My car fried out two brand new batteries !!!
 

Hi there,
About a month ago, my car stalled when I kept it running idle in a parking lot for about 15min. and could not start it. The battery was bad.

I bought a new one from Advance Auto Parts, the "Silver" made by Autocraft. It worked great for a while, then again it 's dead. I drove up to the store to have them checked the alternator and battery.

After checking they said alternator was still good, so they replaced a new one for me. But two weeks later, I got the same problem with battery, couldnt start, after let the car under snow for two days.

Is anybody knows where's the problem from?:

--Is it because of the battery? (Then which branch of battery is the good choice)

--The Alternator? ( They didn't check it right at the first time?)

--Or is there anything else could cause the problem?? electric leaking or ...something else?

Please help! :)

Right now I have to jump start it every single time I want to drive the car ...:((

Thanks in advance for any help!!!!

Q.

Tony,
1. Check all of your connections on the battery and alternator - especially the one that runs from the negative terminal on the battery down to the frame.
Make sure they're all clean and making good electrical contact (i.e. no rust or corrosion)
2. As is sounds like the alternator isn't charging the battery - and the SVX does have a history of not being kind to alternators - I'd suggest getting a new alternator. If you want to do a test before going this route, try this..a. get the alternator "check out" for free at AutoZone or wherever, b. hook everything back up and plug a voltmeter into your cigarette lighter and keep a close eye on it while you're driving. If the voltage starts droping off on you, then you can be fairly certain that the alternator is not charging the battery.
Good luck.
-B

Thank you!
 

Thanks B. for the answer. I drove the car to the store I bought that battery. The guy in the store was too busy to check the alternator. He just checked the battery and replace another new one for me. So everything is ok right now but I don't know how long it will last.

I will check the alternator again this weekend.

But, if there is corrosion, then the problem may be caused by the poor electrical contact ??? Then what should I do? ????
Because the answer is yes, there are rust and corrosion where the battery sitting on. The car was parked in the dealer lot for too long before I bought, and the battery was leaking caused that corrosion. I didn't know why I bought the car even that I saw the rusting...:( hic hic..

I hope it's not the alternator; it's not cheap at all !. ...:(
:mad:

Tony,
You're welcome. Corrosion, once identified, isn't that big of a problem. Try this:
1. pull the new battery out and mix up a big container of baking soda/water mixture. Pour the mixture on every spot of corrosion and let it sit for 10-15 minutes. Once the time has passed, rinse the spots with straight water.
2. once the spots where the corrosion were has dried, check to make sure there isn't any corrosion still hanging around. If there is, hit it with a wire brush. Once all the corrosion is gone, spray the spots with a good spray paint (hopefully with some built-in rust inhibitor).
3. Get yourself a battery terminal cleaner brush (basically a sprial wire brush on one end and a softer internal wire brush on the other end). Use this to clean the posts on the battery and the insides of the positive and negative battery cables - you'll want to clean until you see raw lead.
4. Disconnect the end of each cable where it connects to the frame (neg) or charging circuit (positive). Take some fine grain sandpaper or a fine metal file and clean up the spade connector. Once clean, connect both cable up securely.
5. Get a corrosion washer (felt, red for pos, green for neg) for each battery post . Reinstall the battery (after the spray paint has dried:D ), put one washer on each battery post, and securely hook the cables back up to the battery.
6. Tighten down the battery hold down bracket and start it up!

I'd still strongly recommend getting a volt meter to plug into the cig lighter to watch to see if the alternator is actually keeping the battery charged. Believe it or not, Target is currently selling a voltmeter/outside-inside temp gauge package (special packaging for Christmas!) for $10!! This should do the job for you (no, I don't work for Target - just know that my kids are getting me one of these for Christmas:D ).

Good luck!
-Bill

hihihi...thank you, Bill!! :)
Well, you should be a good teacher, though! :) The guide is so clear and you even answered all possible questions that might pop up in my head. haha ...;)...

Thanks again Bill, I would try it out soon. But the problem is that it's not just a small spot of corrosion. I got the whole area rusted :(. And that will take a long time for paint to dry out if I decide to spray paint it...hic hic.


Tony

Tony,
You might want to consider going to a parts store and getting a battery box if the corrosion is too extensive.
-Bill

I took a sick day today, :D went to target and advance auto parts to find all the neccesary stuffs to work on this issue.

I cleaned all the rust and brushed all the connections.

The connection of the negative line to the frame was terrible so I decided to untighten it to have a better clean. And I broke the bolt :(....

Then, I had to wait until 5:30pm when my friend came back from work to ask for a ride to advance auto parts ..:( , bought the bolts and nuts and tightened the wire to the adjacent hole ( fortunately there is another hole not too far from the original one ) ...put everything back in places and start the car ...whrum ummm...it works ...thanks god ...:) ..And the crank start sounds more powerful than before (...:D ) ..hihi :) hopefully I solved the problem.. But I will buy me a voltmeter if it 's not too expensive, though.(I could not find the gift pack that you talked about in target, and don't need the in/out temp gauge either! So I would buy it separately!!)

I dared not think about spray paint it at this time, Bill. I need to make sure to do it right, because there is to much rust and I don't want to do it twice :D ...

Again, thanks a lot for the help, Bill. Happy Holidays!

Tony.

Another thing to think about when you buy a new battery, is to charge it completely before installing it. If you install one that isn't fully charged, it probably won't last very long. A working alternator will maintain the charge, but it won't usually charge it fully from a low state. Besides, a battery charger is a great tool to have sitting in the garage.

Stephen