Fusible link or bad battery?

[rickm]

The mrs calls at 11pm last night saying the 94 525 was dead. No lights, nada. The AAA guy (who also is an EMT) arrives and jumps it. Car runs ok on the way home but it took a while for the doors to lock. I'm not sure how old the battery in this thing is. (not stamped out on the cover). Is this a battery going south or a fusible link issue? I was going to run it down to Autozone and have it checked out (Duralast 49D are ~64.00). Also, where on a 94 525 is the fusible link located? I thought it was on the passenger side shock tower, I see nothing there.

[Qsilver7]

If you've unlocked your OBC...you can do TEST #9 and get the battery's voltage reading...if it's reading below 11.2ub...then the battery is on it's way out. (do the test with the ignition in position 1 or 2...if you start the engine...then you'll be getting the ouput of the alternator.

[rickm]

How to do a test #9?

[ryan roopnarine]

The mrs calls at 11pm last night saying the 94 525 was dead. No lights, nada. The AAA guy (who also is an EMT) arrives and jumps it. Car runs ok on the way home but it took a while for the doors to lock. I'm not sure how old the battery in this thing is. (not stamped out on the cover). Is this a battery going south or a fusible link issue? I was going to run it down to Autozone and have it checked out (Duralast 49D are ~64.00). Also, where on a 94 525 is the fusible link located? I thought it was on the passenger side shock tower, I see nothing there.

look at my thread about the operation of the general module, shogun has placed a pic of your fusible link there. also, all batteries have the datecode stamped on the front or top of hte batteries. the month is signified by a letter (a=01=january) and the year will be two digits. i'd take it to autozone and have it checked if you don't own a voltmeter.

[rickm]

Found it, one place said it was located on the FR shock tower. Found the date, it was hidden where the battery is under the frame. Almost out of warranty, I'll go get a Duralast.

[Qsilver7]

How to do a test #9?

If you have the full OBC (with the 1000/100/10/1 buttons) you can access lots of "hidden" info.

This link describes what info can be had...if you look at TEST #9...it measures the system's voltage (good for when you don't have a voltmeter handy). You must Unlock the OBC to access any of these test. Follow the instructions on how to Unlock...it sounds somewhat convoluted...but read it carefully and it's easy to unlock the OBC.

Click here for instructions: http://home.iae.nl/users/bts/obc.htm

[ryan roopnarine]

Found it, one place said it was located on the FR shock tower. Found the date, it was hidden where the battery is under the frame. Almost out of warranty, I'll go get a Duralast.

if i were you, i'd take the car to autozone and have them hook their load testing machine up to it before you replace the battery. it might be the alternator, and if i were you, id rather be given the option to replace the parts as needed (alternator, then battery) than find that you've needlessly spent money on something that wasn't broken.

[Bill R.]

load test it?..if the battery fails, which is most likely then he just replaces it. If its too low on charge to test then they will charge it and test if for him..Either way he gets a battery thats charged and ready to go or he gets a new replacement. If its the alternator you need a battery thats fully charged to adequately test the alternator output anyway.

if i were you, i'd take the car to autozone and have them hook their load testing machine up to it before you replace the battery. it might be the alternator, and if i were you, id rather be given the option to replace the parts as needed (alternator, then battery) than find that you've needlessly spent money on something that wasn't broken.

[rickm]

It tested out ok, alternator is ok. I have the feeling she left the lights on again, no problems today, fired right up.

Back to work, I can't wait until I can sleep again. :P

[winfred]

we just had a e39 that had a dead battery problem, the owner works at a dodge dealership and ran the test on the battery a few times on their multi thousand dollar battery tester and it passed, so it came to our shop to have the car checked out and it passed with flying colors, trickle charged the battery to make sure it was hot and it was holding 900+ amps on my el-cheepo bed spring tester, the door got left open on the car for about 15 minutes later in the day and the battery was dead enough to not crank the car, ie **** battery, just like we suspected the whole time, we had just had a decent cold couple of nights and that's the time a old battery will generally take a dump