Battery DEAD,Van Horn,TX!!

[cyclone03]

Yup,after the first gas stop on our trip to CA. the battery died.
But it's the way it went that bothers me.
Everything was fine,enjoying our new 80mph speed limit for the last 2 hours,AC on(it was 97 outside) pull in for gas,fill up.Then the fun starts.

My daughter wanted to drive so she jumps behind the wheel and moves the car off the island.I go inside for less than 5 minutes,jump in.She has adjusted everything for safe operation and off we go.Pull out of the driveway,stop at a stop sign,everything still working,she tips the throttle and..................
NOTHING,car doesn't go,no warning lights,nothing,nada,dead.
WTH???

So I start checking stuff,no blown fuses,CB's etc.
green eye on battery but still nothing with the key "on".
In "acc" radio works for a while then it too dies.???

Guy comes along and offers a jump but I pass...I fiddle around for about 15 more minutes then another guy comes along and offers a jump..WTH I say lets try it.As soon as I hook up the cables all the warning lights come on everything looks normal,volt gauge(on Passport Radar Detector)reads 11.3.?
Car wont start,what I know as normal Ford aaaarrrrgggggg from starter,hu dead battery.???
Off to AutoZone(eewww) put battery on tester,11.3vdc,add a little load and......0.0!!!I meen dead,I've never seen a battery die in use like that but there it was.......0.0.!

So I buy a new battery,get back to the car install it and......Everything is back to normal.
I drive,ok my daughter, drives over to AutoZone and I have the guy test the charging system and all systems are go 14.2v,puts out 192(!)amps@2000rpm,diodes good.
The battery just,plain died.
Oh well we made it to Tucson and now I'm off to SoCal.
see ya.

[mrjones]

Van Horn will do that to you. It must be the town. Me and a buddy were driving out to CA in 95 in my Mustang. My buddy was driving, and I kept hearing truckers talking about that little "one eyed sports car". I started looking, and it looked like we only had one light. I had my buddy pull over, and sure enough, only one light. Not much in Van Horn, so we decided to go on to El Paso and find another bulb and press on. Filled the car up, got ready to go, and NO HEADLIGHTS! The other bulb went out when we turned the lights back on!! Cheap hotel, and on the road again in the morning.

It's Van Horn, I tell ya. Have a good trip.

[grampaws]

I had someting similar prob with the GM stopped at an intersection..
the car just died..I found the battery terminals needed to
be cleaned..I find it odd most cars will run of the Alt if the battery
is disconnected but the GM wouldn't..WHEN Testing he may not have had
a good connection on the battery it would do that or the terminal was
broken internally and created the disconnect when a load was introduced..
hit a pothole recently??or apply excess force on the terminals during removal or
installation/removal could cause this..The car died at the stop because
you would be draining power from the bat..when the alt is running to slow
at a stop to provide enough power to all the accessories..
food for thought??

[jimlam56]

I've had batteries do that in other cars. Totally Dead. No warning. Never happens in your garage, just some inconvenient out of the way place.
It seems like you should just buy a new battery every 3 years, whether you are having problems or not.

[grampaws]

I have had batteries last 7 to 9 years before they act up..
they where usually Delco or Motorcraft batteries...
After market batteries Ie motomaster or sears diehard
Walmart batteries I have had fail within a year or two.
a four to five years is an acceptable life expectancy..
With AC constantly running IE texas I would expect shorter
life out of the batteries..3 Years sounds like a reasonable
change interval!!

[ckadiddle]

I've had batteries do that in other cars. Totally Dead. No warning. Never happens in your garage, just some inconvenient out of the way place.
It seems like you should just buy a new battery every 3 years, whether you are having problems or not.
At least mine was convenient. Found dead in the driveway. Florida eats batteries, no matter what kind. Generally V8's eat them faster than weeniemobiles. Three years in a full size sedan with a V8 is what I consider decent life expectancy. Four or five and I am ecstatic. When I used to runn a business with Chevy V8 station wagons that did a lot of starting and stopping every day, eighteen months was a long life.

Your mileage may vary. :)

[mtnh]

This is classic "dead cell" battery death, where the most likely thing that happened was a cell's interconnecting link to the next 2 volt cell became open. The electrolyte will conduct and show voltage out of the battery, but it cannot pass any current whatsoever. The green eye showed that your electrolyte's specific gravity was such that the battery was in normal condition, but with a busted link, that battery is trash. What a wake-up call. Glad it didn't happen to you in the desert or some otherwise isolated area. You just can't predict those things, either, since your one and only notification when your battery has had a cell die is right then, when the car dies.

[jaywish]

You are probably right about the bad cell.

I believe the indicatior only shows one of the six cells.

This is why on a regular battery one needs to check the specific gravity of each cell individually. If the battery is sealed, you can't do the check.

Jay

[SID210SA]

I was wondering about my battery yesterday while I was driving home from work....Sitting at a light with the radio blasting, a/c full blast and foot on the break I looked over at the volt meter and it read 11....never seen it that low...and it was 101 yesterday here is San Antonio.

[Wires]

The battery in my (then) girlfriend's car (now wife) did that. It wouldn't start, so I tried to jump it with my boss's car (We were in her car, and I had the key to the boss's car). It did the same thing - no start.

We had to call her dad, who tried once more, then drove to town to get another battery.

The next day, the boss told me that he had to replace his battery. "It was old, I guess it was it's time. I never did tell him.

[fastblackmerc]

Had that happen to my '97 T-Bird. Drove home from Asheville, N.C. (4+ hours) stopped for gas a few times, no problems restarting. Next day went shopping with the wife, started fine, after shopping car wouldn't start, called AAA, they jumped it, drove it home wouldn't start again, replaced battery, all is good.

[cyclone03]

Well we made it home yesterday,(12 1/2 hours from Tucsan!,did I mention I love the 80mph limit?).
No other problems during the week,about 4000 miles.

It was mentioned above about jumping a battery....
Now,3 weeks ago I tried to help out a nieghbor with a dead battery.....hum..
Should I split the bill with her.....


Yes we where luckey,there are several rest areas that we could have stopped at that are out there.Not to mention one stretch in Ca. thats 56 miles to next service,says so on the sign.

We did have a Ford GT go buy us at about 90 between Blythe and ...hell Palm springs.
Gotto go for lunch now....

[dwasson]

Have any of you thought that the maybe the car was trying to protect itself from the daughter's driving?

[teamrope]

I think Van Horn TX is EVIL! I had an alternator die there on a 77 Ford PU truck while driving from California to Ft Hood.

[cyclone03]

Have any of you thought that the maybe the car was trying to protect itself from the daughter's driving?


OUCH!
But your late by about a week and a half.

After the new battery was installed,Alexis says"Are you sure you want me to drive? I don't think your car likes me."

But in her defence,she drives very well and,like dad,thinks 80mph is a great speed on the highway.