plymouth voyager battery dying at any given time when parked.

forgot to add> 96 voyager 3.3L engine.

cyberguy wrote:

First step... Clean the battery posts and terminals... Second... Depending on how long this has been going on, it MAY be the contact terminals inside the starter; these are known to fail due to excessive wear...

Before you jump into a starter, take the battery to garage and have it load tested. I went thru the same problems. Battery needed to be replaced. If the battery test fine, then you have can look at the starter.

Start by testing the battery when the condition occurs.

Don't assume that the battery is being drained, don't assume that it's not.

You mention "clicking," is it a single click or a repetitive click (buzz). Single click would indicate the starter contacts which makes sense given the age and average mileage for an 11 year old vehicle.

What is the alternator output. Wth engine running, put a volt meter on the battery and check the voltage, you need to see 14.1 VDC and not less that 13.5 VDC if the alternator is good. Likewise the battery, with engine off, same test and 12.1 should be the reading.

At 12.1 volts, the battery is less than 50% charged (close to

If you have 12.1 VDC on the battery at rest, then the battery is fully charged. If you have 14.1 VDC on battery with engine running then the alternator is good. Put the volt meter on the battery at rest and have someone crank the engiine over while you read the voltage, it should not drop belwo about 11.0 VDC if the battery is holding a good charge.

Depends on the ambient temperature, not to mention that all alternators have a voltage versus amperage specification.

Stupid me, here I've been using an AVR and a trans-conductance tester all these years.