Yesterday I was driving through the city (many stops), and each time it was harder to start the engine. Eventually the batery voltage went down, and couldn't start it at all. It started nicely when somebody gave me a jump start. On the way home, the voltage felt normal (12V-12.5V). When I got back home, I couldn't start it again, the voltage was under 11V, and much less when attempting to crank.

I used the recharger for 4 hrs, and it seems to be fine now. Took the battery for testing, and supposedly it's OK.

I don't think it's the alternator ( unless it's an intermittent problem), because today the voltage was going from 12V ( engine off) to 13V+ after starting the car.

So what is it, could the battery be bad?

 

You could take the the whole car in and they will check the alternator.. that way you can atleast definatly rule it out.

 

They should also be able to test the alternator output.

 

Is it possible that the battery is bad in spite of the test showing it to be good? I know it sounds stupid, but still...

 

if it's more than 3 years old it's questionable.

check the voltage when 1st started, should be around 13.8+.

does the alternator lite come on when the key is on?
no lite, no charge of the battery whether it's an alt/vr problem or if the bulb is bad.

btdt.

87951

 

The battery is about 3 years old, but it's rated 72 months...

The voltage upon starting is about 13.5- 14V. It goes down depending on the load, so the alternator is probably not perfect, but it's been like this since I installed it (2 - 3 years ago).
The alternator light works fine.

When I was removing the battery for the check, I noticed that the nut securing the + cable was slightly loose. I wonder if this could have been my problem.

The problem hasn't reoccur since Saturday, but that is not necessarily good.

 

I had a no start problem caused by a loose battery cable.

 

hopefully this was my problem too.

 

I had similar symptoms as well on the Turbo. A new main ground cable from Dan (IceShark) fixed it, no problems since.

 

I think my battery has died. It started loosing charge overnight even after being disconnected. I bought a new one this morning.