Ever had a "power surge" when your battery is dying??

[Shirl]

Well, I did yesterday... my 96' hasn't been out too much and the battery was weak. Took it out and ended up in a terrible traffic jam. Yay. First the ABS inop light came on. I figured no big deal, maybe I knocked a sensor off when I changed the wheels on it (just put on black Z06's). Then while at a dead stop, the speedo needle starts going CRAZY. It was showing 30-40mph and wavering up and down. I was like wtf? Shortly after the car revs and takes off from under me like I'm launching at the track. Except I NEVER pressed the gas. My foot was on the brake. I freak, slam the brake as hard as I can and throw it in park... Thank god I had left enough room between the car in front of me and I. :omg: :near heart attack: After that, wheeled it off the road, jump started it and it was ok again. Charged the battery up last night, but it's not fully charged... Die Hard crap. My stock AC Delco lasted 7 years, this battery.. maybe 3 years but it has died at least 4 times.

[CDNFB]

Re: Ever had a "power surge" when your battery is dying??

Although personally never has happened to me, I've heard of many weird things happening to cars running with a dead or even removed battery. This leaves the alternator to mercy of the car's electrical system. The battery works alot like a giant capacitor in that it provides a draw source that dampens the reaction of the regulator circuit in the alternator when intermittant high amperage draws are applied. With a low/dead/removed battery, the alternator voltage output can swing wildly, especially at low or idle rpm, when electrical devices such as air conditioning clutches, and thermostatic fans are cutting in an out. This voltage fluctuation causes strange things to happen to sensors that rely on reference voltages.

Yours is a pretty extreme case, definitely the worse I've ever heard of. Definitely would have crapped myself if it happened to me.

[blackRS]

Re: Ever had a "power surge" when your battery is dying??

Just wondering...is the car named Christine by any chance? :p

[98 3.8]

Re: Ever had a "power surge" when your battery is dying??

Next time try and throw it in neutral instead of park. :p

I've had power surging when I had a loose battery connection, so you might want to check that.

BTW power surging is caused when the car detects a lower than normal battery voltage. So it revvs higher to recharge the voltage...

[Shirl]

Re: Ever had a "power surge" when your battery is dying??

Next time try and throw it in neutral instead of park. :p

I've had power surging when I had a loose battery connection, so you might want to check that.

BTW power surging is caused when the car detects a lower than normal battery voltage. So it revvs higher to recharge the voltage...

Yeah, I guess neutral would've been quicker.. The battery connection wasn't loose. Also, if I knew the battery was dying I would've kept it revved at idle so that it would charge. It died immediately when I threw it into park. At least now I know what to do if the speedo goes nuts like that ever again!

[kala]

Re: Ever had a "power surge" when your battery is dying??

I had almost the same problem when the connection between my alternator and positive wire was loose. First check gauges, then I lost abs, then airbag, then tachometer going nuts. I would check batt to pos, batt to neg, pos to alt, neg to alt -- all those four connection . For some reason I have a feeling it's a loose connection somewhere. If it's not loose connection then you can always have the alternator checked by autozone



:)