Battery Day in the Early Family...

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Nov 23, 2011
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Location
Lima, Ohio, USA
Yesterday my Uncle Comes over, asking about Battery Chargers. He tried to Start his '17 Continental (15k mi) for the first time since Feb. no crank, no nothing.
I give him my little Stanley Charger/Maintainer unit, told him to let it run over night. calls around 11 this morning (happen to have the day off) hadn't seemed to do anything.

so I head over with Dad's old Schumaker tabletop unit. as soon as we get it connected, it's drawing 12 amps...within half hour it's down to 6 amps... let it charge for a full hour. still around 6 amps, but Uncle's getting a bit antsy, he just wants to get it started so he can have the battery replaced.( MY2017 Car, only has 15k mi, factory battery) so, I walk the 4 or so houses down to my brother's house (WFH) to borrow his Jump pack.

we go out to his Volt to get the Jump Pack, the hatch won't open.... it's 12v Battery is dead... he plugs in the EV Charger, the car comes to life, since it's getting power now, he pops the hatch, gives me the jump pack, "well, crap, now I finally need to replace the battery" (he's been waiting for it to go out for a couple years now..it might be the original battery as well (2014MY))

he heads back into the house, I walk back to uncle's house.

we hook up the jump pack, it's not powerful enough to start the 2.7EB...(works fine on my C-max..)
so he finally calls AAA for a jumpstart. they of course say it will be 45 min, so I run to the nearby Grocery, pick up a few things i needed, head back over.
when I get there the AAA van is in the driveway, and the Continental is Running. alternator tests fine, Battery is DONE. they of course try to sell him one, but he passes as he's already made arrangements with Battery Warehouse.

I go home, take a shower get dressed etc, get a txt from my brother saying he ordered a battery from the local NAPA, and if I'll go pick it up for him, so he doesn't have to turn the insurance on on his truck.
sure, no problem.
they haven't said it's ready yet, but I'll let you know.
they never contacted him saying it was ready before the store closed. so he had to call and get his Truck insured. Hopefully they (napa) get in touch with him Tomorrow.
 
Pretty neat the EV charger can boot up the Volt when it has a dead battery.

It can't. There are a number of components that require 12V power before the EV charger ever gets enabled. You wouldn't even be able to get the charge door open if it's a power door like my 2013 Volt..
 
Probably means that he does not drive the truck so he dropped the INS on it.
exactly. he doesn't drive it over the winter, so he drops the insurance on it to save some $$.
It can't. There are a number of components that require 12V power before the EV charger ever gets enabled. You wouldn't even be able to get the charge door open if it's a power door like my 2013 Volt..
well...it's a 2014, charge door is manual, and all i can tell you is the car wouldn't respond to the key fob being in proximity (standing right behind it, pushing the release button to open the rear hatch, no response, I went and tried the passenger door, wouldn't unlock) but as soon as he plugged in the charge cord, the lights flashed, and he walked right back to the rear hatch and it opened up no problem.
 
Because he drives it on private land....or plans on selling it soon.....because he was DWIed and the increase in insurance premiums limits his family to 1 or 2 vehicles? This happened to a friend of mine.
He's really paying the price today as he always had an economical car to grind down visiting the distant kids/grandkids. 180 mile RT babysitting gigs for no pay using the truck is expensive!
 
well...it's a 2014, charge door is manual, and all i can tell you is the car wouldn't respond to the key fob being in proximity (standing right behind it, pushing the release button to open the rear hatch, no response, I went and tried the passenger door, wouldn't unlock) but as soon as he plugged in the charge cord, the lights flashed, and he walked right back to the rear hatch and it opened up no problem.

The EVSE (which is what the device that plugs into the car is called) will not supply power unless it gets a pilot signal from the car. This is a safety feature--you could drop the plug from the EVSE into a bucket of water and you won't get electrocuted when you fish it out.

And the car won't supply a pilot signal to turn on the power from the EVSE unless there is a working 12V battery in it.

So your doors not working were not due to a dead 12V battery. The keyfob might be intermittent or have a weak battery.
 
So then why does his brother need a battery if he does not drive the truck?
Battery is not for the truck... It's for his Chevy Volt.
Since the volt has a dead battery he can't drive it until he replaced the 12v battery.

He had to insure his truck so he could drive it in the meantime ( like to the parts Store to get the battery for the Volt.)
People have multiple vehicles ya know..
Because he drives it on private land....or plans on selling it soon.....because he was DWIed and the increase in insurance premiums limits his family to 1 or 2 vehicles? This happened to a friend of mine.
He's really paying the price today as he always had an economical car to grind down visiting the distant kids/grandkids. 180 mile RT babysitting gigs for no pay using the truck is expensive!
None of the above.
He pretty much only drives the Dakota these days to haul his mower back/ forth to the lot he has about 20 mi away where he plans on building a house at some point.

Since it doesn't get driven in the winter, he drops the insurance to save money.
 
The EVSE (which is what the device that plugs into the car is called) will not supply power unless it gets a pilot signal from the car. This is a safety feature--you could drop the plug from the EVSE into a bucket of water and you won't get electrocuted when you fish it out.

And the car won't supply a pilot signal to turn on the power from the EVSE unless there is a working 12V battery in it.

So your doors not working were not due to a dead 12V battery. The keyfob might be intermittent or have a weak battery.
Then why did they suddenly work when he plugged in the evse?

Not trying to call you a liar, but I hate when people tell me I didn't see what I clearly saw with my own eyes.
 
That's what I thought. Why not jump it and drive to NAPA to get the battery and turn in the core in one trip.

Actually had to jump my friend's Volt, though I used his battery charger. The battery voltage had dropped low enough that the Volt was very, very confused and started throwing up all sorts of error messages and wouldn't shift out of park. Plugging in the EVSE just gave an error (unable to charge). Finally decided to connect a regular 12V battery charger to the jump terminals under the hood for 15-20 minutes and then it was OK, but the battery got replaced since it was the original.
 
So what are the lessons learned? Don't wait so long to replace the battery? I'll bet your uncle go some (battery dying) signs before he showed up at your place looking for a battery charger.
 
So what are the lessons learned? Don't wait so long to replace the battery? I'll bet your uncle go some (battery dying) signs before he showed up at your place looking for a battery charger.
Maybe, but the Continental sits alot. ( 2017- like 15k mi)
He's self employed ( sales rep for various plumbing/ hardware companies) , and has another car for his work miles (2020 Lincoln Nautilus)
He normally takes it to church and lunch/dinner on Sundays, but b/c of the weather this year, he hasn't taken the continental out of the garage.
So it's not been started since Feb...
I suggested a battery tender....
 
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