2nd Gen Non-Engine/Transmission Battery question

[surfbeetle]

So tonight I took both the Nissan and the Dodge to Walmart to get oil changes (of course I brought the filter from Cummins Cal Pacific to Walmart). When I got the paperwork back on the Dodge, it said that the driver's side battery had a dead cell in it. So I ask, how the heck can they check a single battery if they didn't disconnect it, I assuming that the other battery would skew the results? Also, how can I check for sure to see if it is really bad or not? The truck starts fine and the voltmeter reads 14 volts.

 

[SNGLESHOT]

I would go to a battery vendor or other trusted mechanic outfit and ask them to test it under load. No offense but I would never take any of my vehicles to Wally world. You are taking a real chance. Their quality of work is substandard by my observations. Leaving off oil fill caps, cross threading oil drain plugs, stripping plugs. . damaging oil filter mount tubes and the list goes on and on. Some of those guys they call "mechanics"... well the air pressure in your spare is higher than their IQ.

If you are physically able to do it yourself. . that is the best way cause then you will know that it was done right. Good luck.

 

[surfbeetle]

Yeah, I know the whole walmart thing, that's why I'm skeptical over the battery diagnosis. My thing about the oil changes is that yes I can and have done many oil changes, it's a real pain the backside to dispose of the used oil around here.

 

[SRath]

Hold on a minute! Walmart is a real bargain for getting tires balanced. I took five 37" tires we had mounted on 16. 5" rims for my K30 to be balanced there. "Those are the biggest tires we've ever balanced! " the guy says.

They only charged $5 each, and I must have gotten about 4 pounds of lead weights per tire! You know they don't know what they're doing when you have 2 pounds on one side, and then about 2 pounds directly opposite ... . But lead is valuable these days, so I figure I probably got $26 of lead for $25. :-laf

Yeah, I know I'll need to go get them rebalanced somewhere competent.

They can do math real well, too. I had $300 of tires put on my old Subaru and when finished, that same mechanic, oops, I mean "technician", was positively serious about offering me $250 for the whole car!

 

[steved]

How could they tell a cell was bad on a maintenance free battery??? You need to pull the caps from the battery, which you aren't supposed to do with the maintenance free batteries, to check the individual cells.

The only way would be if the "eye" wasn't green... that monitors a single cell.

 

[surfbeetle]

How could they tell a cell was bad on a maintenance free battery??? You need to pull the caps from the battery, which you aren't supposed to do with the maintenance free batteries, to check the individual cells.



The only way would be if the "eye" wasn't green... that monitors a single cell.

Yeah, my batteries are sealed so I don't know what made them think so.

 

[SRath]

A dead cell would yield only 10 volts total on an otherwise good battery. Two volts per cell.

But I agree, they could only test that voltage with both batteries isolated from each other.

The fact that your volt gauge shows 14 doesn't mean you don't have a dead cell. It is reading charging voltage I think.

 

[WestTN]

You just have to pull the ground connection and read the voltage. And it doesn't matter which cell is bad, just that there is a bad one.

 

[steved]

The only way to truly test for a "dead cell" is by testing the fluid... voltage can mean a bunch of things.