Hi - new problem with my van which has been running reliably for years.

Stopped at a gas station today and it wouldn't start at all - totally dead. Got a jump and drove to my destination which took about 1.5 hrs - once I arrived shut the van off and tried to start it - again nothing. Also battery so dead that interior lights were dead as well.

While I was on the road I turned the headlights on which caused the gauge cluster to shut off and the engine to miss for a second then everything back to normal.

I'm on the road so I don't have a meter to check the alternator etc. I'm taking it to a shop tomorrow (holiday here in Canada today) but don't have much time before I have to be somewhere else so I'm looking for some tips I could share.

Battery is about 3 years old.

Thoughts?

 

That seems to be the trend these days when a battery fails. When it's done, it's totally done with little to no warning. Our old Caravan wouldn't start one day and it wouldn't even start with a jump. A new battery and everything was good.

 

Hey thanks for the tip! Do you know of a way I can test the battery or charging system with a cheap multimeter to confirm? You can never have too many multimeters lying around....

If there was I could go to the parts shop, get the multimeter, find out whether it's the battery or charging system, then either buy a new battery or take it to a mechanic if it's something else.

Like I said before I'm on the road and in a bit of a time / tools bind.

thanks again!
dave

 

One way to test the alt is to start the van, then pull the positive cable off the battery, if it stays running then its good.

 

that makes sense - thanks!

 

another way to check it with a multimeter is put the leads on the 2 posts with the engine running and if your battery is not fully charged the altinator will crank out up to 16 volts DC if it stays around 12v or under the alt is no good

 

No problem, How did it turn out?

 

Fully charged, it should read around 12.9v while fully discharged is about 11.4v. Anything less than that means a bad cell. These are without the engine running and with no load on the battery.