Hello all - I'm looking for some auto-electric advice.
Our 2009 Mazda 5 stranded my wife yesterday, with a no-crank situation. Fortunately this was at home, and I answered my cell phone and was able to step her through finding the battery charger in the garage, popping the hood, using the prop rod, and hooking up the charger correctly. Trickier than it sounds, as the 5 has a plastic cover over the battery, and the charger, an old Schumacher, has options for amperage (0.3 A, 2 A, 10 A, and 50 A) and time (OFF, HOLD, and TIME [which is selected by a dial]). Anyway, she did great, and got the engine started fine.
She ran the charger on the 10 A setting for about 10 minutes, and then boosted the battery with the 50 A setting, which worked. Coming home, the car started fine.
So this afternoon was troubleshooting day for me. I charged the battery (10 A with the Schumacher for a few hours, and then switched over to the onboard NOCO Genius 1100 [1100 mA]) overnight, and then load-tested it a few minutes ago. Used my old Schumacher low-tech load tester - it's basically a resistive element with an analog scale. The battery tested fine - it stayed in the green during the 10 s load test, and stabilized after a couple of seconds.
I had figured the battery would be good - it's an AGM, and I replaced it only about 2-1/2 years ago. The factory battery was still working well, but was nine years old, and had tested marginally. The battery is branded as a Canadian Tire Eliminator, but I don't know the manufacturer.
But anyway, I assume it must be the dark current dragging the battery down. So I disconnected the positive battery terminal from the positive battery post, and used a trusted DMM set to DC Amperes in series between the two. Nothing at all! I expected at least 30 mA, but got nothing.
I must be doing something wrong, but am not sure what. Thoughts?
Thanks in advance!
Our 2009 Mazda 5 stranded my wife yesterday, with a no-crank situation. Fortunately this was at home, and I answered my cell phone and was able to step her through finding the battery charger in the garage, popping the hood, using the prop rod, and hooking up the charger correctly. Trickier than it sounds, as the 5 has a plastic cover over the battery, and the charger, an old Schumacher, has options for amperage (0.3 A, 2 A, 10 A, and 50 A) and time (OFF, HOLD, and TIME [which is selected by a dial]). Anyway, she did great, and got the engine started fine.
She ran the charger on the 10 A setting for about 10 minutes, and then boosted the battery with the 50 A setting, which worked. Coming home, the car started fine.
So this afternoon was troubleshooting day for me. I charged the battery (10 A with the Schumacher for a few hours, and then switched over to the onboard NOCO Genius 1100 [1100 mA]) overnight, and then load-tested it a few minutes ago. Used my old Schumacher low-tech load tester - it's basically a resistive element with an analog scale. The battery tested fine - it stayed in the green during the 10 s load test, and stabilized after a couple of seconds.
I had figured the battery would be good - it's an AGM, and I replaced it only about 2-1/2 years ago. The factory battery was still working well, but was nine years old, and had tested marginally. The battery is branded as a Canadian Tire Eliminator, but I don't know the manufacturer.
But anyway, I assume it must be the dark current dragging the battery down. So I disconnected the positive battery terminal from the positive battery post, and used a trusted DMM set to DC Amperes in series between the two. Nothing at all! I expected at least 30 mA, but got nothing.
I must be doing something wrong, but am not sure what. Thoughts?
Thanks in advance!