Battery remains completely useless

[Possessed Freak]

My dormant PT Cruiser (started once a month) always has a dead battery when I restart it. I took this in stride, jumped it, drove it around and re-parked it. This time however, when I jumped my car this morning for its monthly trip the vehicle immediately stalled after pulling the cables. Okay, so I left the cables hooked up for a bit longer, and the car stalled immediately again as soon as I pulled the cables. There was 0 charge on the local battery.

I *assume* it is the alternator, is there anything else I should look at before shelling out 120 bucks?

 

[brblx]

have the battery charged and tested (and replaced, if needed) first, then start it up and actually check the alternator output rather than assuming. check both at the alt post and at the battery to be sure it's not a cabling issue.

 

[fleabag]

yeah when you go to a place like autozone, they have a machine for checking up on your charging system and battery.

 

[woodie1]

Sounds like you blew one or more diodes in the alternator. Easy to do when you jump start a car.

 

[Zenmervolt]

How long are you running it? An alternator isn't going to recharge a battery on only 5-10 minutes of driving. You'd need to drive for a much longer time.

That said, if it's stalling as soon as you pull the jumper leads, then the issue probably is the alternator so it's not a bad place to start.

ZV

 

[LTC8K6]

You may well need a new battery also. Being treated that way is not good for a car battery.

 

[BUTCH1]

Once you get it going again invest $15-25 into a solar trickle charger. Modern vehicles are always drawing something from the batt. even when off. Body control module is always on to receive the remote signal to unlock doors,ect. Normally this drainage gets replaced during usage but since you only start the car once a month it's had the time to kill the batt.

 

[Possessed Freak]

Thanks guys, I will try to do more of an analysis when I get home from work today. If I read 13ish volts from the alternator I know it is good, right? So then I am looking at a cabling issue. Should be easy enough to check.