Flat Battery

[john23]

My Yaris had a flat Battery last night :( Admittedly, the sidelights had been on and the stereo running (on low volume) with the engine switched off for about an hour, although the car had a decent run before that. Does anyone know if I should expect the Battery to run flat after that time, or not?

I put a multimeter on the Battery this morning. It shows 12.8v on the battery before starting the engine, then after starting the car it showed 13.9v. Anyone know if this is normal for the battery/alternator?

[jaxx]

yeah perfectly normal

seems odd to kill it in an hour tho

[Nizan]

shouldnt of gone flat that quick!!!! as for the voltage sounds ok. Do you have a big daddy system or standard???

[john23]

Its quite a big system, but was running on low volume all the time I think. Sidelights and ventilation fans were on as well, so perhaps that contributed to it.

I'm think I've run it for that length of time before without any problems, which was why I wondered if that Battery or alternator might be misbehaving.

Another question... having bump started the car, will that have buggered the cat, or is it likely to survive one bump start as long as it starts pretty quickly (which it did) ?

[jaxx]

cat will be fine

itll only bugger it if you bump it every day!

if its a big system then you must be running amps, and amps drag current out the Battery like one-o, even on low volume as they are constantly keeping the power IC's charged to the optimum and what doesnt get used then it dumps out as heat.

keep her tickin over!

[jaxx]

oh!

one more thing

check ya Battery over the next fortnight that its holding ample charge in case its nackered!

[john23]

Thanks guys :)

I'll keep an eye on the Battery - what's the minimum voltage the Battery should be?

[vmail]

get one of those free Battery checks, i think it was as quickfit?