Battery test?

Check for corrosion at the battery cables, clean the contact area if needed, jump it and drive it a while if the battery will restart the car it's good to go. But if you really want to know about car batteries google the subject and start reading. Autozone will test your battery free. One way to check it is when it's dead hook a 3 to 10 amp batter charger on it and see how long it takes to charge, the longer it takes to charge the more charge the battery will hold, at least that's the idea. If it has a bad cell then all bets are off. Here's a nifty little thing that I find very handy when trouble shooting a dead battery/charging system problem, let's you know real quick what the starting voltage is and if the alternator is working properly.

and the annual what's happening with antifreeze read,

You have to charge the battery first, or at least try to charge it. From there you can take it to stores like Autozone and they have a tester that can give an indication if the battery is any good. The tester will put a heavy load on the battery and a meter will measure the voltage. The Specific gravity test will also give some indication,but usually just if it is charged or not. It will not tell you if the battery is good if the battery is discharged.

Thanks. Interesting post!

How old is it?

Most batteries are good for 36 months, some for 48, and the best ones for as much as 72.

Given the fact that your car is closing in on 21 years, and it's essentially an economy car so the owners tend to be frugal so they buy less expensive items, and that 21 is evenly divisible by 3 years, I'd go with the idea that the battery is merely at end life.

Take it out and drag it down to AutoZone/Kragen/PepBoys/ and they will test it for free. If you have an America's Battery store in your town, they will also test it for free and install a very good product for as cheap as you're gonna find anywhere else, and be done in about 15 minutes.

My brother didn't start my car for 6 weeks. I had a 93 Corolla with the radio and dash clock. Just the clock running for 6 weeks drained the battery. We jumped it and as soon as I ran it on the highway a while, it started working right again. I left it parked for a few months after I got my new 95, and then we did have to replace the battery.

Charles Grozny

Car clocks were once operated by a mainspring just like an old-fashioned wristwatch. When the spring unwound far enough, it triggered an automatic rewinding by an electric motor. Modern digital clocks run on direct current, but don't use enough juice to run a car battery down in as little as 6 weeks.

How do you know that the clock was the only thing that was using power? I can't but help think that there are other parasitic power losses in the car. Not sure what they would be in '93. California required a OBD-I computer by 1988, so it might have had that or some other electrical draw.

Jeff

There's also the settings in the radio to keep up. The clock is NOT on the radio in this car. These were not integrated in this vehicle, at least not with the Toyota radios available at the time for the Corolla. I actually have the old car radio, I guess I could get out my multimeter and see how much current it draws on its own. (Swapped it out for a 95 radio later with a cassette deck. I was supposed to return the 95 radio when I sold it to the original owner, and put the 93 back in (no cassette) but the 95 got scrapped first.

Are you talking about the 'electric' dash clocks in cars of the 60's? Never actually saw one. My granddad had a rim wind dash clock in his 1956 DeSoto, usually wound by an overeager grandson in the summer, but not wound by an electric motor at all.

Charles Grozny

Here's a FAQ about testing car batteries, from the BatteryFAQ.org , that includes directions for using a hydrometer (specific gravity bulb):

Although it's not proper, you can also test each cell with a voltage meter (Harbor Freight $3 coupon deal -- the meter's accurate), by connecting the black test lead to the negative terminal and then dipping the red test lead barely into the liquid, taking care not to touch the plates below. As you move toward the positive terminal, the voltage of each cell should increase about 2V from the previous one if all the cells are good.

The car battery industry said the average lifespan was 42 months, but if you don't make frequent long trips, using an external charger every week can add 1-2 years. Johnson Controls, the maker of most car batteries (beveled corners on the caps means JC), says their low- maintenance batteries can withstand 6 deep discharges, but no- maintenance batteries (including JC's Eveready brand, which also has removable caps) are known to fail after just 1-2.

Is that Batteries America? Dont see mention of a America's Battery.

I'd rather have someone else change it, otherwise I gotta leave a core deposit, take it out myself and install the new one, then take the old one back for my deposit back.

Perhaps it is American Battery. I use the Yellow Pages.

It's Amernican Battery. I don't see a STORE LOCATOR on their werbsite, so you'll have to use your Yellow Pages.

Looks like they're only in Ft Laud.

I'm in California, and we have them all over the place. They might be in your neighborhood, but since there isn't a store locator on the Website, it's hard to tell. I find them in the Yellow Pages.

Their loss, oh well....