can a dead battery be recharged?

[Aharami]

havent driven my car in a while and my battery died. Tried turning on the car yesterday and heard a clicking noise. Got the jumper cables today, hooked it up to wife's car.

Followed the normal hookup procedure - red to + of good car, red to + of dead car. black to - of good car, black to unpainted metal of dead. turned on good car, then when turning on dead car - nothing. no clicking noise like yesterday.

Thinking my battery is completely dead. Can I take it out and take it somewhere to be recharged? Or do I HAVE to get a new battery?

 

[Aharami]

quick googling shows this
http://automechanics.wordpress.com/2008/03/08/how-to-recharge-a-dead-battery/

but i thought connecting (-) of good bat to (-) of bad bat is a big no-no

 

[Ferzerp]

I hope you didn't hook it up in that order.

Drained batteries can have hydrogen gas around them. You always create the spark (the last connection) on the vehicle with the good battery. Sure, you get some distance with not hooking it up to the battery itself, but you need to make that last connection on the good side and as far from the dead battery as possible.

 

[LTC8K6]

Leave the cables connected for a few minutes before trying to start the car. Let the other car charge up the dead battery for a few minutes and it may come back.

 

[Zenmervolt]

Generally at this stage I'd try to put the bad battery on a bench charger overnight and not muck about with jump starting unless I really needed to drive the dead car immediately.

It's just easier than dealing with jumper cables and you've got a much better chance of a good, microprocessor-controlled bench charger bringing the battery back into serviceable shape than you do from just letting the car's own charging system do it.

ZV

 

[Aharami]

thanks. local autozone charges batteries for free. I'll take it to them

 

[SilthDraeth]

You might be able to hook it up to a battery desulfator and rejuvenate it as well.

 

[CA19100]

I hope you didn't hook it up in that order.

That's exactly the correct order. Sparks are why you make the last connection to unpainted metal on the dead car, rather than to its battery terminal directly. That way there are no sparks next to either battery.

 

[Ferzerp]

No, it's not the correct order.

I know you can find citations (in fact most everything you find will agree with you), but it's thoroughly stupid.

If you're concerned about H2 around the dead battery, you make the connection as far away as possible. That's the other vehicle.

 

[phucheneh]

The order is good car (both), bad positive [edit: technically, bad positive first, that way you can't short the cables], bad negative; with the above-mentioned remotely located negative cable. It's not necessary; just insurance. But gassing (emitting hydrogen) happens when you overcharge batteries- not on dead ones.

On most cars, you could hook the jumper leads up to the terminals with no battery in the car, and so long as the other car's charging system is strong enough, it will start. It may even keep running once you remove the jumper leads (depending on how things are wired). I've done it plenty of times with a jump box (essentially a battery in a plastic box with some jumper cables attached).

As mentioned, just remove the battery and take it to the parts store.

If you do try to jump it again, check your connections. Sometimes the difference between good contact and not is pretty much imperceptible.

 

[natto fire]

No, it's not the correct order.

I know you can find citations (in fact most everything you find will agree with you), but it's thoroughly stupid.

If you're concerned about H2 around the dead battery, you make the connection as far away as possible. That's the other vehicle.

Why would there be hydrogen around a dead battery? Wouldn't there more likely be hydrogen by the battery that is being charged by the running car? Regardless, you can make the arc smaller by having everything turned off on the dead car when you make the final connection.

 

[Jumpem]

Get a battery charger to connect to it in your garage. After an hour or two, your car will start and you are good to go.

 

[foghorn67]

Get a battery charger to connect to it in your garage. After an hour or two, your car will start and you are good to go.

Appropriate user ID for this thread.

 

[thomsbrain]

The order is good car (both), bad positive [edit: technically, bad positive first, that way you can't short the cables], bad negative; with the above-mentioned remotely located negative cable. It's not necessary; just insurance. But gassing (emitting hydrogen) happens when you overcharge batteries- not on dead ones.

On most cars, you could hook the jumper leads up to the terminals with no battery in the car, and so long as the other car's charging system is strong enough, it will start. It may even keep running once you remove the jumper leads (depending on how things are wired). I've done it plenty of times with a jump box (essentially a battery in a plastic box with some jumper cables attached).

As mentioned, just remove the battery and take it to the parts store.

If you do try to jump it again, check your connections. Sometimes the difference between good contact and not is pretty much imperceptible.

No. That is not the order. Connecting both to the good car first is a wonderful way to short out the battery when you are carrying the live cables back to the other car and they touch each other.