coho_threefive

Hey guys, i'm new here, just thought i'd ask a question before I took my car into the garage.

Two days ago I went in for an oil change at a Mr.Lube. Spent over $200 getting all my fluids topped up and checked. The worker I was dealing with said that they didn't check my battery due to it being inaccessible (being in the trunk), and I assured him it wasnt an issue as the battery is under one year old. I got 20 mins down the road, had my battery light pop on, and then two minutes later the whole car shut down and wont start up again, its completely dead.

Now, I know very little about cars and i'm an apprentice electrician, so I did some research about testing the battery with my meter, i found that my battery showed completely dead when I just test from + to -. When I try to boost it, I let the battery charge up to about 11 volts and it stops, (car just clicks when I try to start it) as soon as I remove the jumper cables the battery dies rapidly fast. I've began going through my fuses to look for a short like ive read to do. Just wondering if anyone has seen this or might know what to do next? Also, do you think there might be a coincidence having just left a place that had hands all over my car?

Just an FYI, the car is a 2006 Dodge Charger SXT 3.5L. I bought a Mopar Performance battery less than a year ago and have never had it boosted nor had signs of failure. The car worked perfectly fine (electrically speaking, other than my driver side daytime light was dim) before going for its scheduled oil change.

Thanks for you time and reply guys,

Coho

DDodger

"The coincidence" of the oil change and severe electrical problems is very troubling. Or "it might" just be happenchance

The "standard way" of checking a draw used to be.......

Start with disconnecting the battery ground, and hook a 12V test lamp in series. If it lights brightly, indicating a load, "go round" and make certain everything is off. THIS SIMPLE ACT is more difficult in these modern cars, what with auto-shut off courtesy lamps and so on, and computer modules that "go to sleep" after a period of time, including alarms.

So it may be a bit complicated

1...Disconnect battery ground. Attempt to charge battery with a "slow" charger. It would be best to REMOVE the battery completely. See if it charges up and attempt to load test it.

2...The above might not be successful, the battery may be damaged. It might have "just gone bad" (bad cell, etc) OR you might have a short which DAMAGED the battery.

3...Attempt to find how much current the draw/ short is taking. Depending on what you have for test equipment, this would best be done with a starter / alternator test rig. Not a bench tester, but one of the old fashioned shop testers.......like one of these

http://www.publicsurplus.com/sms/doc...&docid=7497489

4...LACKING a tester such as above, the next step will depend on "what you have" and can get for test gear

A...Simply hooking up the battery and observing "spark" is one way, but this can be dangerous if you have a conventional battery with vented cells, IE liquid lead acid which is not sealed.

B....Hooking a current function of your multimeter MAY result in damage to the meter, or at least a blown meter fuse. An AMMETER is a "dead short" device, that is, an ammeter is wired in SERIES. So if you have a multimeter with a 20A scale, and the short is drawing 40A you will have a damaged meter, or a meter with a blown fuse

C...."What to do?" One way is to find a HEAVIER 12V lamp for testing. Use a stop / tail lamp. You can wire both filaments together and create a lamp which will give you a better indication of a heavy draw, than a 12V test lamp will.

C....Find an old dash mount ammeter. These are "less fussy" if you overload them.

D....Find a "short test" ammeter.
http://www.inliners.org/tech/tech61.jpg

These were sold for years in auto stores as a "short finder." In this case you would just want the meter part of the tester. You can hold it near the battery cable as an indicator.

5....USE your eyes. IF you actually DO have a serious short, and especially if it was caused by the oil change people, get under the hood and under the car with a strong lamp. LOOK around under there as well as SMELL

RacerHog

I think I would look under the car.... The shop my have Jacked the car up in the wrong spot and damaged something ?????
Might have pinched a wire is what I would look for....

fivepoint

I would have to agree with Bob. I have heard many stories about the instant oil change shops. The fact that he mentioned your battery leads me to believe they knew something was damaged. I would do a good inspection under the hood and under the car. Get the battery charged and load tested. When you reconnect the battery and it sparks a lot at the connection leave it disconnected until you find the short.

coho_threefive

Thanks for the suggestions guys! I'll try to do what I can from my driveway and if anything else pops up i'll let you know!

Thanks again,

Coho

RacerHog

Keep Us posted.... Hope you find it...

coho_threefive

Hey guys,

So, I dont have the means to really do much testing on my own, so I went into my local Chrysler dealer and paid $35 to have them test and charge my battery. I took just the battery in by itself. They recommended I just buy a new one but I argued it due to the fact that the battery was just a year old. The next day they called me and said it took an hour and a half to charge and that the battery was completely fine

I brought it home, re-mounted it into my car. Voila! Car turns over on second try. Now, I let it run for about 2 mins and started to notice a burning smell. I opened the hood to investigate and there was some smoke accumulating from the passenger front headlight area. Then, like before, my battery light came on.

I jumped in and drove it to the dealership (4 min drive) and left it over night. They just called me now saying that they "think" its the alternator because the smoke appears to be coming from that area. Quoted me a lovely $860 for a rebuilt one. I'm not stupid and i'm not paying that much for one, i'm pretty sure I can get a rebuilt one for around $300 elsewhere.

What do you guys think? Does that seem legit? I thought alternators gave some kind of warning before dying? Like a struggle to start or a bad noise when driving? (Which my car had neither of)

Thanks for your thoughts and suggestions guys.

Coho.

RacerHog

Well... If the charge light is on.... Guess you reset assessed it's not charging...
But is that the problem... Wont know until its checked and verified.. Sounds like its in the rite area...

DDodger

I don't know. You could have easily caused further damage by starting and running the car. It obviously has some sort of short. Not it "might be" that the short is indeed right in the alternator itself

I haven't kept up with "new stuff" I have no idea what some of the new alternators cost, you might get me down and beat me until I believe a NEW one is nearly a grand, but certainly not a "rebuilt!!"

coho_threefive

Hey guys,

So, I bought a rebuilt alternator ($280), did the work myself and that seemed to have fixed the issue! Been running strong for over 4 days now and she seems good. So my bad for pointing the finger but I cant be the only one that assumes where there's smoke there's fire!

Anyhow, thanks for all your help and advice!

Coho

RacerHog

Glad you got it fixed.... Good Job....