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Battery-Alternator-Draw Tests: EASY & ACCURATE
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- Опубліковано 5 сер 2024
- Have you ever wondered how to test your:
-Battery,
-Alternator,
-Parasitic draws......
in UNDER 5 MINUTES with 100% accurate results?
No, don't call Scotty Kilmer just yet, and put that fancy battery tester back in your tool box.
All you need is a couple cheap meters and some brain cells!
Let's perform some simple electrical checks on this tiny Chevy SPARK (how fitting lol) that has all the signs of a very weak battery, and learn some neat tricks on the whiteboard of knowledge.
Enjoy the tutorial :)
-Ivan
Craftsman DC Amp Clamp: www.sears.com/craftsman-profe...
Ivan, I'm not a mechanic and I have limited electrical knowledge. You made this easy for me to understand with your white board of knowledge and you excellent explanation. Thank you!!!
One further benefit of the old school battery load testers versus the new digital ones that simulate a load. The old testers with a heat coil in them would show a bad battery almost immediately. Had this very discussion with a parts store trying to tell me that my battery was fine when it was cooked.
Those simple old hand held load testers never let me down.
Love how you take the time to help me visualize what is how the charging system works. Thanks.
Cheap AC conductance testers that are commonly used by parts stores rely on the battery having a full charge before testing. It sounds like the stores who tested your client's battery got a message from the tester that the battery was undercharged, so they didn't proceed to the next step of actually testing the battery. Their glaring mistake was not to fully charge and retest. Old style testers would put a charge onto the battery while the client waited for an hour or so, and often the battery would clearly fail after that partial charge. If I think a battery is bad, I warm and trickle charge it at home overnight, topping up any cells that are low on electrolyte. After that, it is much easier to condemn a battery that has been given every chance to pass.
I know this is an old comment but I worked for an autozone for a few years, didn't hate it but wasn't a great job. I remember testing probably 50 batteries a day, usually when the battery was too low to test we'd ask the customer if they wanted us to charge it up and test it, which would take 20-45 minutes depending on the battery. The overwhelming majority of them declined and either bought a battery or went home to charge it themselves
We were long overdue for a whiteboard lesson. Great explanation Ivan. I'd like to see you discuss voltage drop testing since overlooking it can get you into a parts cannon situation. Thanks!
Excellent video Ivan! This is a big help to me! Thank you sir for taking the time to teach me and many others! I look forward to more of your teaching videos! Thumbs up as always!
Fantastic, 'old school' video Ivan. Incredibly well done.
Very good breakdown! Keeping it simple... you brought it down to the basics! Nice!
Before I start I and many other backyard mechanics would like to thank you for your knowledge and your videos. You explain everything in plain language that everyone can understand. I watch every video of yours THANK YOU AGAIN Bill N
I appreciate the feedback, Bill!
Thank you for this episode with whiteboard and practical it helped me get my head around amps and current which has always been a mystery to me
Thanks for showing us how to use the tools too especially the power of a test light so simple yet powerful
I love me a good refresher on the basics Ivan; keeps me sharp! 😁
I just went through this with my truck. At about 6 months old, my battery started dying after sitting for a week. Then it would sometimes die over night. Or a week. Went to an auto parts store and had the battery checked.... Twice. At two different places! They said "Good To Go, Battery is fine". Then twice, after being driven an hour to a horse show it would die while there. I went through the whole under-hood fuse box and the one inside looking for current flow across all the fuses I could find. I just knew there had to be parasitic draw! I did this many times because the problem was so erratic and I didn't know if I was catching it while it was acting up. In the meantime I went so far as to install an on-board batter charger so we could use the truck until I found the problem. I was just about to give up and bring it up to you :) Then I hooked up my volt meter to the battery while tying start it. Voltage dropped to 9 volts as soon as the starter engaged. After it dropped out, the voltage stayed low. Went and got a new battery under warranty. It's been good ever since. This video would have made me think a bit deeper into my problem back then. Thanks for posting these in depth trouble shooting techniques. I know I need a new amp clamp now. One that measures DC.
I've just bought an AC/DC Amp clamp from eBay for just under 19 quid. Can't wait to get it and run through this whole routine.
Thanks for this tip!
The same thing happened to me tonight. Guy, at the autoparts, said there is no way I have a bad battery.
Ivan NEED MORE VIDEOS LIKE THIS very well presented you should in the future show how to diagnose other systems in detail like this one 5 STARTS
AWESOME info Ivan, thanks for what you do by showing us the correct way to look in charging system. cheeeeers
Excellent point ( @ 15:40) about the post jump scenario of correct voltage but very low charge current. One symptom of a battery with severely diminished capacity. Easy to overlook . Thanx.
Great video, I learn something new every time I watch your troubleshooting videos!!!
excellant video Ivan.
I took AUTO TECH. in high school and college, also worked as a mechanic for many years.
The only legit way to test a battery is with a load test. Those electronic battery testers at part stores are NFG.
A quick and dirty way to load test. a battery is to hook up a voltmeter, turn on the headlamps for 10 or 15 minutes , if the battery drops below 9.6 volts the battery is bad .
THE BATTERY MUST BE FULLY CHARGED BEFORE DOING THIS TEST.
Yup that is a great load test. Car comes equipped with a built-in load tester!
Actually, this is technically more a test of capacity than anything else. LOAD testing is more when there is a high-amp draw over a short period of time, as opposed to a low-amp draw over a long period. Also this video was way long winded, and hard to follow. Nice try though..
Best EASY/Quick way to load test is to watch the voltage during cranking. If it drops below 10volts, then your battery is weak and needs replacing (if all connections are good).
@@Johnathan_Waters assuming your starter doesn't have an excessive draw when cranking for some reason.
Outstanding job Ivan! I’ve always personally been a fan of your attention to detail in your content you are an awesome teacher!
Your comment made my day Tracy!
you didn't open the door after shutting the car off, so it stayed "alive" for the "infotainment" system, as you opened the door it went to sleep/power down mode. don't know how many times they've got me that way... I like old school key off draw off, stupendous new junk
Ivan,
Super informative video - thank you! I alway appreciate the 'white board' analysis/explanation.
God bless
Paul
I did not know that! The nugget at the end where you get the total load and the charging currents is excellent. THANK YOU!
Thanks for recording and posting this video.
My local mechanics are afraid of electrical problems -- I can't even persuade them to do a parasitic draw test.
Run away from them. They are not mechanics but parts changers.
Have them watch this video!
It seems like in my area all we have are parts changers! It’s so sad.
Yes over here in the UK there called fitters, cause that's all they can do fit new parts.
Am sitting in the toilet watching the white board of knowledge, like a good student that I am !!! Thank Ivan for sharing .
TMI
Awesome awesome knowledge sharing in a way that everyone can understand.
When I was a kid, I put a new generator on a 1954 Buick. You were supposed to polarize the gen with a wire touched to the battery. Mine charged backwards according to the generator gage. I took it to my mechanic and he turned on the headlights to discharge the bat and properly polarized the generator. I learned a lot that day!
Cool!
Thanks Ivan. Just in time before cold weather sets in too!
This is the best explanation and process to check a battery for a novice, It is easy to understand if you know Ohms Law and electronics, modern cars are full of electronic meaning Computor Busses twisted pairs etc. some of the expensive ones have Fiber optics all this is to cut down on noise interference, signals and waveforms are another area of knowledge needed to explain what happens with coild and releysas they are energized and so on. so bottom line is for people such as you and other who teach electronic can explain some of these funtion. Excllent job Ivan.
I realize this is about a year late, but great job as always, Ivan. Thanks.
Thanks for the post and good technical explanation. The only thing I ever understood about electrics is white to white and black to black. You just made it a little easier to wake up some confused brain cells and spark my interest. I've got a car that destroys a battery every 2 years or so and now I feel I can go trouble shoot and hopefully if I have a draw problem I will find it instead of buying a new batt so often. Thanks again.
With you and South Main Auto online we will not need a mechanic shop anymore lol great job and thanks
If I ever have a problem on my car I can’t figure out I will drive two hours to come see you Gladly, great video great diagnosis
Great channel and i loved your video with Eric from SMA tracing down that twisted camshaft and chewed bearing with lean condition.
Excellent demonstration of real testing on the vehicle to test a battery circuit to see if a battery is actually bad.
Can i just add some points. As shown, a multi meter and Amp clamp are vital to do complete checks on a charging system and when you work on electronics as well as i do.
One thing that is possible and not shown here, is if the Alternators diodes are shorted- which happens sometimes. If this occurs when the car is off, the amps will flow back towards the Alt and to earth- draining the battery. So if i find a battery overnight drained, i check the voltage to confirm drain, then i replace with good battery, hook a clamp on either battery cable and see if current is flowing. Make sure all doors and inside lights are off and if you still see amps, something is drawing the current. Next step is to put that clamp around the B+ fat charging cable coming from Alt. You should see NO amps. If you see the same amp number it means its flowing back through the alt and you have bad alt. Disconnect that wire and check at battery again and you should see NO drain now. If drain is not coming from alt but from cars circuit, you need to start pulling circuit fuses till you isolate where the juice is going.
The Alt diode failure is more likely an overnight dead battery situation and i have had one myself. The reason is that the alt can only drain at a certain rate so with a good 50 amp battery, i hour to drain isnt possible, but 12 hours is easily possible. However If you have a worn really marginal capacity battery, and find it drained after a few hours , then the bad alt is possible as it dosent take much drain to weaken the capacity of a worn battery as shown on this video.
A Battery can have volts and amps available or just volts and not much maps under load. So you can charge up and see 12.5 volts and if you hook a little bulb to it, you still see same volts but is you put a bigger load on it, then voltage should only drop to 10.5V and hold there for a bit-say for the starter motor of 100-300 amps.
Alt output test to do accurately, you really need a good battery, but with engine running you connect clamp around B+ cable and turns things on. You will see more and more amps output from alt and if regulator is working correctly you will see approx reg voltage say 14V holding ok at lots amps. Those amps are going to power all the things you turn on and a bit left over to charge the battery. If alt was faulty, the voltage would start to crash as you ask for more and amps would stop way short of the Alt rated output of say 80Amps. RMP needs to be well above idle as idle only produces a limited amount of amps. 2000 RMP will be plenty to get at least enough amps for testing of lights and aircon. You dont need to go to max output, half is enough to prove a good alt is working satisfactory.
So summary- Possible bad battery?- Check alt output, loose cables to battery clamps and clean, Amps leaving battery when car is Off. Amps leaving Alt when car is off. Then charge battery on charger, conform good voltage then draw Lots current and see if it can hold at least 10V, otherwise the battery is bad- even new batteries can fail early
If your battery is 4+ years old then capacity WILL be down so, harder to start is normal and no battery can be "repaired" once that lead is gone of the plates . Its just worn out and needs replacing.
You must do a "Rudimentary Series" This video with your instruction, fills in the gap for those born genius but spent crucial high school years doing bong hits in their friend's mother's basement listening to Led Zeppelin.
Thank you Professor Ivan.
Excellent tutorial, very well explained and extremely informative 👏 keep up the good work.
Best explanation of the relationships between charging voltages and currents under different conditions I have seen yet on the internet Ivan!
Most tubers don't break out the whiteboard/ visual aid which really helps us understand the interplay between voltage and charging and discharging current. After seeing your video will want to get an amp clamp.
Many tubers promote the amp hound but that will not show intermittent draw so like your solution better. Thanks for the good work!
Perhaps you will explain how to find faulty components using the voltage drop method. Lots of confusion on that.
Really good video Ivan. Enjoyed.
Well I learned a heck of a lot today. I'm quite sure I can find what is draining my battery (brand new) now. Thanks for a great video.
I actually really like this video. Great teacher moment. You did it in a simple way for me to understand. Thanks
Cool! Glad you enjoyed it Jesse!
Thank you so much for the video and drawing it out it was very easy easier to understand the way you just showed it thank you love it please keep it up
That car makes your garage look big. That was a great lesson Ivan. I'll be second guessing my battery tester now. Thanks for confusing me. (ha ha) Not really, your explanation coupled with the visuals made perfect sense. The horn scared me but it made me laugh too.
Excellent tutorial Sir Ivan!!! A great teacher makes a complex and difficult subject looks easy and simple !!! Indeed you are a great teacher!! I am one your avid student!!
Good stuff Ivan. Ive been doing alot off back to basics troubleshooting and this info really helps. Its awesome how much you can troubleshoot with basic tools just by loading the battery and measuring voltage drop. Also measuring alternator charging with the amp clamp to see if the battery is accepting the charge. I bought an Astro amp clamp/mm and a standard multimeter to measure inline amps. They work great and are affordable. Ive learned alot watching your vids and you inspired me to experiment with inexpensive oscilloscopes to up my diagnostics game. I also use an xtool d8 scan tool. Ive become pretty dangerous with your help😂 Thx
Great video. I blew my fuse only to now find your video on how to do this correctly.
“This 1.2 liter fire breather” I died hahaha
How do you check if the parasite is the alternator
thanx for breaking this down. Its nice to see the electrical physics theory applied to a case.
I remember Eric, O did a video using the pico scope and a time base of 1 update per min. and left the lap top run for hours to find a drawal from bad alternator, I love the fact you did this Old school ! Hope the horn did not scare any horse's. I guess this proves you don't always need a 5000 dollar scanner to fix a new car. I am impressed that a DC amp clamp can detect currentflow of such low amounts. Also, love the dash. looks like the star ship enterprise when you turn on the key. Great Job ! I learnso much watching you.
I'll LL LL
I am envious of your math skills, amazing
Awesome explanation. I have learned a lot from this video presentation. Exerted a great effort to explain his point.. Good job..
Worth noting that different vehicles will have different optimal charging voltage ranges. My car for example requires 14.3V-14.7V. Excellent diagnostic work.
Great explanation. Thanks for sharing your knowledge.
Truly fantastic explanation Ivan. top man.
Well done Dr. Ivan..
battery issues with my honda odessy handicapped vmi conversion i get worried being handicapped wih an unreliabe van it s been to both vmi and honda of course honda says its not our problem i have added a voltage gauge so i can check voltage before an after using my van keep up the good work your customers are lucky to have you dale janssen retired in arizona
A really helpful and informative video - Thanks
I love your explanations and I am a retired (disabled) electrician. I couldn’t get major auto parts store to understand my methods vs their tester and they won’t warranty their crap batteries.
cool vid ivan made things a lot clearer many thanks
Nice video Ivan, one small criticism. I don't think it was clear to less experienced viewers that the main reason you used the DVOM in current mode to check for sleeping parasitic load was the fact that the amp clamp meter is not as accurate in detecting very small current flow as the DVOM as a current meter in series. Also worth a mention that a really cheap DVOM may not have the ability to measure current.
Great video and explanation. That finger erase on the whiteboard pissed me off though 🤣
Ivan, great informative video!!!
Excellent Ivan !
excellent job Ivan
Brilliant video, thanks.
One other thing I always look for with a charge fault is battery light operation, obviously it should go off once the engine starts and alternator begins to charge the system, but you can get a flickering light or a very dim batt light.
Also, with the draw test, I use a jump cable to extend the cars wiring across negative side, then attach my dvom to batt negative-wire loom negative lock the vehicle, remove one jump clamp so the current runs through meter only, I find this reduces loss of contact with meter, I have replaced a few 2A fuses. 🤬🤬
Your are an awesome teacher. 100% understandable.
Thanks for the refresher course 👍🏻
That's a pretty good explanation.... One of the better ones I have seen. Well Done.
I might add, just to totally nitpick, the 6 cells in the battery would be around 2.2 volts each, fully charged. Thus, 6*2.2= 13.2 volts, would be a really charged up brand new battery. 12.8, should be commonly seen, on a charged up "good" battery....
Also, I mean, I was told at one time, parasitic draws should be chased, until you get down below 200 milliamps. In the modern day, Many luxury SUV's, Luxury muscle cars, anything heavily optioned, you could well see 500 milliamps, and, that's as low as it gets.... I have seen in some owners manuals, they recommend a new battery every year, presumably because they know the car or truck is always in a state of a mild parasitic draw....
I'm not saying you should blindly accept a draw of 500 milliamps, but before you spend a week chasing that, and driving yourself insane, do some due diligence, and find out, is that normal, or not.....
I got a laugh out of your "Battery outlet specialty" store, also.... (I think we know who you were talking about there, heh heh).... Now, I wasn't there, so, take a grain of salt with this, but I'm guessing the meter was telling him "Battery cannot be tested until charged".... So, the employee is not properly trained, and does not understand what the meter is telling him, and he tells the customer "Yeah, it's good, it just needs a charge", which is incorrect, as you showed....
2.1v per cell x 6 = 12.6v
So let’s say my battery is alwaysssss testing weak on my battery tester(10.5-10.8) but never leaves me stranded or is never “dead”... safe to say my alternator is doing the job and the battery is just slowly starting to croak??
Idk how I found your channel but I sure do appreciate it man. I think watching Eric O sent me this way!!
I wish I were as smart as you Ivan. Way to go. Super excellent amazing job man.
Tanks Jeremy, always appreciate your positive comments :)
@@PineHollowAutoDiagnostics your welcome. You deserve it
Great job and great explanations. Thanks
Great video between you and south main auto I have learn a lot
My car goes to sleep but wont stop snoring !!
Nice job Ivan
Bookmarked and shared with my techs. Back to basics
thanks for a very good video kind a long but is very understandable tanks again Ivan......
Will be using this class today my wife’s truck does the same thing as this car thank you so much
Great class! Better than my electrical class at UTI.
And free of charge 👌😁
Great video... what would of been nice is a comparison between new and old battery of the discharge and recovery rate with loads on/off. What I’d like to see if it’s possible to run that old battery completely flat and see if you can reverse charge it turning negative terminal into positive terminal. 👍🏻👍🏻
I learnd a lots great tuto 👍⭐️👍
Too many places use a resistance type tester to test batteries as they are safe and easy to use. I always back them up with a proper load tester. So many times the resistance tester was wrong you wouldn't believe it.
The ED 18 by midtronics sucks balls, I swear internal resistance type testers are solely designed to sell people batteries.
Good discription Ivan. I’ve usually heard you can have a cell or a few go bad and the battery is shot. It only takes a few. Or with a battery that has been discharged for a long time the cells can sulfate. Hard to bring back if it’s been in that state too long. Usually if a battery goes bad it’s one of two things. A parasitic draw or an aged battery that’s worn out.
Hello Ivan, when Battery capacity = 65Ah this means that this battery can be discharged during 20 ours with a current of 65 : 20 = 3,25A (at 1,75V per cel at the end of this 20 ours discharge). Greetings from Holland. Nice video again. Greetings Hans
every time i see your videos or eric o or scannerdanner i say to myself o i know how to do it and i end up watch the all think nice job
Thanks for sharing your knowledge with us for free
always learning something new 😎 awesome
Nice thorough diagnosis.
Ha ha you said it would only take 5 minutes😂😂 Great video! Whiteboard of knowledge!💪
"learning" always takes longer than "doing" ;)
@@PineHollowAutoDiagnostics Ha ha i know😉
you have to make reference to your " AMAZING ARTISTIC SKILLS" before using the white board of knowledge
Last time I bought a new battery it was for my 2012 Infiniti FX 50S. I checked the manufacturing dates of all available batteries at the shop. The most recent one was manufactured 3 months prior to my purchase, so I bought that one. The original battery lasted about 6 years, and died suddenly without pre-warning after a 15 minutes visit to my local petrol station. So it will be interesting to see how long the new one lasts. My guess is 3-4 years in the climate where I live now. That was the typical battery life when I lived in similar conditions in South Africa. 😊
great video Ivan
Thanks Steve! Glad you enjoyed it!
Very well explained. I have never heard the term parasitic drain. Basically, it's a drain on the battery when the car is asleep and their shouldn't be one.
Thank you! Yup some cars have insomnia haha
You are an excellent teacher
Ivan your a great mechanic I envy your skills...
You and Eric o are the man Ivan
Thanks for sharing. Very enlightening
great detailed video.👌🏼
Very good, thank you, it was helpful, have a good day.
Thank you for a great video.
That was helpful. Thanks!
as always ,great and helpful video,actually tomorrow i had a case just like your car but i'm pretty sure mine has parasitic draw issue ,because the owner said the battery has been changed 3 times with new one🙂
You could install a pull rope starter from a lawn mower on that engine.
One of your best videos, It lit a spark of knowledge in me!!!! Got it? LOL
One question... Tell me it was not late at night when you did this test. It can be lethal to do these tests past 11pm... Cuz the horn can wake up the neighbours.... or much worse... the wife !!!!!!!!! LOL!!!!!!