just get a charger to charge it or buy a new battery
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Depends, which is cheaper in the long run?
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Idiot woman? Prolly she'll smarten up and divorce...
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Divorcing her would be cheaper in the long run by far since I dont got no kids
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If the dome light drained it overnight, the battery may be shot anyway. How long was it on/open? How old is the battery? If its more than 4 years it may be time to replace it anyway as well.
eskimo
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Put a trickle charge on it. If it holds a charge, don't bother getting another battery. Is this a difficult problem to figure out for men? :lol
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keep the battery; get a new wife?:)
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Originally posted by xrtoronto
keep the battery; get a new wife?:)
I like that idea the best, even though she'll get a lot of my stuff that she wont have no use for.
battery might be 2 years old, door was open from sat morning to sunday afternoon, about 26 hours.
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if the battery isn't that old, charge it and it will be fine.
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Give it a charge and see. If it holds the charge, you're probably good for another couple of years. If you don't have a charger, you need to let the car run for at least half an hour to start building up a full charge again. If your commute to work is long enough, start the car early, let it idle a while before going to work, and then drive it to work. Toss some jumper cables in the back just to be safe :) If it keeps starting in the morning, you're probably fine.
If you think you'll need the battery to be good for more than just going to and from work, then you really should trickle charge it with a charger. Sooner or later it's gonna go though...
When my last car battery died, it went all of a sudden. The engine started freaking out, idling at 3000+ rpm as the car tried to maintain voltage and charge a toasted battery back up. I had been on my way to lunch, but I diverted straight to a parts store and got there before the engine quit or the alternator burned up. They don't usually go like that though...
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A dead battery is not the same as a depleted battery. If you run a battery down it loses its charge but that by no means results in it becoming defective. Just charge the sucker back up and go on with your day.
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My boss just got a new truck from another contractor, 2005 van and the battery was already shot after just 75k miles. The day I picked it up the battery was dead, we charged it up, I loaded up, and the battery was dead again. So I had to leave the van running all day as I dropped my packages off. 2 days later I just finished with my 7th stop and the battery was dead again. I replaced it next day.
She probably left the headlights on too. Just charge it up, as long as it holds the charge it should be fine.
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Originally posted by Meatwad
Divorcing her would be cheaper in the long run by far since I dont got no kids
Wanna bet?
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If a battery gets TOTALLY drained it can die in the process. The plates inside the battery get a resistive coating or something if I recall right.
With a decent charger ($40 at your nearest quick-e market) :) it should start taking the maximum load immediately (usually 4-6 amperes) if it won't, replace it straight away.
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Originally posted by MrRiplEy[H]
If a battery gets TOTALLY drained it can die in the process. The plates inside the battery get a resistive coating or something if I recall right.
Yes. The lead plates begin to decay, and that reddish substance you've probably seen is Lead Sulphate. Battery is porked if you've got to that stage. In Meat's case, given how short a time the battery was discharged, a charge up should be fine. I had a similar thing happen when I got rear ended by a truck - the damage partially opened the hatchback, leaving the light on inside. Had to take the bulb out until repaired!
A few years ago I was working in the USA for a couple of months, and left my own car at home in the driveway. I thought I'd turned the alarm system off with the special key, but when a friend came to run the car in my absence, off went the alarm! He couldn't start the car - the battery was very low, and it was another month before I could attend to it. It had one of those window things that looks like the RAF emblem when fully charged - blue circle, red dot. Mine was totally dark. Very much to my surprise, a 12 hour charge with a fairly up-market charger completely restored the battery, and I had no further trouble...
...one of the brakes had seized on though. :mad:
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what you guys are discussing is why you want to keep an unused battery topped off over the winter. A battery will rarely physically fail with just one discharge over a few hours.
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Originally posted by rabbidrabbit
what you guys are discussing is why you want to keep an unused battery topped off over the winter. A battery will rarely physically fail with just one discharge over a few hours.
hmm I accidentally left the nightvision back up camera on over night, didnt affect the new battery one bit....
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Standard lead/acid automotive batteries suffer some conditional damage on a full discharge. Gel types do a bit better. RV/Marine, Golf cart and other 'deep discharge' types survive a bit better in those circumstances.
Ripley & eagl nailed it... pump it up; see if it holds a charge. If so; yer golden. For now. ;)
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Had to get a new one, it wouldnt hardly hold a charge anymore.
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Maybe your wife deliberately killed it 'cause you call her an idiot? :huh
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my wife got furious because I called the dash warning lights 'wife lights'.. after she smoked her second head gasket.
When she asked why, I just smiled sweetly and said, 'just being polite dear, and trying to do my part to promote your precious PC sensibilities.'
she then said 'what ARE you talking about??'
"dear, the little red lights used to be known as (shouted) 'IDIOT LIGHTS'."
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Hah :)
My wife has killed 2 cars and killed the clutch on a third. One killed car and the clutch weren't really her fault though... Her idiot driving instructor waaay back almost 20 yrs ago taught her to keep her left foot "ready" by resting it lightly on the clutch pedal. Moron. I think that dude must have had family running a auto repair shop since there are few ways to kill a clutch faster than "resting" your foot on the clutch pedal all the time while driving. That one tidbit of instructional goodness cost me $100, and other techniques she learned in driving school cost her dad an engine.
My trans-am has over 115,000 miles on the original clutch even after 3 seasons worth of autox racing, and although it chatters a bit when starting off slowly when cold, it still engages predictably and doesn't slip.
But even though she killed another car by driving it for a week with the oil light on, I still wouldn't call her an idiot. I emphatically questioned her priorities :furious but she's not an idiot.