We've been having issues with the battery staying charged when the van is off. Recently we also started having starting issues. With a fully charged battery just off the charger, the vehicle clicks when trying to start as if the battery is dead. After a few to several attempts, the van finally starts and runs fine. Occasionally the car will start with no problems at all. Battery has been tested and is good. Anyone else have had this issue?

 

The alternators on the 3.6 Pentastar have been very problematic. The charging voltage will drop off during long driving periods, which will leave you thinking that you have a drain while the van is sitting. In reality, the battery is half dead when you first park it.




If you do the alternator, do the battery too since it's 4 years old. That's about the average life span of a factory battery anyway.

 

Would a bad alternator cause the vehicle to act like there is a dead battery on start up, even though the battery had been charged to 100%?

 

With a fully charged battery, starter clicks would point to starter, cables, connections?

 

Is that what your volt meter said?

 

Going off my charger. It gives me a percentage of battery power. After charging all night last night, took one short trip to the store today. Sat in the drive way all day after that. Went to move it in just a bit ago and it took a few minutes to start. Hooked the charger back up to it and had a 0% reading. After about 15 minutes it was already back up to 78%.

 

When running, the battery should show a charge of about 14.3 volts. If its not, then you probably have a bad alternator. Our 2011 alternator had to be replaced this year, about 65k? miles. Battery wasn't damaged. We have a lifetime added care warranty, they paid for the tow, rental car, and while they were into it we had them fix the sliding door. $100 deductible.

They found a seeping transmission hose, that was not warrantied - so that got into a couple hundred.

 

Had to jump the van again this morning after sitting on the charger all night. Charger was showing that it was fully charged and was maintaining the battery. Wife (drives the van) came home and reported that the van started just fine after sitting at work all day. She drove about a mile to pick up one of the kids and had to be jumped to get the car started. After she got home she went to pick up the other kids, about 20 minutes later. She reports the van started fine both leaving and coming back.

I picked up a new digital multimeter on my way home (old one has a needle) and did a test on the battery and alternator. Battery reads right around 12.6v. With engine running I'm getting a reading of 13.9v so I'm thinking it's the alternator. But what gets me is the intermittent starting issues.

UPDATE: Did a parasitic draw test. With all fuses in place I get a reading just under 2.00. After pulling each fuse one by one, I found that pulling the radio fuse results in the reading dropping to around 0.90.

Don't think I mentioned it before, but I also keep seeing an OBD II trouble code of P0562 (System Voltage Low).

 

Hope you got it fixed. But be aware you have to wait a LONG time for the draw to drop - its a known thing. I was checking mine a week or so ago, and noticed it was on the order of many minutes (like 10?) before the draw is low like you'd expect. I did a search and found a thread that reported 15 minutes. So I'd let it sit for a while before checking.

I also picked up this really cool little circuit from Lisle. Takes all the effort out of being careful about your DMM fuse with carefully setup of jumpers when you initially wait for the power draw to drop.

https://www.amazon.com/Lisle-64970-P.../dp/B00RGN5UAY

 

After reading through I didn't see any where that you Tried a new Battray