Battery Charging Question

Certainly could.

Certainly could. It is never adviseable to turn your key to the run position to power things like your stereo. Always use the ACC position.

Should be well re-charged within that couple of hours. Usually takes much less time than that.

We car collectors use the 30/30 rule. Run the car every 30 days for 30 miles. One reason is it will keep a good battery charged.

Thanks for your nice replies. I do not think the key was in the run position, but I thought I'd ask the question anyway. As I mentioned, all is well now. And I like the 30/30 rule. Something to keep in mind.

Best regards,

Dave C.

Probably not.

The evidence seems to say so...

Figure about 4 hours of highway or non-idle driving would be sufficient in most cases.

Well you say "at least an hour". If the ONLY thing operating was the CD then it shouldn't run it down enough to require a jump. However if they had an interior light on, CD, GPS then it's possible.

More likely in the run position. That places a much higher load on the battery than the ACC position.

If the charging system is in good shape it shouldn't take much over an hour to bring it up to charge.

To bring up a discharged battery to 100% takes a while. You can bring it up to functional charge in an hour or two, but I dont thing you can bring it up to 100% in a couple of hours.

Let me tell you from personal experience, one as recently as two weeks ago, that leaving the ignition switch in "on" position WILL drain the battery pretty quickly. My wife has twice went to the garage, got in her Equinox and needed to turn on the switch to remove CD's from the player... then leaving the switch on overnight, and it's COMPLETELY dead the next morning.

It is also noteworthy that, at least on our Chevy, the key will NOT come out of the ignition, the car will NOT shift into neutral (which makes it very difficult to push out of the garage if that were necessary)... This car locks itself down completely.

however like you, I found that running it for an hour brings it back up to a reasonable charge and presumably it finishes charging in the subsequent trips.

I also tried one of those emergency battery packs (Black & Decker) and it just didn't have enough power. but it did have enough power to allow me to shift the car into neutral so I could push it out of the garage and jump start it with my Jetta.

Wes

I read somewhere that once you run a batt completely dead it'll never be as good as new and one might as well just replace it. FWIW wrenden

I've heard that as well, but having done it twice, the car starts with the usual power. Plus it's generally garage kept, so not too worried about cold weather, but perhaps this fall I'll purchase a new one just for security sake.

Wes