Help! Starter battery is dead!

[blueberry]

I stupidly forgot to turn the ignition to off after turning it on to roll down the windows this morning. Now I've just discovered the battery is dead. I have two house batteries, though, and a jumper cable. Can I use one to charge the starter battery? If so, how do I do it?

 

[Lucky mike]

pos to pos+......neg to neg- just like your jumping your car

 

[blueberry]

Ok thanks... how long does it take, usually?

 

[Lucky mike]

put the jumpers on and wait a few minutes and start it

 

[Ballenxj]

Should start right up if your house batteries are charged.

 

[blueberry]

It worked!!!! Thank you!

Now I can truly say that my van is solar powered!

---

Btw, I'm supposed to leave the engine running for a while, right? How long -- 15 minutes?

 

[Ballenxj]

I would take it out for a drive. At least half an hour. The longer the better.

 

[blueberry]

Haha, great excuse to go into town, thanks!

I would take it out for a drive. At least half an hour. The longer the better.

 

[Ballenxj]

Have fun in town LaVonne. The reason I say to take a drive is it always charges better when cruising down the highway.

 

[SternWake]

When your solar has your house batteries in acceptance, or Float stage of charging, you can hook the jumper cables back up to help fully recharge the Engine starting battery.

Once hooked up to the engine battery, the voltage will likely drop back down to the 13's as the less than fully charged engine battery gobbles up whatever the solar can make. Do not worry, just unhook the jumper cables when the sun gets lower.

A drive to town and back Might get the starter battery to 80%, but perhaps not, and perhaps not even close.

Starter batteries do not do well when left at sub 80% state of charge.

Also, when leaving the ignition on without the engine running, it can destroy the ignition coil. I've seen it more than once. A dead battery, replaced or jumped, and the vehicle will still not start because the ignition coil is fried. If you soon run into such a situation, a no start or a stall/no restart, number one suspect is the ignition coil.

 

[Zil]

it is not the coil itself, but on engines with distributor points, the points would burn if closed while key was on.

 

[cannedsquatch]

Burned points only require an Emory cleaning, the take an unused clean sheet of paper over each point, works everytime

 

[Ballenxj]

Shoot, I haven't seen points in a car since the mid seventies. The last cars I owned that had points were my beloved 1967 and 1970 442's. All of my hotrods after that had at least H.E.I. ignition. (High Energy Ignition)
I have heard that leaving the key on too long could possibly damage the coil/coils in a car, but have never seen it happen.
Logic does dictate that there must be a reason for the accessory position on a key switch to use instead of just leaving the key in the on position.

 

[LeeRevell]

These modern vehicles with electronic ignition.... I miss being able to run down to the local K-mart and changing out the points and condenser for a "five minute tune-up". ;-)

 

[caseyc]

In the future, you might consider keeping a portable car jumper battery handy at all times. I have this Sears 1150 battery with me always, it can jump a dead car battery, plus power various devices. I've had to jump dead batteries many times for people, almost always for women, don't remember the last time for a guy.

http://www.sears.com/diehard-platinum-portable-power-1150-with-jump-starter/p-02871988000P

 

[Lucky mike]

I know cost wise its not being frugal but.......I carry a coleman 1850 Generator that I bought off craigslist for 150. , it has 12vlt output and jumpers with it......I use it to charge my batteries on cloudy/rainy days and a portable power source....(my Onan 4000 loves gas!!)..these little gennys will run almost a month on 5 gallons of fuel!!!

I buy these all the time off the list for cheap money.....and clean them up to pass on a good deal to others as I go along , I've had several Vandwellers at walmart Dance when they bought one....they use little fuel , will run a small a/c or a heater on mid setting....and are small & quiet......you can charge your batteries and have 110 power at the same time.....Craigslist is full of them!!!!!

 

[WheelEstate USA]

I'm not in a big enough hurry anymore that I can't sit for a while to charge a battery off the solar. Nothing seems so important these days

In the morning, hook up the jumper cables and let the starter battery soak up some solar all day and top it off as much as possible, even after your drive to town.
Next battery change I recommend installing a deep cycle marine under the hood. They can take a lot more "abuse" than a standard battery

 

[LeeRevell]

In the future, you might consider keeping a portable car jumper battery handy at all times. I have this Sears 1150 battery with me always, it can jump a dead car battery, plus power various devices. I've had to jump dead batteries many times for people, almost always for women, don't remember the last time for a guy.

http://www.sears.com/diehard-platinum-portable-power-1150-with-jump-starter/p-02871988000P

Yep, have used mine more than once. I keep a 'road emergency kit' in the minivan, and jumper unit resides there. Gotta charge them once a month or so though, as they will lose charge over time.

 

[caseyc]

Yeah, for sure. Gotta keep 'em charged up periodically. The way I currently have mine setup is that a power cord is going from my inverter/aux battery to the Sears Diehard 1150 jumper battery. Whenever I go for a drive for at least an hour, I turn on my inverter, which in turn automatically charges the Diehard battery. This way I don't inadvertently let the Diehard battery go dead after several months. This might not be the ideal solution for charging up my Diehard battery, but it's better than lifting the 30 pound Diehard battery and finding a household electricity power source for several hours of charging.

Yep, have used mine more than once. I keep a 'road emergency kit' in the minivan, and jumper unit resides there. Gotta charge them once a month or so though, as they will lose charge over time.

 

[Spaceman Spiff]

In the future, you might consider keeping a portable car jumper battery handy at all times. I have this Sears 1150 battery with me always, it can jump a dead car battery, plus power various devices. I've had to jump dead batteries many times for people, almost always for women, don't remember the last time for a guy.

http://www.sears.com/diehard-platinum-portable-power-1150-with-jump-starter/p-02871988000P

Please enlighten me. If you have a separate house battery, why do you need a 'portable car jumper battery'? Seems like just extra stuff to drag around and maintain. OP did fine using her house batteries.
-- Spiff