Hey guys, I installed aux into my car and got excited so I listened to it for like half an hour and now the battery is dead. I haven't tried starting the car yet, but the window motors are working very slow, the car won't lock, gauges are dim, etc. If the battery is dead, could I recharge it, or should I just buy a new one? Recycling a battery by recharging it seems pretty thrifty so I just wanted to know. Could I just jump my car and let it run? Maybe it'll charge my battery to full again? LOL.
Thanks in advanced guys.

 

Oh yeah also with the car off the voltage gauge in the car reads about 6 volts

 

Charge it, jump it , get it running. It may be good, but a lot of the time there is a full discharge , you kill the battery. Only way to find out is get your car going again.

 

Pull the battery and take it to advanced auto. They will text it and tell you if it's bad or dead. If its bad, they'll sell you a new one. If its dead, they have a rapid charger that can charge it back up in like 5 minutes. I've left my lights on and drained the battery in my Chevy more than once and just recharged my battery.

 

So! I jumped it with my dad's car and got the car running, idled my car for about 15 minutes and now the car is probably charged all the way, since the voltage meter is pretty high. I've heard something about charging the battery with the alternator is bad? Something about risking heating up the alternator and breaking it or something.

 

Glad your battery accepted a charge, which isn't surprising. However, it is not fully charged! You really need to make your next few trips add up to an hour of driving. if you can't do that, I highly recommend getting it on a battery charger before it develops a "memory"

 

Interesting, I dont understand the concept of the ECU learning anything lol. What happens when it develops the memory?

 

I was referring to the battery itself.

Have you ever have a device powered by a rechargeable battery that, after fully recharging the battery, you could only use it for a short period of time before it was dead again?

That is "memory" which can easily develop when battery's go through improper usage and re-charge cycles. To prevent this, make sure you do something to ensure your battery is fully recharged soon.

 

One more thing to consider is the age of the battery. If it's the OEM battery, and has been in regular use, it's service life is about 5-6 years. So, it's not a question of if, but rather WHEN it will fail completely. Get it changed out with a fresh battery and save yourself from being stranded someday...

 

you do realize that any time the car is running the alternator is charging the battery. thats the entire point of the alternator, you wouldnt be able to start the car after 3 or 4 start ups if it didnt. not sure who told you that but you probably should avoid them for anything car related.

the memory effect dosnt happen on lead acid batterys thats only NiCd and NiMH batterys and can be fixed by "overcharging" the battery to its true full capacity. any such thing in a automotive battery is just permanent sulfurization and the battery is dying same with other types, the batterys just age and loose capacity but cant be repaired like a true battery memory process.

 

Cool man, I did not know that about Lead batteries.

 

yup gets especially bad on AGM batterys(like optimas) if you use a standard charge on it, they have to be charged slower