Bad battery?
 

I was workin on my car yesterday (sound system) and i had the music on . I'd say it was on for about 3hrs approx....totally forgetting about the battery[sm=smiley13.gif], i went to start the car and, like i figured...I drained it. Now once I got it started slowly but surely the voltage got to where it should be. Now I thought it was fine after driving it around for awhile. I went to start my car after school, (roughly 6hrs) and it barely started...Did I kill my battery? While running I get 14.4v so its not the alternator...Just as a note, the battery is not even a year old. Would the fact that it was a "Wal-Mart" battery have anything to do with it?

Hope you guys can help...

RE: Bad battery?
 

It depends on your cranking amps. car batteries can have from 275 to 880 cold crank amps. If you got the right battery, it should last as long as the battery waranty is for. Most are about 36 months, but they can go up to 72 months. My Hummer takes a high-output 880 cold crank amps. My 3000 GT is about 400.

RE: Bad battery?
 

If you can, charge it on a battery charger. If you can't, then drive your car for at least 45 minutes and your battery should be charged enough to not cause this issue again for a littel while. Charging it will be better for the battery than a 45min drive though.
It doesn't matter that it was WalMart battery either. Car batteries are no longer a secret recipe, they are all made the same nowadays and where you get them does not matter, it's who initially put that battery together. It's just known that some retailers buy better made batteries than other retailers. I've had cars with Wally batteries last me it's stated battery life and I've had brand name batteries stated to "outlast" batteries like Walmart ones last me 1 year....that just pissed me off too.
Just charge up your battery and go from there. If the issue persists, then, yes, your battery was affected by the cold temps.:)

RE: Bad battery?
 

Well now it seems to be working alright, just driving it today helped. The only thing I forgot to note, is that every now and then, the car jumps down to 12.0~12.5v when cold/just started while the car is on causing everything to dim and when it drops to 12.5 the belts squeak, once the rpms are brought up to 3000 its fine but randomly drops again....this only lasts for about 5~10 min when its not warmed up @ slower speeds....

RE: Bad battery?
 

Is it that cold? You can try to tighten the belt down a bit more in that case. Does your car sit outside or is it garaged? It sounds like it sits outside where it freezes parts and pieces, lol.

RE: Bad battery?
 

Well I'm in NJ and right now...its snowing...haha yea its outside ....The belts are fully tightened and I had a mechanic about a month ago and he said that he tightened it as much as he could, but he also said it may need a rounded or "shaped" belt rather than the square belts. Other than that I'm stumped....I mean the belts are no more than 6mths old. All belts were changed....steering, a/c, and alternator....