How accurate is the battery gauge?
 

So long story short, woke up this morning tried starting my car , it wont turn on , nothing work , car won't unlock or lock. At first I thought it was steering lock failure since I haven't had a chance to pull my fuse BT from reading on the forum , it says it should still unlock and lock , lights should work still if is steering lock failure. Fortunately j was able to jumpstart the car so it definitely wasn't steering lock. I was driving my car perfectly fine yesterday and I always see my battery gauge above 12 and close to 14 if I remember correctly. So my question is how accurate is the guage? If my gauge is reading at like 14 .. My battery shouldn't have died so easily?

Battery gauge?? :confused:

Assuming you are talking about the volt meter, which I would assume is pretty accurate.

Also, when the car is running it will show around 14 volts if the alternator is doing its job.

how old is battery? anything over 3 years is a candidate for replacement

yeah if car is running you wont be able to tell if it's a low battery as the alternator is pushing most of the electrical equipment at that point. turn the car off and just set it to the ON position to get a reading off of the actual battery itself, anything below 12 is a candidate for replacing your battery.

Thank you

Battery
 

U got water in the battery?

Voltmeter in car shows alternator output only.


What barncobob says is mostly correct. I replace wet cell batteries every two years regardless of warranty. I've never had a 'failure to start' due to battery since I started this practice.


Now for the inevitable question: "What battery do I get?"

AGM... whether it is an Optima or any other AGM, it doesn't really matter. An AGM battery will likely be the last one you put in your car. Just my :twocents:

Cold start in the mornung,it will show 14.3v,after warming up,it will dropped to 12.7v..

Ugg, you have a problem. The minimum voltage should be 13.8 volts. If you don't see that you have a problem.

if the car is running should show about 14v as TerribleONE mentioned above.

i suppose if you kinda want to read your battery volts, just turn the car in the ON position with the a/c and stereo turned off. it's still draining power though with the ECU and pump and stuff running.. :ugh:

but it's really the cca dat will tell you if ur battery is good or not.. you need an ammeter for dat.

Yeap, sounds like no wawa (water/acid) in the battery.

get a new battery. problem solved.

More accurate then the gas gauge...lol

Hold on. Attaching clamps to shift knob.

So I went to autozone, they checked my battery. They told me everything is good, alternator and starter as well. So today so far so good no dead battery until one hour ago. I parked somewhere turned car off, then I tried to turn on my dome light, I then realize it was dead again.. As I walked out trying to get a parking ticket. My car worked again, battery came back which is just ******* wierd

Intermittent problems such as you are experiencing are often caused by a bad connection. If nothing is working, clean the battery terminals. If some things are working, check wiring connectors and fuses/fusible links for corrosion.

Got you. Thank you! Funny thing is I pulled the fuse for my steering lock yesterday as well but that doesn't have to do with anything right?

Yours doesn't sound like an ESCL (AKA steering lock) problem to me. But it's been a while since I worried about ESCLs. See link in my sig for more info on ESCL problems.

If the ESCL was in the proper position when you pulled the fuse, it shouldn't have anything to do with your problem.

The FSM (link in my sig) has wiring diagrams that should allow you to narrow down the areas that could be the problem. A multimeter will be a big help.

First problem: You went to AutoZone.....:icon14:

After you do what SouthArk said to do (clean terminals), did you ever answer the question of how old the battery is? If it is over 2 years old, I don't care that AutoZone said it was okay, replace it. You are on borrowed time. Is the car MT or AT? If it is AT, try putting the selector in "N", if the car starts, you have a bad selector switch on the trans. If the car is MT, then you might have a bad clutch safety switch. The FSM in SouthArk's signature, along with a good multimeter, will help tremendously.