Battery Problems

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Author Message   greenmachine Posted on Sunday, February 02, 2003 - 11:06 am:    Im having problems with my wife's 96 Disco. The truck was sitting in the driveway for about 5 days & it has been very cold lately. So she goes to try & start it up, & its completely dead. I jumpstart it & let it idle for 5 minutes then go for a 15 minute drive then park it. The next day I go to the truck & its completely dead again, not even the interior light will turn on. The battery is only about 6 months old, also after I jumpstarted it I turned on the lights to try & figure out whether it might be an alternator problem. Once the truck is running it will stay on, its when I shut it off that it cant hold a charge. I think I read somewhere that the alarm system on these vehicles can drain the battery if its sits for too long, anyone have any ideas? I'm going to re-charge the battery in the meantime.   Bill Ross (Billr) Posted on Sunday, February 02, 2003 - 11:39 am:    Since you didn't give an idea of what very cold is (to me its like -40C), I will presume that its was cold enough over 5 days that with the constant draw of the alarm and other always-on systems along with thick oil, that you drained the battery pretty quickly. Given this state, jumping the car and then only running it for 15 minutes was probably not enough to get a good charge. You should put it on a charger over night and see if it holds a good charge after that. It is possible that you've had a plate sulphate because of low charge and short the battery. In this case, it is possible to jump the vehicle, run it, but the battery won't hold a charge no matter its age or what you try to do to get it charged. A load test will usually point this problem out and you can get these at Sears, Pep Boys, Canadian Tire, etc.   greenmachine Posted on Sunday, February 02, 2003 - 09:11 pm:    The temperature has been -10F/-23C which to me is Very Cold, cant imagine -40C. I've got the battery on a charger, so hopefully that will resolve the problem. Plus the temperatures gone back up to 30F. Thanks for your input.