'03 Camry battery questions

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homeuser - 26 Dec 2005 03:55 GMT

My 'wife's 03 Camry died while she was at the mall. I came by and found
the battery was dried. I fill it with water and jump started the car,
and my wife drove it home (~20 minutes drive). The car wouldn't start
again (without another jump), so I have several questions:

1. Is the battery just need to be charged longer because the alternator
did not charge up enough?
2. Or is the battery bad, need to be replaced?
3. If the battery is bad, is it covered by the new car warranty? I read
through the warranty booklet but could not find any battery-specific
warranty (other than the 3-year/36K bumper-bumper).

Thanks ahead for any useful information.

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c - 26 Dec 2005 04:05 GMT

The battery might recover with further charging...but I imagine that it's
done for.

I don't know whether it's going to be covered under your warranty or not;
but if it was "dry"...then I'd think that you have an overcharging problem.

Get that fixed before replacing the battery or it will just happen all over
again.

Chuck

> My 'wife's 03 Camry died while she was at the mall. I came by and found
> the battery was dried. I fill it with water and jump started the car, and
[quoted text clipped - 9 lines]
>
> Thanks ahead for any useful information.

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m Ransley - 26 Dec 2005 13:51 GMT

I thought sealed batteries were uses, being dry, how much water did you
use was it below the plates or not, to be dry it would have smelled so
bad you would have noticed it long ago , did you fill to top or the O
ring. Charge it and have it tested.

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JM - 26 Dec 2005 16:36 GMT

Hi,

I used to deal with car batteries fitted to Baby Incubators in ambulances
for emergency runs from maybe Maternity hospital to Resus Surgical units.

I changed the batteries every 1st of April after only 1 year use.
I could not really take a chance of failure at all.
And most showed LOW LEVELS of Electrolyte in some cells
at the end of the year.
The were maintance free batteries. BEST quality available.

I mentioned this to the main EXIDE company where we contracted
the batteries from.
The comment one time was.

That so called NO MAINTANANCE batteries should really be labelled
LOW Maintanance ones.

You can still prise off the covers on the cells .
They are not the usual Screw in units.
Then top up in the normal way.

We did this in future batteries and 3 years was good on all them.

I have just changed my PANASONIC battery on my 1995 CAMRY,
I bought the CAMY new in 1995
Battery was good for near 9 and a half years.
No warning...one cell went TOTALLY useless.

But they should be maintained
Levels are marked in Lines on side of batteries usually
MIN and MAX,

cheers Johnny UK.

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Stubby - 26 Dec 2005 17:44 GMT

> My 'wife's 03 Camry died while she was at the mall. I came by and found
> the battery was dried. I fill it with water and jump started the car,
[quoted text clipped - 9 lines]
>
> Thanks ahead for any useful information.

Well, there are lots of things it could be. But I would start by taking
apart the connections and cleaning them with a battery brush. It has
both an inside brush and an outside brush. Reconnect with felt washers
(car store) under each connector, and coat with grease of vaseline.
But don't try WD-40.

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jjjsan - 26 Dec 2005 18:26 GMT

Have the charging system checked if its still under warranty.
Maybe just a loose belt on the alternator.
You might be able to check it yourself if you have a digital voltmeter.
Most likely its a bad/worn battery or loose connection on the battery
posts.

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Justa Lurker - 27 Dec 2005 00:14 GMT

> Have the charging system checked if its still under warranty.
> Maybe just a loose belt on the alternator.
> You might be able to check it yourself if you have a digital voltmeter.
> Most likely its a bad/worn battery or loose connection on the battery
> posts.

A quick question: the OP says that the battery was "dry" (which I
interpet as meaning that he had to add a substantial amount of
electrolyte to each cell to bring them up to the proper level). Isn't
this an indication of possible overcharging, rather than lack
of/inadequate charge from ---for example--- a loose alternator belt ?

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m Ransley - 27 Dec 2005 13:58 GMT

Overcharging boils out electrolite. But did OP fill battery correctly,
or Overfill.

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Rob - 27 Dec 2005 15:26 GMT

Toss that battery, its had it if you had to add much water. Get the
charging system looked at too, sounds like it is overcharging.

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