Alright, background info. Car drove 100% fine about 6 hours earlier. I went to head home, go outside. Go to start the car, and absolutely NOTHING happens. Tried to turn on the headlights, there was NO power. As if the battery was completely dead. Nothing turned on, there was no noises or anything. Pulled out a battery charger/starter, hooked it up. And the battery was boiling over some, and would intermittently start charging the system and then stopping. Unable to start the car, but was able to get power with the charger hooked up. The car would only intermittently charge too. Took the charger off, and there was no power again. As if the battery was dead. No lights, no radio.
The battery is about 1.5mnths old, as is the alternator. The car ran FINE 6 hours earlier.
swap out the battery with one from another car… doesnt matter if it fits… do this just as a test. A maintenance free battery should not be boiling over at all… something is fucked up and it sounds like the battery is garbage (regardless of how new it it). Its possible that the regulator on the car is toast and it killed the battery by overcharging it. Once you have the car running you can check the charging voltage and find out. If the alternator is new(and its internally regulated) it may have come with a bad regulator.
Honestly based on what you are describing DO NOT attach any battery to the car for your own safety. It could be the battery but usually if a problem occurs there, only one or two cells would go at once causing a drop of around 1.5-2v at a time. It could be possible that the charging system fried it if there is a problem. But I’d find it hard to believe that it completed shorted all the cells in the battery. Considering the car was running ok a few hours ago.
However, based on the fact it started boiling just when trying to charge it seems to indicate a possible short. So DO NOT connect a battery until you test for that first. Last thing I want to hear is a story about an exploding battery and a missing face.
Attach an ohmmeter = without any battery in the car from the positive and negative terminal. It should be next to infinite with the key off, if it isn’t or it’s near 0 then you have a short somewhere. Look at that first. Most likely though your battery is now toast.
" Last thing I want to hear is a story about an exploding battery and a missing face." that would be a hell of a story…but yea could be a short…are there leaks in ur lights or anything like that that could have done it? check that and jsut buy a new battery
Never had a problem with grounds. The l;ast issue was start issues. This is just complete total power failure. The car has NO power. And the battery is tested as good.
Even if there is 3 volts comming out he should at least get a very dim dome light. As was stated in the first post it was completely dead. I’m just advocating safety first here. Could be either, but usually it takes a long time/major draw to do that. Could just be a loose/poorly connected ground/positive cable also you never know until you look seeing as that tends to be more common.
First off, lets not pull the “safety” fire alarm and start freaking everyone out. If there was a SIGNIFICANT enough short in the system to make a BATTERY BLOW UP (highly unlikely) it would have happened to the one ALREADY IN THE CAR.
Second, if there was a LARGE ENOUGH short to pass enough current to short a battery the terminals would ARC SO BADLY you would not be able to attach them to the battery. Basically like welding.
Sounds like there is a decent sized load on the system. I doubt a ground would cause a complete lack of power but its possible. In that case the check is simple because there is only the battery to chassis and engine to chassis ground. After throwing in a good battery, check for power at the starter positive… then engine fuse box… and so on. Start at the source and work your way back. If the car is rusty or has seen many winters the check the grounds with a meter… wiggle them…things like that
i had my Z go dead…bad wiring that connects to the ground and bad terminals as well…just checkout/replace stuff like that because it is mad cheap and not a bad thing to do anyways…could solve everything
(ihad the horrible ground wiring come apart and the car die on the thruway…probably one of the scariest things ever)