Was listing to satellite radio for about 4 hours battery 3 years old and engine wouldn't crank. Just chatter then nothing. Put it on a charger overnight it been fine but i would hate to get stuck and have to call for a jump. Know i purchased a decent battery have to pull the engine computer to see how many year it is.
13 chevy equinox battery
- Thread starter Fitter30
- Start date
- Status
Originally Posted by Fitter30
Was listing to satellite radio for about 4 hours battery 3 years old and engine wouldn't crank. Just chatter then nothing. Put it on a charger overnight it been fine but i would hate to get stuck and have to call for a jump. Know i purchased a decent battery have to pull the engine computer to see how many year it is.
"Know i purchased a decent battery have to pull the engine computer to see how many year it is" What does that mean?
I thought you said the battery was 3 years old. Why would you have to pull the ECU?
You ran the battery down. You recharged it. It's only 3 years old, it should be able to survive that one event.
Was listing to satellite radio for about 4 hours battery 3 years old and engine wouldn't crank. Just chatter then nothing. Put it on a charger overnight it been fine but i would hate to get stuck and have to call for a jump. Know i purchased a decent battery have to pull the engine computer to see how many year it is.
"Know i purchased a decent battery have to pull the engine computer to see how many year it is" What does that mean?
I thought you said the battery was 3 years old. Why would you have to pull the ECU?
You ran the battery down. You recharged it. It's only 3 years old, it should be able to survive that one event.
Standard lead acid battery as for as failing my thought was shouldn't it last longer than 4 hours. Guess I'll take it to get load tested.
4 hours is a long time. You can have it load tested, won't hurt, but I bet it's fine. Your satellite radio probably has a high draw, plus who knows what else is running in the background.
My 7 year old battery got discharged below 9V and it's still chugging along 3 years later. I suspect it's on its last legs but so little current is needed to start it seems.
My 7 year old battery got discharged below 9V and it's still chugging along 3 years later. I suspect it's on its last legs but so little current is needed to start it seems.
Do you have any idea how much amperage your stereo uses at the volume you listened to it at?
I mean if it is using 10 amps average, for 4 hours, that would be 40 amp hours.
Generally the biggest group 31 car jar/ automotive batterym which is 13 inches long, 9 inches tall, and 6.75 inches wide and weighs ~54 lbs and hopefully more, has about 100 Amp hours possibly as high as 130AH most car batteries are far smaller with an equal reduction in capacity.
IThe 77f/25c battery, earns that 100 amp hour capacity rating providing 5 amps for 20 hours before voltage falls to 10.5v, which is considered 100% discharged.
This DOES NOT MEAN, a 100 AH battery can provide 100 amps for 1 hour though.
The bigger the load, the less overall capacity the battery has to give, so states Peukert's law, and batteries will have different peukert numbers and these numbers will change for the worse as the battery ages, and as its capacity is also declining. double edged sword.
So if 4 hours of stereo listening caused a no start, it would be reasonable if the stereo was pulling 10 amps and the battery only had 50Ah capacity when new. If 4 hours of stereo at 2 amps of draw caused a no start, then unless that 50 battery were otherwise discharged by other means, i would not have much faith in its remaining capacity, as depleting 8AH of its when new 50AH capacity (ignoring peukert) should still allow the engine to easily start.
What is the reasonable amp draw on a battery, when the key is in ACC, and the stereo is on, at say 1/3 of max volume?
I have NO FREAKING IDEA, for your vehicle.
My stereo which is a simple pioneer head unit that claims 50w x 4, draws about 10-12 amps at max volume playing a song with pumping base. Additional amplifiers vastly increase the amp draw. Subwoofers are Vampires, even at low volumes.
Turned on volume all the way down my stereo draws about 0.8 amps, volume about 1/4 the max and amperage is about 3.2 amps. spinning the CD player uses more amperage than bluetooth or using the Aux input. If my stereo is turned off, but its ignition switched wire is still on, it is drawing 0.3 amps. It can be turned on with the remote and still connect to my bluetooth phone when the stereo is off, so its 0.3 amp draw when off, is a bit excessive.
The ACC Key position can have other quiescent/parasitic draws even if the stereo is off. Painting all vehicles with the same brush as to the amount of this parasitic draw would be overwhelmingly asinine, without actual data on a specifc vehicle.
So unless the loads on the battery are known as either wattage or amperage, then judging how long a battery powers a load before it no longer has the ability to start is pure conjecture. Any data can help educate those guesses, but with no data or experience with the same vehicle, there is not much point in guessing.
A 4 year old battery kept cool and is fully charged at all times, or very nearly so, could easily live 4 more years.
One kept in the 85 to 95% charged range never fully charged 100%, and subjected to high average temperatures, might be extremely lucky to last 4 years.
One kept 75 to 85% charged, subjected to medium high average ambient temperatures, and never ever allowed to reach true 100% charged will be lucky to last 2 years.
Do not assume your vehicle can or does fully charge the battery. Charging a batery from 80% to 100% takes no less than 3.5 hours, assuming mid 14 volts can be attained and held for thoe 3.5 hours.
Do not expect your vehicle to hold mid 14's even if you are to drive 3.5 hours.
Do not assume the voltage your vehicle allows after start up, is the voltage it always holds.
Do not trust your dashboard voltmeter to actually represent true battery terminal voltage.
If the loads are known, and they are applied for a known amount of time, then that is a load test, comparable to future load tests using the same loads and durations. Starting a load test with a less than fully charged battery, is throwing a monkey wrench into the test, unless the state of charge of the battery is the same at the beginning for the tests, which is also not easy to determine as voltage is not the fuel gauge that people assume it is.
Voltage is only accurate as to state of charge on a battery which has not seen any charging or discharging currents for a long period of time, the longer period of time, the more accurate it is. While many people like to say 12.75v is 100% as absolute fact, actual full charge resting voltage varies quite widely across different batteries and the climate they were intended to be used in.
Actual full charge resting voltage would ideally be figured out when the battery was spanking new, fully charged, and its temperature recorded as well, and all future voltage readigs can then be compared to this initial recording, and hopefully the battery temperature is similar too. Expect full charge resting voltages to reside anywhere from 12.6v to 12.85v for flooded batteries around 75f, and anywheree fro 12.77 to 13.2 for AGM
batteries.
The easiset way to figure out amperage loads, is with a DC clamp on Ammeter. Not all of these are super accurate and reliable at very light loads. I have one which does seem to be accurate to as little as 0.06 amps. It cost about 50$ 8 years ago. Turn the dc clampmeter On, set it to the lower amperage range and zero it when placed right next to a battery cable. Then turn on the loads and then open the clamp and place it over that single cable.
If you shop for a clampmeter, amke sure it can measure both AC and DC amperage. the description might include AC and DC but that vould be voltage. Generally the cheapest clampmeter which can measure DC amperage is not going to be less than about 34$, and professional meters can easily be 10x that.
Checking parasitic loads can be done with a handheld digital multimeter, but most of these can only handle 10 amps max, and one needs to disconnect one cable from the battery and hook the meter inline. The initial hooking of the battery post clamp to battery might exceed 10 amps briefly, and blow the fuse in the meter, and might have all sorts of negative consequence on modern vehicles.
The DC clampmeters readings are not to be written in stone as dead accurate, but seeing whether there is a 0.2 amp draw or a 5 amp draw with teh stereo on doors and hood open is certainly reliable, and one can figure out just how long they can expect to listen to the stereo with a newish healthy fully charged battery at a certain volume and temperature and still start the car afterwards.
I mean if it is using 10 amps average, for 4 hours, that would be 40 amp hours.
Generally the biggest group 31 car jar/ automotive batterym which is 13 inches long, 9 inches tall, and 6.75 inches wide and weighs ~54 lbs and hopefully more, has about 100 Amp hours possibly as high as 130AH most car batteries are far smaller with an equal reduction in capacity.
IThe 77f/25c battery, earns that 100 amp hour capacity rating providing 5 amps for 20 hours before voltage falls to 10.5v, which is considered 100% discharged.
This DOES NOT MEAN, a 100 AH battery can provide 100 amps for 1 hour though.
The bigger the load, the less overall capacity the battery has to give, so states Peukert's law, and batteries will have different peukert numbers and these numbers will change for the worse as the battery ages, and as its capacity is also declining. double edged sword.
So if 4 hours of stereo listening caused a no start, it would be reasonable if the stereo was pulling 10 amps and the battery only had 50Ah capacity when new. If 4 hours of stereo at 2 amps of draw caused a no start, then unless that 50 battery were otherwise discharged by other means, i would not have much faith in its remaining capacity, as depleting 8AH of its when new 50AH capacity (ignoring peukert) should still allow the engine to easily start.
What is the reasonable amp draw on a battery, when the key is in ACC, and the stereo is on, at say 1/3 of max volume?
I have NO FREAKING IDEA, for your vehicle.
My stereo which is a simple pioneer head unit that claims 50w x 4, draws about 10-12 amps at max volume playing a song with pumping base. Additional amplifiers vastly increase the amp draw. Subwoofers are Vampires, even at low volumes.
Turned on volume all the way down my stereo draws about 0.8 amps, volume about 1/4 the max and amperage is about 3.2 amps. spinning the CD player uses more amperage than bluetooth or using the Aux input. If my stereo is turned off, but its ignition switched wire is still on, it is drawing 0.3 amps. It can be turned on with the remote and still connect to my bluetooth phone when the stereo is off, so its 0.3 amp draw when off, is a bit excessive.
The ACC Key position can have other quiescent/parasitic draws even if the stereo is off. Painting all vehicles with the same brush as to the amount of this parasitic draw would be overwhelmingly asinine, without actual data on a specifc vehicle.
So unless the loads on the battery are known as either wattage or amperage, then judging how long a battery powers a load before it no longer has the ability to start is pure conjecture. Any data can help educate those guesses, but with no data or experience with the same vehicle, there is not much point in guessing.
A 4 year old battery kept cool and is fully charged at all times, or very nearly so, could easily live 4 more years.
One kept in the 85 to 95% charged range never fully charged 100%, and subjected to high average temperatures, might be extremely lucky to last 4 years.
One kept 75 to 85% charged, subjected to medium high average ambient temperatures, and never ever allowed to reach true 100% charged will be lucky to last 2 years.
Do not assume your vehicle can or does fully charge the battery. Charging a batery from 80% to 100% takes no less than 3.5 hours, assuming mid 14 volts can be attained and held for thoe 3.5 hours.
Do not expect your vehicle to hold mid 14's even if you are to drive 3.5 hours.
Do not assume the voltage your vehicle allows after start up, is the voltage it always holds.
Do not trust your dashboard voltmeter to actually represent true battery terminal voltage.
If the loads are known, and they are applied for a known amount of time, then that is a load test, comparable to future load tests using the same loads and durations. Starting a load test with a less than fully charged battery, is throwing a monkey wrench into the test, unless the state of charge of the battery is the same at the beginning for the tests, which is also not easy to determine as voltage is not the fuel gauge that people assume it is.
Voltage is only accurate as to state of charge on a battery which has not seen any charging or discharging currents for a long period of time, the longer period of time, the more accurate it is. While many people like to say 12.75v is 100% as absolute fact, actual full charge resting voltage varies quite widely across different batteries and the climate they were intended to be used in.
Actual full charge resting voltage would ideally be figured out when the battery was spanking new, fully charged, and its temperature recorded as well, and all future voltage readigs can then be compared to this initial recording, and hopefully the battery temperature is similar too. Expect full charge resting voltages to reside anywhere from 12.6v to 12.85v for flooded batteries around 75f, and anywheree fro 12.77 to 13.2 for AGM
batteries.
The easiset way to figure out amperage loads, is with a DC clamp on Ammeter. Not all of these are super accurate and reliable at very light loads. I have one which does seem to be accurate to as little as 0.06 amps. It cost about 50$ 8 years ago. Turn the dc clampmeter On, set it to the lower amperage range and zero it when placed right next to a battery cable. Then turn on the loads and then open the clamp and place it over that single cable.
If you shop for a clampmeter, amke sure it can measure both AC and DC amperage. the description might include AC and DC but that vould be voltage. Generally the cheapest clampmeter which can measure DC amperage is not going to be less than about 34$, and professional meters can easily be 10x that.
Checking parasitic loads can be done with a handheld digital multimeter, but most of these can only handle 10 amps max, and one needs to disconnect one cable from the battery and hook the meter inline. The initial hooking of the battery post clamp to battery might exceed 10 amps briefly, and blow the fuse in the meter, and might have all sorts of negative consequence on modern vehicles.
The DC clampmeters readings are not to be written in stone as dead accurate, but seeing whether there is a 0.2 amp draw or a 5 amp draw with teh stereo on doors and hood open is certainly reliable, and one can figure out just how long they can expect to listen to the stereo with a newish healthy fully charged battery at a certain volume and temperature and still start the car afterwards.
- Status
