question regarding battery behavior

Hi,

I have a 98 Accord EX.

I replaced the battery 20 months ago with a 72 month battery. Last
week I could not start the car without a jump. I put my charger on the
battery and it would appear to charge up to 100% fairly quickly. If I
tried to start the car I'd get one good kick which seemed almost good
enough to start the the car and then it would rapidly just turn to
clicking (starter?). As mentioned, car would start instantly with a
jump. One thing I thought that was odd was that if I tried to start
the car with my headlights on, they would dim somewhat but wouldn't die
out completely which was leading me to believe the battery was not
completely at fault.

I took the car to the shop and they said the battery was dead. They
put a new battery in, checked the charging system and said that it was
fine. Car has run fine since, but I still have this nagging feeling
that something may not be quite right. Why would the battery go so
soon if there are no apparent issues with the charging system? Why was
my charger claiming to fully charge the battery? What about the test
with the headlights? Are there reasonable explanations for this? Is
there any other tests I can do at home (I've got a digital multimeter
if that'd do me any good)
to verify operations of things?

Thanks for any thoughts.

In article <1124550832.664549.123630@g44g2000cwa.googlegroups .com>,
d_cymbal@hotmail.com wrote:

> Why would the battery go so
> soon if there are no apparent issues with the charging system?

Maybe because of defects in manufacturing of the battery?

In article <1124550832.664549.123630@g44g2000cwa.googlegroups .com>,
d_cymbal@hotmail.com wrote:

> Hi,
>
> I have a 98 Accord EX.
>
> I replaced the battery 20 months ago with a 72 month battery. Last
> week I could not start the car without a jump. I put my charger on the
> battery and it would appear to charge up to 100% fairly quickly. If I
> tried to start the car I'd get one good kick which seemed almost good
> enough to start the the car and then it would rapidly just turn to
> clicking (starter?). As mentioned, car would start instantly with a
> jump. One thing I thought that was odd was that if I tried to start
> the car with my headlights on, they would dim somewhat but wouldn't die
> out completely which was leading me to believe the battery was not
> completely at fault.
>
> I took the car to the shop and they said the battery was dead. They
> put a new battery in, checked the charging system and said that it was
> fine. Car has run fine since, but I still have this nagging feeling
> that something may not be quite right. Why would the battery go so
> soon if there are no apparent issues with the charging system? Why was
> my charger claiming to fully charge the battery? What about the test
> with the headlights? Are there reasonable explanations for this? Is
> there any other tests I can do at home (I've got a digital multimeter
> if that'd do me any good)
> to verify operations of things?
>
> Thanks for any thoughts.

Hello,
It's possible that the battery was defective. Don't really about it unless
the same thing happens to your new battery within the next two months. If
that happens, have your mechanic check your alternator and other things
(such as wires) that could cause the charging system from working
properly. I once had a car that had a wire that was "shorting out" from
time to time. When it happened, the battery would go dead. That was a hard
problem to find.
Jason

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I have had the same thing with batteries, in different. I agree with
jason@nospam.

Just because a battery comes back to full charge doesn't mean it's any
good. The real test of a battery is its ability to deliver power. Power
is Voltage times current(Amperes). You should fully charge the battery
and then do a load test. Only when it passes this... can the battery be
ruled out as the problem you're having.

Professor
www.telstar-electronics.com