battery ?

Yeah, I have a thought. $118 for a car batter is absurd! Tell your stepson he's got my sympathy for getting ripped off like that.

my thoughts exactly. great dealer hey? no wonder i never take my cars in.

12 v is too low. It should be around 13.6V.

It's not a case of turning on a "defense mechanism", rather an issue of not haveing enough voltage to turn on the computer and other devices. I suspect the voltage would really drop when cranking so that even if there was enough power to see the dash and light some lights the voltage level would drop below the sensor and computer minimums during cranking.

BTW, price would not be that bad. Figure an hour labor plus the cost of the battery for diagnosis and installation. Dealers have to pay taxes and eat too.

Yes, if that was the battery alone that is a rip-off. If it was the total bill for diagnosis and replacement of the battery as well as the battery, then I'd say it wasn't unreasonable.

Matt

Only if it is on a charger. A resting battery is more like 12.6V if it is in good shape and depending on temperature.

Matt

I don't think I have ever seen a good one run that low but my favorite source -

agrees withhim. That is the minimum though. We always learned that lead acid wa2.2 v / cell. That does seem more normal. Either way 12 is too low but we don't know how well that was measured. By that I mean around 12 on an old mechical meter or 12.053 on a recently calibrated DVM. It's really too bad he didn't stop by somebody like Autozone and have it load tested before hitting the dealer. Testing under load is the only good test as it shows up bad internal connections as well as charge capacity.

Mark

Where did you learn that? I was always taught (I'm an EE) that 2.1V per cell was nominal for an LA cell.

Matt

E tech - I can't say where I learned it - it was too long ago. perhaps Navy, perhaps tech school, perhaps etc. Just out of curiosity I went out and checked the car - 12.69. Checked back to a couple of web sites. The only thing I can say now is none of the numbers match exactly. ;-) OTOH discussions like this get me to relearn old knowledge. It's good to check back on what I think I know every once in a while.