On Friday 30 November 2007 08:34 am, Roger Heim wrote:
> I took a look this morning. Lot's of lovely blue fuzz around both battery
> terminals. The bolt for the positive clamp broke as I was trying to loosen
> it so I need at the minimum a new bolt for it.
Given this, I'd be buying a new one. If you're not able to drive there, can
you get a ride from somebody? Around here, they have a core charge to make
sure you turn in the old dead battery, but they don't much care if you do
that before or after you get the new one.
I'm a fan of those little corrosion prevention washer things. Not sure what's
in them, but they do seem to work to keep the grunge from growing around the
battery terminals.
Somewhere like a Napa or Autozone probably has the terminal bolts along with
batteries. If it's badly corroded, you might need the whole terminal, not
just the bolt.
> Multimeter shows 12.57V. Now I just have to figure out how to get the
> battery somewhere for a load test (the Dak is my only vehicle.)
Given this, I wouldn't bother with the load test unless you're just curious.
Get somewhere, somehow, buy a new one, then get it home and put it in. Then
you can drive the old one over and have it tested if you want to be sure it
was really dead.
The other possibility that I haven't seen mentioned yet is a dead alternator.
My wife had that happen. The battery was fine; she even drove 50 miles or so
to work on it with no working alternator. Car woudln't start after that,
though, I had to go out and get her. Knew it was the alternator, not the
battery, 'cause I could jump start it but it'd die as soon as I disconnected
the cables.
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