drained car battery...

[jonnyjack]

hey,

yesterday after school, as i was about to go home, my car wouldn't start...i look at the light switch thingee and it was left on for like 4 and half hours...well it was completely drained and i got a jump from my friend...its up and running now, but my mom says the battery is weaker now since it was completely drained...is she right or wrong? i would think after driving it for like 3 hours so far that it should be recharged and back to normal...its a fairly new battery, purchased within a year...

oh yeah...what is the correct way to put on the jumper cables...my friend had to call one of our other friends to tell us how to do it...

 

[Total Refected Power]

Should be OK. Easy enough to check.

 

[yakko]

It shouild be ok unless you got a crappy battery.

 

[Angrymarshmello]

[oops backwards]

Pos on dead battery to pos on good battery. Neg on goodd battery to ground on the dead car. (Note: pos-pos and neg-neg = "big boom", don't try it) Anywhere thats unpainted and not wet.

 

[Viperoni]

@ school auto class, we have the stubborn cars, and everytime we boost 'em, we don't give a rats @55 about which we hook em up.
And ya know what? THEY STARTED EVERY SINGLE TIME.
I never "put on the cable's the right way", nor will I until somebody proves me wrong.

BTW: no batteries have been drained or blown up in the making of this reply.

 

[CJM]

Depends, how dead was the battery when you got to the car? If you still got some response, just not enough juice to crank the motor over, than you're fine. If it was TOTALLY dead then she's probably right.

 

[Viperoni]

BTW: you should let your car sit revving @ around 2k rpm just to let the alternator charge up the battery. For about 20 mins, at least.
If you have a big battery (700+cca) than like 30 mins..

 

[Doodoo]

I just connect the pos to the pos...and the negs to the negs...in no particular order...never had a problem...

 

[Soybomb]

Viperoni of course it will work no matter what order you do it as long as they're connected! The only reason its recommened to do the last negative on the ground like the shock tower of the one car is because when you touch it to the ground or negative post there is going to be a spark. Hydrogen gas can accumulate around batteries. Do you want the spark near the battery or not? I think its pretty obvious I've never had a problem any way but I use a ground point whenever possible just incase. I like my vision!

 

[eia430]

Jhonnyjack, Car batteries are lead acid batteries, they have a lead plate, a zinc plate and sulfuric acid. When the battery is fully charged the acid is in a neutral state, the more discharged it is the more acidic it becomes. When it becomes acidic it tends to destroy itself (eats up the lead and zinc plates) The more drained the battery becomes the more it destroys itself (shortens it's life span) Of course there are other factors such as how long it was left in it's discharged state, how discharged did it get, etc. If you take a brand new battery, fully discharge it then leave it discharged for two days, I don't think it will hold any sort of charge (no matter how long you charge it for) hope this helps...

 

[PG]

It depends on the car. Some cars don't have a big enough alternator to charge up a dead battery by just driving around. You might want to borrow a small battery charger to make sure your battery gets charged up as much as possible.