Keggo

The last week or so, I've noticed it the cranking over sound has gotten really slow. This weekend, I tried starting the truck up and nothing... just a lot of clicking (from starter?). I haven't tried to see if the accessories still work because I don't want to drain the battery anymore than it is. The battery has been in the truck since I bought it last October... If I need a new battery I'm just going to get an Optima... Any suggestions as to what may be causing this besides bad/old battery?

celica

first thing to do would be to check the status of your battery. If your battery is good then you could have two issues

1) alternator not charging your battery - therefore wearing it down
2) starter contacts are dirty or worn out

Matt

Keggo

Cool... my battery's walls look like they're warped a little bit. I did the test where someone gave me a jump and I let the truck run for a bit and while it was running I disconnected the positive cable from the battery and it ran fine... is that an alright way to see if my alternator is doing it's job?

Keggo

I should probably just buy some new starter contacts and just replace them just in case, eh?

TacomaTRD

How dirty are the battery terminals? maybe you just have a bad connection?

Keggo

I just cleaned the battery terminals with Sprite the other night...

Keggo

Well, I bought an Exide Orbital battery (Same internals as Optima), got an electrical test verifying that my charging system is still good and also the starter is good. The truck cranks right up now!

tabb

2 things:

1) always disconnect the negative terminal before you do the positive - to prevent shorting (lots of sparks BAD!!!).

2) NEVER disconnect the battery while your engine is runnning - When you disconnect the battery terminal while the car is running, the alt jumped to its max output. While this may tell you your alt is charging, it also puts an incredible strain on it and could burn it out or at least shorten it's life span....you got lucky!!

Ironmike4x4

True as well as the battery acts as a buffer during voltage spikes.

Keggo

cool... that's the first (and last) time I've done it... so, I'll know better next time!

celica

Be sure to charge your battery as the alternator will not do it correctly. An alternator is designed to simply top up a battery, not charge it. If your battery was low and you don't charge it, it will cause your alternator to run wide open (as opossed to on-off-on-off, etc) and will burn itself out fairly quickly.

Matt

Keggo

Cool, I just got the new one, so we should be good. The old battery looked like hell... I also changed out the battery cable clamps and put dielectric grease on the battery posts. I'll get pics one of these days. Thanks for the help.