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Car battery completey drained

S

sundev

Golden Member
So I realized today that someone left the lights on all night, and of course when I went to start the car nothing happened. I'm waiting for a friend to give me a jump in a few minutes, but I was just wondering can I just get it charged (or whatever you call it) via cables and be fine after driving around for a while, or is a new battery in order?

Thanks for any help.
 
car year make model?

attach jumpers correctly and let charge for a few minutes(3-5), turn the car over. if it starts let the car run! drive it! idling will not charge battery sufficiently so driving would be better. it should be ok after this unless the battery is years old. if it doesnt start immediately let it charge some more... she may turn slow but if it IS turning over dont stop unless it does itsself!

if it doesnt start save yourself time and make a good investment in a new battery. if it does start and etc but is dead the next day.. get a new one as its not accepting the charge OR have a local repair shop put a load test on your alternator to make sure it is chasrging sufficiently
 
Take it to an auto parts store and have them charge it. It will take a few hours. Those batteries don't like to be completely drained, though, so if it hasn't been completely killed, it's life expectancy is now much shorter. I wouldn't count on just getting a jump and then driving around being enough to start it up and drive you home.
 
Autozone charges batteries for free. They will load test it to see if it will handle the starting load...
Driving it on the highway for 25-30 mins after a jump start should suffice (not city driving)
 
Do not use the alternator (ie: get a jump and drive around to 'charge') to charge a dead battery. Charge it on a charger first. The alternator is designed to keep the battery topped off, not to completely charge a dead battery and bear the burden of the whole electrical system by itself. Doing so will burn up the diode and regulator and cost big bucks for a new alternator.
 
Originally posted by: nakedfrog
Take it to an auto parts store and have them charge it. It will take a few hours. Those batteries don't like to be completely drained, though, so if it hasn't been completely killed, it's life expectancy is now much shorter. I wouldn't count on just getting a jump and then driving around being enough to start it up and drive you home.
Click to expand...

I've done or seen countless batteries drained, jumped, recharged in the car for a few minutes, drained again several weeks later and rejumped, and in general abused, and they NEVER die just like that. Maybe you get 5 years of service instead of 7, but draining your battery once is so far from fatal that it's not even worth mentioning. Also, if getting a jump and driving around (15-20 min) isn't enough to charge the battery sufficiently to start it the next day...something is wrong, either with the battery or the charging system.

It is true that charging a dead battery in the car is much more stressful on the battery and the charging system than using a dedicated battery charger, but do you guys drive cars made of glass?
 
your battery should be fine, my car drains the battery if i leave the front drivers side headlight motor plugged in, its been fine for 8ish months now. it should last a year or two minimum. besides, batteries arent all expensive.
 
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