Hey Guys, so in my 1998 5.2L van I am not able to jump my dead battery with my portable jump starters. My voltmeter stays the same (11.5V max, even when being jumped.). Before you suggest getting a new battery, (which it could need) check out the following.

So, I am able to jump my other truck’s batteries (even when they were totally dead due to a light left on), but my van one is being weird all of a sudden. Its like it doesn’t want to accept a jump anymore (unless maybe from a vehicle jumping it), and its not even drained completely either. Example: I’ll hook up my jumper cables from the portable jumper, and the volt meter doesn’t even go past 11.5V for some reason, even when the boost feature of the jumper is on. So basically the portable jumper keeps boosting it over and over until the thing is almost drained. Where as normally, on any vehicle battery, the vehicle always starts first time for me. We're talking 800A repeatedly getting pumped into the battery, incase youre unfamiliar with the portable jump starters. Where is all that voltage going if it isn’t starting the van battery? For the record, i never had any issues in the past jumping it, but maybe it got drained one too many times and needs replaced? Idk, the fact my voltmeter in the Cig lighter never goes past 11.7V when its being jumped from the portable starters is just odd to me.

Note: Here and there in the past months ive gotten in my van and it would not start. Battery completely full too. I’d put the key in, turn it to ignition, but there was this little click up in the engine bay and that was it, and my voltage read 0.0V. The on board factory dash gauge was at Zero too. I played around with it for like 30mins and then magically it started working again and i could start the van (but i didnt do anything to fix it). Oh, and jumping it had zero effect btw. So yeah, idk if this Is related to anything, but thought I’d throw this out there incase its related to the original paragraph

 

For a start, I'd check all your cables and grounds. Both at the battery and at the frame. You could have a ground cable for instance that looks good at the battery but down at the frame it could be corroded. You also want to check the firewall to engine grounds too. It's possible you have a relay or something going south, with jump starting being an issue, I'd check the wiring first. It may be some small connection that opens the entire circuit.

 

Okay i'll check the grounds. That might make sense with why there is a weird click and no voltage sometimes (maybe) even with a full battery. I did just now get done charging it with 10amps for the last 5hours, and voltage is showing normal now (battery was dead before, well, was at 10v). But either way i need to be able to jump the battery like i always did in the past with the portable jumper starters, as thats slightly important lol

 

Bad connections cause voltage drops so a voltmeter is your friend. If the battery measures 12+ V but the internal meter(s) show less and nothing is working check voltage between (with key on): Battery negative and engine block, battery negative and frame, battery negative and body, battery positive and alternator, battery positive and coil, battery positive and inside fuse panel. These should be in the mV range, if more "there's your problem, lady !".

 

If you have a cell in the battery going bad, it will drop to 10 or so volts. The click may be the system energizing. How old is the battery?

 

Okay i'll keep that in mind. I dont think that would work right now though since the battery is charged back up and the voltage is showing correctly. When originally posted, the battery was at 10-11V and the van starter would just click because there wasnt enough juice to turn it over. My OP is just me being confused why the amps being transferred from the portable jump starters were not jumping my battery (which is nothing special, just a van battery).

 

Dirty battery terminals.

 

Hmm idk about that in this case . The click (when it happened) seemed internal. I could be wrong though. But yeah it sounded like more in the internal area under the hood somewhere. I'll play with the key and see if i can locate it

Edit: Oh wait i read your comment wrong. Yeah so the click is the truck engine doing its thing i guess. As for the battery, i think it just was at that voltage because i left a light on the other day, so then i went to jump it and nothing happened. This wasn't the first time recently the jump from the portable jump starters seemed to have no effect, which is why i decided to make a post about it. Age of battery? Unknown..but it was tested a year ago while van was running, and the cranking amps was good (according to the guy who tested it)