Charging a completely drained battery

[QueBert]

Car's been sitting for a few months, I have someone coming Friday to make and program a key. I would pull the battery and take it to get it charged at Pep Boys. But it's a Saturn Sky which you have to remove the side panel and do a bunch of stuff to get the battery out. The way it's parked close to a wall I don't know how I'd even be able to get to the underside of the car to remove stuff.

I don't have a key to put it into neutral to move it. Which doesn't matter because when a Sky has a dead battery the car can't even be put into N any ways. Weird, but this is what others who own it have said too. And I could never find a work around on Google. No matter as I'm key less anywho.

So trickle chargers won't detect the battery since it's totally dead. But according to some folks on Googles, there are some that will work here. One old thread I found somewhere had a link, but the link was dead and poster didn't put information about a brand or anything.

What are my options here? I realize the battery will probably need to be replaced, which is fine. Once I get the key made I can work on that. I just need to get it with enough charge that the locksmith can get the key made. Then I can get a regular jump and move it enough to where I can get at the battery so I can get it out to go get another.

 

[squirrel dog]

there are trickle chargers that plug into the power port of your sky and it will charger your battery , very slowly . Pep Boys , Auto Zone , O'Rielly and others all sell these type chargers . The key man can make a key to get your car into neutral . Get a new battery , the engineer who put that models battery behind the passenger wheel under what I looked at must be quite the fiend .

 

[QueBert]

there are trickle chargers that plug into the power port of your sky and it will charger your battery , very slowly . Pep Boys , Auto Zone , O'Rielly and others all sell these type chargers . The key man can make a key to get your car into neutral . Get a new battery , the engineer who put that models battery behind the passenger wheel under what I looked at must be quite the fiend .

AWESOME thank you, I'll go look for one of the chargers you said. I have that hooks directly to the battery and it won't do anything here. Very slow's fine, guy won't be here until Friday anywho. And yeah, getting the battery out's a real pain. lol

 

[Midwayman]

FWIW Would one of those emergency chargers work? I got my wife one with a small lipo battery since she contantly leaves lights on. Its enough to start the car with a flat battery several times. They're just useful to have around.

 

[QueBert]

FWIW Would one of those emergency chargers work? I got my wife one with a small lipo battery since she contantly leaves lights on. Its enough to start the car with a flat battery several times. They're just useful to have around.

I was thinking about one of those, but wouldn't for it do anything you need to turn the key over? That's just an assumption on my part. But I know if I hooked jumper cables nothing will happen if I don't try to turn the car over. I don't know what level of battery charge the locksmith will need. But since the key has to be programmed I'm pretty sure a working battery's required. The device you speak of would absolutely work if all I needed to do was jump the car. They make ones that'll fit in your glove box so there's no reason after I get this situated I shouldn't buy one.

Heading off to Autozone, I don't suspect the people there will know enough about this, so thank you squirrel dog for telling me what I need to buy.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

Yes -- a recent road-bump in my day-to-day progress this week. Bro has a '95 Nissan King Cab pickup truck. It gets driven maybe 500 miles per year, and sometimes we lapse in our attention to driving it around to keep the charge up. Bro has a different mindset than I: "Buy the cheapest part you can find". The battery was replaced in 2017 with a "Super Start" from O'Reilly's. It's not an "AGM" or "GEL" and appears to be "STD" or a conventional battery.

So four days ago, it was dead. About two years ago, we replaced a defective charger with a Shumacher XC85-CA . It will detect which of the three types for the battery connected to it. When the battery is totally discharged, voltage detection may fail and show 6V instead of 12V, but resetting the battery over a half hour's time usually results in the correct voltage detected.

We put Schumacher on the Super Start. It took 26 hours before the green light went on showing "Charged/Maintaining".

How LONG does it TAKE to charge an ordinary battery, ANYWAY?!

 

[RLGL]

Get these dollies to move the car https://www.harborfreight.com/2-piece-1500-lb-capacity-vehicle-dollies-67338.html

 

[Midwayman]

I was thinking about one of those, but wouldn't for it do anything you need to turn the key over? That's just an assumption on my part. But I know if I hooked jumper cables nothing will happen if I don't try to turn the car over. I don't know what level of battery charge the locksmith will need. But since the key has to be programmed I'm pretty sure a working battery's required. The device you speak of would absolutely work if all I needed to do was jump the car. They make ones that'll fit in your glove box so there's no reason after I get this situated I shouldn't buy one.

Heading off to Autozone, I don't suspect the people there will know enough about this, so thank you squirrel dog for telling me what I need to buy.

Well its just wiring another battery in parallel. They supply plenty of amps and your car should display the proper voltage when connected. They are substantially lower in capacity than a standard battery however. I guess it depends on how long you need it powered. I wouldn't expect it to run the electric system for hours. 10-15min I'm sure is well within range. Usually they tell you to let it charge for a little bit if you have a really flat battery.

I think where they differ from a wall charger is that they can supply the sort of current that is similar to jumping from another car. Most wall chargers can't do that unless they have an integral battery of some sort. I have a wall charger that will supply 10amps or so and if I'm doing a lot of electrical work I'll hook it up so I don't end up with a flat battery. Generally its enough to run most of the car's electronics though. Just no starting.

So with all that- You could also just buy a replacement battery if you know you'll need it anyways and jump it to the charge port. That basically what most commercial jumping equipment is anyways a lead acid battery on wheels.