01-26-2006, 03:01 AM
Good thinking Dennis.
maintenance free usually means you can't maintain them, not that they don't need it. distilled water to above the plates, but not to the top of the battery. the plates just need to be submerged. Also, charge it for a bit with a battery charger before using it.
there may be excessive lead sulfate built up on the plates in those 2 cells. The alternator in the car then couldn't overcome the internal electrical resistance in those two cells and not charge properly.
At the auto parts store I managed, I have taken batteries that had been abused by overcharging and run dry and became heavily sulphated. I would refill some and put on a charger. 0 charge current on the ammeter on the charger. after a while 1 or 2 amps was barely flowing, after another few hours it would be charging at full rate.
I and my friends never paid for batteries while I worked there. I also kept the local Sea Scout fleet supplied with batteries that way too.
maintenance free usually means you can't maintain them, not that they don't need it. distilled water to above the plates, but not to the top of the battery. the plates just need to be submerged. Also, charge it for a bit with a battery charger before using it.
there may be excessive lead sulfate built up on the plates in those 2 cells. The alternator in the car then couldn't overcome the internal electrical resistance in those two cells and not charge properly.
At the auto parts store I managed, I have taken batteries that had been abused by overcharging and run dry and became heavily sulphated. I would refill some and put on a charger. 0 charge current on the ammeter on the charger. after a while 1 or 2 amps was barely flowing, after another few hours it would be charging at full rate.
I and my friends never paid for batteries while I worked there. I also kept the local Sea Scout fleet supplied with batteries that way too.