Newsish Battery 'Dead', Because of a small lose of power in it ???

[FlaAveo5]

I know this will go unanswered, but I am going to ask anyway. A battery can be considered 'dead/bad' if it is putting out only a few less volts or amps? Sorry i dont know which is right. My battery in my 2006 Aveo, that I put in 16 months ago, after weeks of slow/hard starts, got a new one at WalMart, $117. Runs perfectly. Last night ran fine. This morning I am finally, aiming my headlights, (I got a reply on how to do that!)! Try to turn it on, and 'click,click,click,click'.

Well tested the amps or the volts, sorry i dont know what the tool is that my brother in law used, and it was like 12.3 volts? I thought car batteries were 12volt batteries!! So..whats the problem?

Well i took out the battery, it has a 5 year warranty on it, and a 3 year free replacement warranty on it, it did have a tiny acid leak from the top, I found dried up acid under the battery, on the battery tray.

WalMart charged it for like 20 mins, then gave me a new one. Free. Perfect!
I cleaned up the battery tray, and put the red grease on the posts this time, and those felt pads on the posts, and it starts right up! Great! BUT...they go 'dead or bad' with just a tiny lowering of power? Am I making any sense?

The test WalMart and my brother in law both did on it, said it had 12.3 volts in it. I thought that meant it was a good battery,...(but it was leaking, a VERY tiny leak, but leaking),....Now I am hearing it is suppose to put out like 13.9 volts to start a car? Is this right?

Sorry, i dont know how to make this shorter. But can such a tiny lose of power, make a battery 'die', be considered bad/dead? Obviously yes...mine was.

BUT, the lights were on, the radio worked, it started up perfectly till yesterday,..then today I aim the headlights and try to start it, and ...dead? I mean I got a new battery, for free, still have 14 months left on the free replacement, and 3.5 years on the prorated part, ...but such a tiny lose of power and all you get is, click,click,click?

I really thought a battery had to loose a lot of its power, to 'die' on you overnight. It read 12.3 volts or amps, whatever, and it got replaced. I am just curious about the numbers. I always thought they were 12 Volt batteries in cars. So if it reads 12.3...why isnt it good? I'm just curious.

I HATE to ask/say this, but is this because I drive SO little? I am not charging it enough? I live in a hot climate, (that eats batteries), and i dont drive long distances,...so is this going to add up to a new battery every 2 years?

[EAD15]

How long are your drives? Shorter drives put an additional strain on the battery if it doesn't have time to fully recharge.

A full charged battery should read about 12.6+ volts. The standard car battery has 6 cells that each generate a little over 2 volts each when full, thus the reason for it actually being higher than 12 volts. When the engine is running the alternator puts out around 14 volts (you need more voltage than the battery supplies to charge it). 12.3 is slightly little lower than ideal, but not necessarily indicative of anything one way or the other.

As voltage is only one indicator of battery health, it also needs to be able to supply enough current (amps) long enough for what you are asking it to do. The only way to verify that is with a load tester.

An easy way to think about voltage and amps is to think of voltage like the pressure pushing the water through a garden hose (psi), and amps as the amount of water that is flowing through it per unit time(gal/hr).

[FlaAveo5]

I usually drive only like 3-5 miles a day. Then 1-3 days no driving. Once a week,maybe 10 miles a few days. My car just passed the 40K mile mark last moth. It is a 2006, I bought it new. So that is how little I drive. So just over 3K miles a year. I have no extras in the car, except the security system. Nothing like a monster sound system or added navigation crap sucking up power. So it is just regular items that came with the car. Here in south Fla. the heat eats up batteries, I know that, this and my other battery I had are both sealed units. So I cant check the water in the cells.

The one that came with the car, an AC Delco was a 30 month battery. It died right on time, 28 months. Then got my first new battery for it, that lasted 2-3 years, suppose to be a 5 year battery, then got the MAXX Wal-Mart battery, 16 months ago, worked great, till this morning. Now I have a new MAXX one, 650 CCA, so I am not pulling a lot from it, other than starting it. It is all city driving. 100%.

[gclark8]

Couple of things, aiming the headlights, this should be done with the engine running. Headlights draw a lot of current (amps) and reduce the voltage of the battery quickly so it needs to be topped up by the alternator as you drain it.

Alarm systems, these do have a residual current draw. It may pay to check this, best to use someone qualified, say an auto electrician or similar, to see what the drain is. Also check the charge rate, engine running, this should be over 14 volts.

I have a 2011 Aveo, see my Garage page, and I fitted a replacement genuine AC Delco Battery in 2013. It is still ok. I do an average of 5 kilometres once a week and the car starts ok.

One of these Volt Meters may be useful:
In Australia: https://www.jaycar.com.au/cigarette-...nitor/p/QP2220
In North America: LCD Cigarette Lighter Voltage Digital Panel Meter Volt Voltmeter Monitor

[hexskrew]

This could all be plausible but the way you describe it all happening makes me think it's not the battery that's the issue.

Check the metal on the battery terminal hookups. Not the ones that go on the battery but the metal that extends out from it if it feels very weak then your problem is probably that they are corroded. I have no idea what metal they are made of but these do corrode without that much noticeable wear. I had to replace mine and another person I know had to do the same.

For us, it aounded pretty close to what you have with the exception that if you wiggles the battery cables enough, it would cause a connection good enough to start right up. But sometimes the battery would just go dead. This was due to just enough of a connection to start the car and of course the alternator would take over at that point but then the battery still had to power some things and wasn't getting good enough connection from the alternator to charge.

Hope you figure it out!

There's always the possibility of parasytic draw as well..