Help asap wont start
 

Hi everyone,
I just got done installing some ambient lighting (through the cig lighter port)while I was listening to music with the battery on. The car went from 14-13 as normal to me and it never dropped below that, and I’ve never had an issue before. I went to start the car, it turns over once or twice, then stops. I checked the battery and it reads 14.5V...I really don’t know what the issue could be. There is a fuse right by the positive terminal that I have no clue what it does. Gas is full. Any ideas?

UPDATE I put the charger on and it read 10v, however when I used the volt meter it read 14.5...after a few minutes of charging, it started up like normal. Could this have just been from wearing down the battery using the radio and some lights during install?

If they are LED lights and you were listening to the music at a reasonable level, you should be able to go at least 2 hours without discharging the battery too far. I suspect you have a battery on its way out or the charging system is not working right.

Get another volt meter and compare it to your charger and meter. It sounds like the charger is reading correctly but you ought to verify that.

Is the battery in your voltmeter good?

UPDATE 2....I unplugged everything last night from the cig lighters and anything that could possibly drain power while the car is off. I went to start it this morning, and it is completely dead. No power what so ever. Last night after the charge, I took it around the block, parked it, unplugged things, and now this. Terminals are clean of corrosion. Charger currently reads 7v and charging. Thoughts?

Charging a few min, then drove around the block, that wasn’t enough to actually charge the battery.

If you still have the original battery, then it’s time for a new one.

Have the battery load tested. Or google and try it yourself.

CV129, I can understand that theory, but technicaly, the battery should’ve left off where it was right? I came out this morning and EVERYTHING was dead, no lights, power locks didn’t work, so it seems something would be draining the battery, yeah?

That's just the cars way of telling you you should never add interior led accent strips.

But seriously it's called a surface charge your battery is dead time for a new one. It was just it's time.

Nope nope nope, not how it works.

I don’t have the technical explanation. In plain English, there’s such a thing regarding ability of any battery to hold its charge. As batteries age, the ability to hold the charge decreases, in general.

Also, FYI, the battery takes a big draw-down when we crank the engine.

Besides, modern car still draws energy even if nothing is plugged into the cig lighter. Radio memory and ecu.

Yeah but that's mA loads his battery is just F'd and needs to be replaced

Sigh...if you read earlier, the lights are not hard wired into the system in any way. It simply runs off the port like any phone charger would etc. I will give a new battery a shot and will look into what you call a surface charge.

Your battery is only showing a surface charge the multimeter only draws a milliamp of current which isn't enough to load the battery and show the real voltage. It's lead acid they do that it's a chemistry thing. And it's not about how they are wired it's just that they don't belong lol

The avg life of a car battery is 3 to 5 yrs. You get anything over that, the stars are in alignment for that battery. The life span of a battery is dependent on a few things. Age. The number of times it has been deep cycled. That is draining the battery to almost zero volts, and bringing it back up. If the battery has run low on water, if the plates has been exposed.

The plates in a battery get a build-up of sulfate on them over time. If the sulfate breaks off the plates in a big enough piece. It will short out 2 plates next to each other. Causing a dead cell. Each cell is good for 2.2 volts. what causes the sulfate to break off. Age, it just fakes off. Running low on water and exposing the top of the plates. Air hits it and causes a reaction. Vibrations in the car.