Hey all,
So last week I'm using the van to go to work and I notice the key fob isn't unlocking the doors so I figure dead battery I'll jump it off the house battery. I hit the bypass button on my isolator switch (battery doctor iso switch) to connect the starter to the house and it immediately re-opens the connection which means the voltage of the starter battery is so low that the hose battery isolate switch will not connect the two (I forget the exact voltage for that condition but I think it's below 10V or 9V).
I pop the hood and check the starter battery voltage which is reading 3.66V... pretty fried.
I also notice there's an arc between one of the connections to the positive terminal and the terminal itself (see photo). I don't know how this arc could have occurred given that the arc took place across a point that was electrically connected. I've gotten a new starter battery but I'm suspecting there's a short or some other underlying issue which caused the starter battery to fail catastrophically like this so I haven't installed the new battery yet.
I started measuring the resistivity between the starter battery positive terminal clamp (without removing the individual load / accessory wires) and the ground terminal wire and was measuring Mega-Ohm and to 1.5 Kilo-Ohm (measurements were a bit jumpy but I think 1.5KOhm was the lowest I saw).
I'm not sure measuring the resistivity is the best way to try to ID a short but even so shouldn't it be measuring open if there isn't a battery installed?
Has anyone experienced this and/or have any recommendations on how to test with a multi-meter to figure out what's going on? The house battery and it's associated accessories are isolated from the starter when the van isn't running and are working fine.
I have the following accessories connected to the starter:
- Music system (powered bass & amp)
- OHV flood lights
- Alarm system
- 4 gauge wire connecting stater to house battery (with isolator switch in line)
- 2 other stock wires (alternator & main fuse box)
I hadn't driven the van in about 2 weeks and the last time I did it seemed fine.
The dash battery light has been on intermittently for the last year and I wasn't sure if that was a bad alternator or faulty wiring on the dash but the van had been running fine so unfortunately I had been largely ignoring that dash light but did buy a spare alternator which I keep in the van in case it's the alternator crapping out.
The deformation on the positive terminal is weird, it looks like someone whacked it with a hammer but then there's the melted bit as well and a arc scorch on the accessory bolt.