Car advice

[fireheart]

My battery keeps dying. Can anyone here give me advice? The car is a 2001 Kia Rio. At the moment, as my sister and I are both still learning, the car will not be used every day.

[RecoveringKinkoid]

Get your alternator looked at.

[Der Cute]

Alternator, loose wire draining electricity, old battery not holding charge/gassed...

You have a lot of possible issues.
Start simple, physical.

Does anyone have a battery tester around?
http://www.ehow.com/how_2210578_test...ultimeter.html

Also, you may want to have a mechanic LOOK at the battery.
Are the heads/connectors dirty/cruddy? Are the wires on it tightly? Is it old and does it have gray hair like I do? Batteries can show signs of wear, called Gassing..the sides (plastic case) expands and that's meaning the battery's chemical balance inside is going out of whack. Chem balance off = battery not working at 100% = you need new battery.

Alternator is another thing to look @ - WHEN does battery go dead? You drive for a day, it's fine the same day, but if you let car sit for a week, is battery dead? Or is it all the time?
Alternators recharge batteries as you drive. Some of the energy created by the engine is redirected into the battery via the alternator. Alternator bad= battery no charge = dead

Loose wires.
Battery just fine but some wire got loose and is touching bare metal = car is charged hehe and battery drains= battery is OK but wiring needs fixing.

Cutenoob

[Seshat]

It's also possible the starter motor or solenoid are draining power, though that's less likely.

[fireheart]

Well dad's been able to get the car to start and for it to run for a few metres before it goes dead.
He's gonna run a test tomorrow and see if the immobiliser's causing the problem. He's also going to check the battery itself.
Alternator isn't likely as the car was serviced before I bought it-and the details back up.

Just in case, I DID get a couple of quotes on a new battery-does anyone know how reliable Century brand batteries are car-wise? Thank God we live next door to an RAA mechanic.

[Jester]

From my experience, the most probably causes of your problem are either a fucked up alternator or a fucked up battery. One of them will probably have to be replaced. I hope for your wallet's sake it's the battery. Alternators are not cheap.

[fireheart]

I'm thinking fucked up battery over alternator...

Especially since how often do alternators get checked at servicing time compared to batteries?

[blas]

The next time your dad starts the car, have him keep it running, but disconnect the ground cable from the battery. If the car dies from that, it's the alternator.

[fireheart]

He's doing a "process of elimination" sequence.

As we've had problems with the immobiliser before, he's testing that first.
The plan he's got in mind is somewhat similar to blas's, but with the basic plan as follows:

1) Charge it up (we have a battery charger)
2) leave it overnight without a part running.

I should add as well that the first two times the battery went flat were due to the lights not working. Could it be from the timing belt since it's apparaently meant to be looked at (various sources go between 90,000-100,000kms)?

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

I too am suspecting the alternator. That may not always be looked at by a mechanic in the course of other service done on the car, like an oil change for example. You have to do a little bit of digging into the car's guts to find the alternator.

Hell, I didn't suspect mine was going bad until my car up and died on me one cold winter day. I was just able to turn the car into a shopping center parking lot and coast into a space.

Then my dad and I went to get a new battery and the guy who helped us suggested we have the alternator looked at. Good thing I did, because the new battery would've just gone dead in no time anyway, because the alternator had gone toes-up after all.

Cost me close to $400 for the new alternator plus installation, IIRC.

That was just the start of a bunch of electrical problems that eventually led to me trading in the car.

[Spiffy McMoron]

I should add as well that the first two times the battery went flat were due to the lights not working. Could it be from the timing belt since it's apparaently meant to be looked at (various sources go between 90,000-100,000kms)?

Nope! The timing belt deals with the opening and closing of the intake and exhaust valves--completely unrelated to electricity. Although, you're right, the timing belt does need to be changed about every 90,000 to 110,000 kilometers.

[Andara Bledin]

I should add as well that the first two times the battery went flat were due to the lights not working.

If you have an electrical problem somewhere, that could kill your battery. In some cases, even if the car isn't in use.

^-.-^

[HYHYBT]

Well dad's been able to get the car to start and for it to run for a few metres before it goes dead.

There's no way a battery could make a running car quit.

[Evil Queen]

Not true HYHYBT. Particularly with the newer cars, an aweful lot of the car runs on battery power. My Suzuki would stop running on me simply because of the stupid battery dieing (at the time, I had a bad alternator).

Sorry FireHeart, but I, too, fear it's the alternator. Your best bet would be to buy a used one off of eBay and pay a shop to install it rather than getting the shop to order you one. It'll save you at least $400 that way.

My Alternator was $130 and getting it installed was a pain; the shop had to lift the entire motor out but it still cost me just over $120 to get it installed. So I managed to luck out big time.

[HYHYBT]

Well, yeah, if the alternator is bad then it won't run once the battery's drained too, but that's not the battery at fault.