If you use a batter tender come inside...or if you really know electrics

[USAFPILOT]

I have recently had some trouble maintaining the charge in my battery, so I got a battery tender and left it on it all night etc. When I came out in the morning the battery charger said the battery was charged and it did crank right up with no problems. But I noticed that all the electrics in my car were flickering and the voltmeter in the DIC was cyling between 15.0 and 14.5. After driving it around for a while it settled down to about 14.2 which had been about normal, and at idle with the AC running it was 13.8 or so. After the drive the flickering had ceased.

To me the flickering is weird...anyone else? Any ideas? I am concerned about hooking the tender back up to the car.

I could get another battery I guess...but I dont think it is ruined...or is it? I guess I'll at least take it to autozone for a check.

Ohh...and I never had any flickering before the battery tender. Except for the time I tried to jump start it and in the process fried my BCM. But it only flickered once and then it was all dead.

[GOLDCYLON]

Is this both a side post and top post battery? If it is make sure the postive top post is not grounding out on the frame.

[gbrtng]

You've got a bad battery connection or a failing battery. Mary's 91 did this a few years
back and soon the battery failed completely - wouldn't crank the engine. A new battery fixed the problem. The tender probably didn't have a thing to do with it.

[DaveK]

Had this problem last year - battery was dead. New battery installed and she fired first time.

[Paul Workman]

Three things come to mind, and two of them are covered (the one's I would have put at the top of the list), but the battery tender is not one of them.

A cell may be shorting out - time for a new battery
The voltage regulator may be on the way out (but since it doesn't go over 14.7 or so...I'd consider "something else"...
"Something else" might be a grounding issue somewhere can cause a host of things going bad. The key there is all those devices sharing a common ground (that is going south) will all be affected where the rest of the gauges, radio, etc are not affected.

Sounds like an internal battery issue - or your shorting something out - would be my first guess. A VOM and the FSM will be key to running it down.

Good luck. Let us know what you find (and I'll bet it isn't the battery charger!).

P.

[W i l l]

Just drop the car off over at my house. I will keep the battery maintained for cheaper than it costs for a trickle charger :)


I have recently had some trouble maintaining the charge in my battery, so I got a battery tender and left it on it all night etc. When I came out in the morning the battery charger said the battery was charged and it did crank right up with no problems. But I noticed that all the electrics in my car were flickering and the voltmeter in the DIC was cyling between 15.0 and 14.5. After driving it around for a while it settled down to about 14.2 which had been about normal, and at idle with the AC running it was 13.8 or so. After the drive the flickering had ceased.

To me the flickering is weird...anyone else? Any ideas? I am concerned about hooking the tender back up to the car.

I could get another battery I guess...but I dont think it is ruined...or is it? I guess I'll at least take it to autozone for a check.

Ohh...and I never had any flickering before the battery tender. Except for the time I tried to jump start it and in the process fried my BCM. But it only flickered once and then it was all dead.

[ZZZZZR1]

Just drop the car off over at my house. I will keep the battery maintained for cheaper than it costs for a trickle charger :)

:-D

[IowaZR-1]

Was having the flicking lights also...and alternator was cycling...and at idle with the headlights on they would dim some then get bright....I had chaged alternators a few years back and it was a lifetime warrenty so I got another one and switch......what I found was the lower support bracket(item #3) in the sevice manual picture had alot of corrosion between where it mounts I cleaned up both surfaces and any other contact surface the alternator had with the engine and it has seemed to have fixed my problem. NOTE the bolt lengths when you take them out as one is longer than the other two. Hope this helps.

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j31/IowaZR-1/enginepic.jpg

[HAWAIIZR-1]

For what it is worth, I had the battery tender on my AC Delco battery for 5 years while in storage until I got it back on the road a few weeks ago. No problems or issues with the battery tender and still using the same battery too.

[Jason 91]

I had the exact same problem a couple of years ago with the flickering lights and it was very annoying! I used a battery tender in the past, but never considered a possible connection until reading this.

For me, replacing the alternator (which was original) fixed the problem with the flickering lights. Two batteries later and I still have not hooked up the battery tender mostly due to it being inconvenient.

My troubleshooting skills are not nearly as good as others on here so I can't really speak to cause and effect. I'm just sharing my experience based on the topic - hope you find your solution soon.

Jason