Battery Failure
Posted: Tue Apr 11, 2006 9:38 pm
Howdy -
got a dead battery, for no apparent reason. Alternator tested weak (I don't remember details) so I replaced with Bosch. All was well for a couple weeks, then whilst driving off, the belt squealled. It stopped, but I then stoppped at a stoplight and saw smoke coming from the rear. I surmised a belt failure - brilliant, eh? - and being as I couldn't get to the edge of the road and it was downhill all the way home, I ran for it.
Arrived no problemo. The belt was broken, and appeared to have become twisted. I've never had a twisted belt, but this is my first VW, so I shrugged, put on my spare belt, ran it a bit, and charged my battery just to be sure.
The next day, I put the charger away, and the day after that, went out to a dead battery. I charged it, drove a bit in the 'hood, observed the belt to be working, shut the engine off, restarted it immediately, and drove two miles to Home Depot.
I came out an hour later to a dead-dead battery.
The next day, I charged it from my mum's car, started it, drove it home in the dark with the lights on, running bright and running strong, then spent an hour running my mum and her car home...when I came back, the van had been idle maybe 70 minutes, and probably 90 minutes after spending 45 minutes jump-charging.
The battery showed ZERO volts.
So, I charged it today; after a couple hours, it read 15.7 volts - but they fell as I watched and within minutes were at 11. I recharged for nearly an hour, then disconnected the negative cable - it started at 15.4 and fell. I popped the cap-strips off, and used my hydrometer. Even with the voltmeter still reading 15.2 (though falling), the hydrometer said "recharge" in every cell....
Bad battery? It's only two easy years old - any ideas? It's a DieHard. I've used them forever without trouble, but have heard they're not so good anymore.
Thanks!
got a dead battery, for no apparent reason. Alternator tested weak (I don't remember details) so I replaced with Bosch. All was well for a couple weeks, then whilst driving off, the belt squealled. It stopped, but I then stoppped at a stoplight and saw smoke coming from the rear. I surmised a belt failure - brilliant, eh? - and being as I couldn't get to the edge of the road and it was downhill all the way home, I ran for it.
Arrived no problemo. The belt was broken, and appeared to have become twisted. I've never had a twisted belt, but this is my first VW, so I shrugged, put on my spare belt, ran it a bit, and charged my battery just to be sure.
The next day, I put the charger away, and the day after that, went out to a dead battery. I charged it, drove a bit in the 'hood, observed the belt to be working, shut the engine off, restarted it immediately, and drove two miles to Home Depot.
I came out an hour later to a dead-dead battery.
The next day, I charged it from my mum's car, started it, drove it home in the dark with the lights on, running bright and running strong, then spent an hour running my mum and her car home...when I came back, the van had been idle maybe 70 minutes, and probably 90 minutes after spending 45 minutes jump-charging.
The battery showed ZERO volts.
So, I charged it today; after a couple hours, it read 15.7 volts - but they fell as I watched and within minutes were at 11. I recharged for nearly an hour, then disconnected the negative cable - it started at 15.4 and fell. I popped the cap-strips off, and used my hydrometer. Even with the voltmeter still reading 15.2 (though falling), the hydrometer said "recharge" in every cell....
Bad battery? It's only two easy years old - any ideas? It's a DieHard. I've used them forever without trouble, but have heard they're not so good anymore.
Thanks!