Dead Battery

[73inNH]

I replaced the battery in my 73 with a Duragold 750cca from AutoZone last May. I went out to take a drive yesterday and it was dead (last started maybe 3 weeks ago). And I mean dead: no dim lights, nothing.

I put my battery charger on the battery and it would not charge. It just gave me a wrench symbol indicating a bad battery.

So I brought the battery back to AutoZone and they gave me a brand new one, no questions asked.

But I've never seen a battery just 100% die and hold zero charge. Have you seen that before? Even batteries that most of us consider "dead" hold a bit of a charge.

Just curious.

 

[Hemikiller]

I recently had a similar issue with a very dead 18 month old battery. I had to leave my jump pack attached for the charger to recognize it was attached to a battery and start charging. After a few quick cycles, the battery regained enough voltage to keep the charger engaged. The charger is a new Everstart digital from Wally World. It's a really nice charger and works well, but it's not "dumb" enough for this type of work.

 

[73inNH]

Interesting. Is the battery still working?

 

[Hemikiller]

Interesting. Is the battery still working?

Yes, it was a Napa battery in our 06 Mini. I left it to charge until it shut off automatically, then had it run a cycle on the battery reconditioning mode. Battery seems fine and cranks over no problem. The car sat for a couple months when my wife had surgery and couldn't drive stick.

 

[donkost]

Even though batteries nowadays have higher CCA's, IMO they are not made as robustly as they were a number of years ago. I read more often of batteries working and then boom completely dead, even on forums for other makes of vehicles. In more modern vehicles various electronic modules might not go into sleep mode properly and that can kill a battery. My next door neighbor has worked in the plant at Deka / East Penn Mfg. for years, and I'll have to ask him his opinion. Deka, being "the largest single-site, lead battery manufacturing facility in the world". Wow and it's not far from my house.