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Got a 99 chevy s10 with a 3 yr old interstate battery. I left the ignition/headlights on for about 5 min while I was doing some work checking on some dash speakers.. anyway, after 5 minutes I shut it off completely and was greeted minutes later with a dead battery. The trucks voltmeter gauge showed barely 9 volts (dont know how accurate these are) I realize that its sucking battery voltage to have the ignition on but I find it hard to believe that it should kill the battery in such short time. With the engine running I always have 14+ volts and never a lick of trouble with it. My question is do you thing the headlights/ignition is drawing that much voltage or do you think my battery is slowly crapping out?
thanks for the input everyone
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I feel that if your battery is good and alternator is keeping it charged 5 min. would not kill the battery. Your battery usually has two ratings one CCA cold cranking amps to start and all. Most batteries I have seen also have an RC rating which is Reserve Capacity. could be 30-40 minutes to over 200 minutes. That is if your charging system goes out. Your battery with headlights on low and all nonessentials off like radio etc. you would have enough capacity to operate the vehicle for that time frame. See if your battery has Reserve Cap. or RC listed with a number and Min. or Minutes after it. also the higher the number the better quality battery you have. Check it out and keep us posted.
Can you take the vehicle to the shop that sold the battery? They ought to be willing to test it and Interstate stands behind their batteries.
I bought the truck in Feb 2009 at a dealership about 40 miles from home so Im not sure where the battery came from. There are a few places in town that sell interstate batteries, maybe they will check it out for me. Also, I’ll try to find the Reserve capacity as suggested.
Ok had a similar prob with my battery too.I had doors open for about 10 minutes and battery dead.This happend couple times so i went to autozone and battery and alternator passed all tests.Well it happened again a 3rd time and i was like what the heck.I tried everyhting,Well i got frustrated and went and got a new battery and charged it til full cause when i got it it only read 11.3.So i charged it fully then put it in truck and ever since then no problems. So even though the battery may pass tests and read correctly it still could be dying…I got a 75month warranty with new battery from napa…hope this helps..
Legally the car should be able to crank and start after leaving the lights on for two hours so capacity is not an issue.
On any GM vehicle you must check and clean the side post battery cables as well as check and clean all the ground points that you can find. The side post bolts can come out of the battery cable end and you might be able to actually slip the rubber boot off of the battery cable then. You may have to replace a battery cable if it is too corroded. Use a brass brush on all corrosion that you find and dielectric gel on any connections.
Try using a nice digital battery charger if you have access to one. These newer chargers are able to desulfate batteries that otherwise would seem bad.
Not all batteries are created equal. Charge the battery slowly and then you can load test it. Many auto parts stores often use conductance testers which don’t require that you charge the battery before testing so you might consider that option. By the sound of it I would say you have a battery issue but do some testing and confirm first.
if you get access to a load tester you still need the charge the battery up first. You need to get to the 12.6 to get a good reading on a load tester. Autozone should be able to run the test but make sure it is capable of reaching the state of charge above or test will show bad. One more thing is if it is dead right now put it on a charger because an alternator is not for charging dead batteries and you could ruin the alternator if that is still good. good luck.
We have had the battery on trickle charge all night so it should be good to go. Im just really curious if the ignition on/headlights on (engine off) is really just sapping that much energy from the battery or if the battery is weak and is discharging quickly cuz its getting old. It has always performed flawlessly, starts the engine right up even in Jan when the temp gets down to -10
I’ll try to get my hands on a battery load tester if possible
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