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Expert
Posts: 1348
  
Location: Valley Forge, Pa. | I went to work in the dark last Friday morn. Accidently I left my lights on. Came out 5 hrs later and car started but cranked a little slow. I've run batteries down like that before and they always came right back, so I wasn't too concerned. Sence then, every time I tred to start it, it cranked slower. Finally died. Battery was totally dead. Stuck in good battery and found the clamps weren't making good contact and cleaned them up. I thought maybe they lost good contact because of leaving the lights on, so that was probably what was wrong. Started fine for a couple days with good battery but it started starting slower then this morning it died again.
What could I have fried by leaving my lights on? The GEN light is working correctly. Could I have done something to the REG? |
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Expert
Posts: 2244
Location: Yorba Linda, Ca | Is the car 12 volts? If so, connect a voltmeter to the battery, start the car up and run it about 2000 RPM with no light on.
You should see the battery voltage increase from starting out at around 12 volts and get up to 13.5-14 volts.
If it stays just barely above 12 volts (12.2-12.8) or so, then you have a charging problem.
It could be either the voltage regulator or the Generator.
None of this was caused by actually leaving the lights on, alto the generator would have worked harder
to charge the almost dead/dead battery.
Take those measurements and then we can go from there, to isolate it to either the Generator or the regulator.
Gary |
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Expert
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Location: Valley Forge, Pa. | I have a basic understanding of the charging system so when I can, I'll go through the obvious. I guess what I'm trying to find out because I have never had any problems before, is there anything that could have been damaged by leaving the lights on? For example, I have left a key on before and the points were closed and it fried the points. Could I have fried something in the voltage regulator or GEN? Unless it is totally by chance that the charging system died around the same time? I'm going to check for a draw when I get home tonight also. I drove nearly a week on a battery last year when my GEN died while I was on vacation.The first battery that died is a new Die Hard. It only lasted 2 days. The second battery lasted 3 days but 2 of those it rained and the car was in the garage and I didn't use it. It seems like something is drawing them down as well as not charging? |
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Extreme Veteran
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Location: West Jordan | udoittwo - 2014-07-16 10:13 AM I went to work in the dark last Friday morn. Accidently I left my lights on. Came out 5 hrs later and car started but cranked a little slow. I've run batteries down like that before and they always came right back, so I wasn't too concerned. Sence then, every time I tred to start it, it cranked slower. Finally died. Battery was totally dead. Stuck in good battery and found the clamps weren't making good contact and cleaned them up. I thought maybe they lost good contact because of leaving the lights on, so that was probably what was wrong. Started fine for a couple days with good battery but it started starting slower then this morning it died again. What could I have fried by leaving my lights on? The GEN light is working correctly. Could I have done something to the REG? Under the hood |
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Extreme Veteran
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Location: West Jordan | But seriously, a generator / alternator is NOT a battery charger. When you use it as a battery charger you over stress the generator / alternator and or the regulator. The fact that your gen light goes out makes me think it is in the generator (smoked the armature) or alternator (smoked windings or rotor). |
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where should I look first for charging issue?
