I haven't driven the Car (2.8 V6 12V) for about 2 weeks. Went to start it and the battery (I assume) is dead. The thing is nothing works in the car. No dome lights, horn - nothing.

Is this normal after such a short time? The Battery is no more than a year old. I have just begun working on the car and the only thing I have done is take off the front bumper.

Another thing, I have a Battery Tender 12v trickle charger. When I put it on, according to the blinking green light it indicates that the battery is 80% charged. I would think that a battery 80% charged would allow for the dome lights or dash to light up when I turn the ignition key.

Thoughts and advice please. Thanks

 

Use a DMM to check the voltage between the battery terminals first. If there's no voltage, the battery's dead. if there is voltage, undo the negative cable and then touch the negative terminal with it. If it sparks, then you have a draw somewhere and we can take it from there. If it doesn't spark, but it has voltage, then you need to check the connection from the positive terminal to the starter.

Also, use your tender/charger on a known, working vehicle and see if there is any indication that your charger is bad.

Either way, if the battery is that new, I would have it waranteed out regardless, because if it's not a gel cell battery, it will never fully recover from a complete discharge, so you might as well take advantage of the warrantee, no matter what the cause.

G/L

 

Thanks - will let you know what I come up with after I get the new battery.

 

NP. Please do.

 

Sorry for the delay in the update.. had some other issues pop up including a bad DMM.

Update: Dead battery, replaced. No spark on the negative touch. Starts ok. Is there another test for the starter?

Thanks

 

You can go to basically any parts store and they'll test the entire charging system (including the starter) for you for free.