I had no idea anything was wrong until the car had a dead battery the other day. I jumped it and it was reading in the 14v range while running so it seems to be charging fine. But then I started checking the voltage the past few days and it would be around 12.6 or so when I shut off the car and then the next morning it was reading in the 12.2 range, enough to start the car though, so maybe it has been that way for a while and I didn't notice it. Last night I just disconnected the battery to see if it would drop on it's own and it was reading 12.58 when I disconnected it and only dropped to 12.47 this morning. Should that have even dropped at all though if it were disconnected? I have other batteries in the garage from my boat and trailer that sit for months and barely even drop .1 volt in that time. The battery is only a year old. What should I check next?
Battery drain on 09 Altima?
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Replace your dying, soon to be dead battery and live happily ever after.
Oh good. Glad it was that simple! Thanks.
Nothing about being new guarantees a battery is good.
Check it not hooked up to anything for more than one day. A good battery will fall off from the initial charging number then stop falling. The older the battery is the more it drops before settling out to stay. That takes at least one overnight and then it should stay put. If in one more day or two it has dropped more that is a leaking bad battery that will let you down. Anything below 12.3 volt just sitting will give trouble usually.
Check it not hooked up to anything for more than one day. A good battery will fall off from the initial charging number then stop falling. The older the battery is the more it drops before settling out to stay. That takes at least one overnight and then it should stay put. If in one more day or two it has dropped more that is a leaking bad battery that will let you down. Anything below 12.3 volt just sitting will give trouble usually.
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Mine discharges anew battery
Clean your positive post. They seem to cake up more than I've ever seen, happened to me with a brand new battery after 8 months. Bet your low voltage stuff worked fine, mine flooded, fixed by tow truck driver, saved a service charge.
And once the post is clean then make sure the terminal once tight will not twist by hand. There are OEM terminals out there on new cars now that if you clean the inside once using a brush they remove enough material so that the terminal seems to tighten up fine but they easily spin loose. Leads to a rash of battery issues when people don't check that they are TIGHT and not meaning just the bolt.
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