I leave a multistage charger hooked up to my car at night. Upon connecting the charger, it first analyzes the battery and displays the current charge. It then charges it back in multiple stages… first with 3 amps, then to slow trickle trickle, then to maintain mode once its fully charged.
Normally, at the end of each day, the battery reads between 70-90%. The charger then does a very slow trickle charge only. But if I leave the headlights on and then hook up the charger, it reads it quite low… anywhere from 0%-30% and then it gives it the initial 3 amp burst of charging till it gets to 50-60% (only takes a minute or two) and then it switches to the small trickle charge which takes several hours to get it from 60-100.
My question is it better to get that initial burst or is that bad for the battery?
You use a charger every day? Doesn’t your alternator/regulator work? If not, better get that fixed. (As to the 3 amp rate, if the charger doesn’t do it, you probably don’t need it!)
It’s not very long, the battery is not very deeply discharged, and the battery is not going to be left for a long period.
Boost charge is bad for the battery. Being uncharged is bad for the battery. Deep discharge is very bad for the battery. High overcharge is very bad for the battery.
Using the battery is bad for the battery. Batteries wear out if they are used.
Motor vehicles are capable of doing a very strong charge cycle for a very long time. If you run down your battery, the motor vehicle will keep it in boost until it charges, and probably at 30A rather than 3. So it’s not like the battery is designed to be incapable of taking the charge rate.
Motor vehicle batteries (cranking batteries) are designed to take very high charge and discharge rates, but have trouble with deep discharge cycles. It doesn’t sound like you are in either of those two conditions.
I have the same type charger as you do. The only time it reads less than fully charged on the battery is when is when I’ve let the car sit for a couple weeks or I’ve accidentally left something on that discharged the battery.
Sounds like something is wrong with your battery and/or your car’s charging system.
3 amps is not a ‘burst’ to a typical car battery.
Anything under 10 amps is considered a ‘safe, slow charge’.
A typical battery that is at 50% charge will take 4.5 hours at 10 amps to fully charge.
Industrial chargers go to 20 amps - they must be used in controlled environments and the batteries carefully monitored.
Why do you need to charge your battery every night??
And since you do, why on earth would you “leave the headlights on and hook up the charger”?!? STOP DOING THAT!!!
Yes the alternator needs to be replaced… but I came up with this because I am not interested in paying what Sears wants for that and its in a really difficult place to replace it myself. The new battery after each days use is usually at around 70%. I’ve been using it this way every day for several months now and the unfortunately it wouldn’t start and it still registered 75%. I’ve got a power pack for if it won’t start to get it home and its only used for short trips around the neighborhood. Everything is in close proximity so its not a big deal.. its basically used kind of like a scooter to just get around the neighborhood. I charged it back up from 75-79 and then it started just fine. … and then I disconnected and hooked it back up and it registered 95%. So basically its good for a few starts to get me where I’m going and back.. and if not I’ve keep a power pack in the car fully charged that easily starts it if necessary. I was just interested in making the battery last as long as possible, as I’ll probably have to replace either the battery ($60) or the alternator ($600) eventually… yes Sears wants $600 to replace the alternator (!). And I’m not about to start paying what they ask for everytime something fails like its a new vehicle. The blue book cost of the vehicle is not that much anymore since its over 10 years old now (2002 Daewoo Lanos) They wanted almost $300 to replace the thermostat housing and I got one from the auto parts store for $25 and did it myself. Everything else is running great with it now that its no longer leaking coolant and I keep a close eye on everything.
No I was just turning the lights on for a minute while it analyzed the battery and then turning them off once it started charging it. If the lights were on it would give it an additional 3 amp burst to get it from 30%-70% before it went into the trickle charge phase… it goes up like 2% every few (30) seconds until it reaches a certain point and then it takes about 5-10 (15?) minutes each 2% once it hits 60-70%. So I was just wondering if in this type of situation with the battery kind of just holding a moderate charge… not holding a full charge anymore… if I’d get more ‘bang’ from it if it got that initial zap or if it would be better not to mess with it and just let it do the trickle charge only.
Basically the goal here is just to go about my normal business each day ideally not having to use my power pack for the last start to get it home… anywhere from 4-6 starts per day.
By turning on the lights you are loading the battery which causes its voltage to drop. This is tricking the battery charger into thinking that the battery is much more deeply discharged than it is. You’ll get a healthier charge on the battery if you don’t try to trick it and just let it do its thing.
I don’t know what prices are like in your area, but $600 sounds way too high for an alternator. I would expect it to be half of that. Try someplace other than Sears. I would strongly suggest getting the alternator fixed. If you let the battery discharge too much it will basically self destruct and won’t be able to hold a full charge afterwards.
A remanufactured alternator for your car should run around $200. There will be a core charge, but that’s refundable when you bring in the old alternator. Might as well replace the drive belt while you’re at it, which (I’m guessing) would go for $15-20.
So $600 seems a bit much. If there’s an independent mechanic in your area with a good reputation, it might be worth calling for an estimate.
I’m not familiar with your car, but for many cars, replacing the alternator isn’t that tough. If, of course, you’ve got the tools. And a place to do it.
But on the other hand, there are some cars where everything is way too complicated. Like, you look in the shop manual for the procedure for something that really should be simple, and the first sentence is something like “First, remove engine. . . .”
I just went to rockauto.com and searched for your car (Daewoo/ 2002/ Lanos). They have six different alternators for $95.79 to $188.79.
They list two different alternator belts: alternator with manual steering, and alternator with power steering. I will assume you have power steering. In that case, your belt is $7.33.
So: $95.79 (+ $36.00 core charge) + $7.33 = $139.12. Shipping to my zipcode (Southern California) is $20.00 for a total of $159.12.
Fix it yourself. Some auto parts stores (Autozone?) will rent tools, so whatever you don’t have you can get from them.
Only problem is that due to the location of it, its beyond my scope. What I’m doing now actually isn’t that bad.. the good news is that although the positive clamp was tightly connected, it wasn’t fully touching… about 1/3- 1/2 of it was not exposed/touching the terminal. I was under the impression that as long as it was tight enough, that was all that was needed. I reconnected it and now the entire height of the clamp is fully wrapped around the battery terminal. The nice thing is that now from a full charge, after 4 starts, it was only down to 96%. I am thinking that this was the culprit.
If someone around San Diego wants to do it (if I order the parts) for like $100 to come to 92122 zip code, let me know. I can do stuff if its easy to reach but I can’t start taking off parts to get to the alternator… well its remotely possible, but its just easier to leave it hooked up to the maintainer each night. Worst comes to worst, the battery is a snap to replace and it only costs $60 bucks.
Sounds like the terminal was just fine, except for the risk it would fall off.
But breaking and remaking it may fix it up.
Or the problem could still be the connector at the alternator. Why ? Its down where it can get dirty, eg covered in grease or oil. It might come loose when it gets covered in oil…
Since you have wobbled around the cables, it might be clean now, but will soon get dirty again.
Besides, you didn’t describe your 4 starts very well..
Your test data has to include how far you have driven, using what accessories.
Why is that important ? Starting isn’t really huge compared to running the car’s electrical system for hours and hours.. with the lights on .
It may be that the alternator can charge the battery when accessories such as lights and fans are off, but accessory load is more than the alternator can cope with.
How can an alternator work but not properly ?
Its a 3 phase AC generator, which is then rectified then put through the regulator.
So there’s typically 6 coils and 6 diodes .. With 12 parts, if only one coil,and/ or a few diodes, are dead the power may be down but the fault hidden by the regulator. It may run enough to run the engine with no accessories on, but not well enough to power accessories as well.
Well I’ve been doing this every day for several months and there have been many times where I plugged it back in after a 4 short trips and it would be at about 80%. After reconnecting the clamps properly, after that same load that I’ve done so many times, it was at 96%.