1998 hyundai accent, wont hold charge

my car quit charging,,,, i bought a new altenator but it wont charge
still,,,,, i hear a relay clicking and it charges,,, but it quits quick,,,
i really need help with this prob,,,, i am taking it across canada in a few
days,,, and i cant find the prob at all

 

The alternator is not what holds a charge; that's the battery's job. It
sounds like you may have replaced the wrong part.

 

I read somewhere that it's best to replace the battery and alternator
at the same time. A bad alternator can ruin a good battery and vise
versa.

But this isn't true for more expensive cars like Lexus and BMW.

 

Don't know where you read it, but it's wrong. It's not even true for the
most inexpensive cars. This sounds like the kind of advice one hears on the
DIY type channel on TV...

 

If a car battery is more than two years old I can see replacing it
along with a bad alternator, just to keep from having to mess with the
charging system again sometime in the near future.

--

 

As a proactive preventative measure, I suppose so, but I always get way more
than two years out of my batteries. I live in upstate NY where summer can
be pretty hot (but not like AZ), and winter can be as cold as you need to
put a battery to the test. If I had to guess, I'd say I probably average
5-6 years on a battery. At that point the winter weather will generally
show what shape the battery is in.

My truck is a '94 and it really only gets occasional use anymore. It plows
a lot in the winter but in the summer it can sit for three weeks without
ever being started up. In the winter, it's usually started within two weeks
since we seldom go that long without snowfall. It sits outside, no engine
block heater or anything like that. The battery is at least 6 years old and
it doesn't even think twice about turning that 350 over on the coldest of
days.

I just replaced the factory battery in my daughter's 2000. It finally hit
the point where it didn't take much to run it right down. It would start
the car ok under any conditions but if you left a door open for any amount
of time at all, it would drain down to the point that it couldn't supply
the starter. I threw in a battery that had been in another car of mine for
5 years. One of my other daughters had totaled the car and it was quite
convenient that the battery problem in the 2000 popped up when it did, as I
was able to pull the battery out of the totaled '98 before they towed it
away. So far, it's performing well. If it fails within any short period of
time I won't really complain - I've already gotten a useful life out of it
so anything from here on out is just a bonus.

 

It sounds like batteries last a lot longer in New York than they do
down here in Florida. I just replaced the battery in my son's 2000
Accent for the 2nd time. The summer heat combined with engine heat can
really cook a battery.

--

 

I suspect that as much as we associate weak batteries with cold temps, it's
really probably more as you suggest - the heat probably hurts them more than
our cold. Our cold will sure point out a weak battery in a heartbeat
though.

 

1. I believe the failure mechanism on lead acid storage batteries is
largely a matter of charge/discharge cycles so long life from a seldom
used battery is not surprising. Capacity also drops with use if the
cells don't short out first. AFAIK the lead plates break down
creating sediment that collects in the bottom.

2. The battery/alternator tie in would be if the regulator let the
alternator overcharge the battery to failure where it shorted and took
out the alternator diodes. Ditto if the battery shorted and cooked
the alternator. The bottom line is that it pays to check both but you
may not need both. It depends on what failed in the alternator.

Before regulators were incorporated in the alternator it was
reasonable to replace the regulator and alternator/generator as a
pair.

 

Didn't mean to be confusing. That truck and that battery used to be a daily
driver until recently. Now it doesn't see the daily use, but the battery
was subject to normal rigors for years.

No disagreement with that. My original comment was in response to a poster
who suggested replacing both as a matter of course if the battery was over 2
years old.

As it was all to common to have to replace just the regulator. They used to
"stick" and soak the battery overnight.

 

You should have two powers into the alternator at the plug and charging
voltage out at the main terminal. If you don't have power at those two
wires, your alternator will not charge. If there's a problem in the
charging wire between the alternator and battery, it will not charge. You
should probably do some poking around with a voltmeter.

 

That's true. I'm curious whether you ever check the fluid levels in your
batteries? It seems that few people ever do, but batteries need to have
water replenished just as much these days as they ever did, regardless
of the bogus "maintenance free" labels manufacturers paste on them. Call
me cynical, but this seems to be nothing more than a tactic to ensure
that batteries rarely last more than three years.

 

Multiple clicks generally indicate a weak battery. No sound could
indicate a dead battery or starter, depending on whether anything else
electrical worked or not (lights, radio, etc.). If they do, it's
probably not the battery.

That's not true. The alternator produces electricity whenever the engine
is running, just less amperage at idle than at higher revs.