Battery Condition, Cold Crank Amps vs Drain Test

[The00Dustin]

From http://www.automotiveforums.com/vbul...d.php?t=922764:

Originally Posted by xs03mich

I do not know if this will help. My 01 the dic used to change to unknown driver, no trip mileage etc. at start up, tried different keys. Then as it got colder the security light would come on at start up and stay on while driving...I do not remember if shutting up the car if it would reset. Anyways, I ended up replacing the battery last week. All my dic problems and security light being are solved as of now. If you have a spare battery try it out it may work. This is only my opionon. Good luck.

Early in October, I was driving to work one morning and I noticed my headlights dimming whenever I hit the brakes. I started watching the battery voltage in the DIC, and it was all over the place between 10V and 14V, but mostly near 13V. On the other hand, battery voltage from the ODBII port always stayed steady from the time I started catching data. I had several people tell me that if the lights go dim while braking it has to be a bad alternator, but I have had problems on past vehicles where replacing a part that wasn't bad lead to having a bad part, so I don't want to do that. Anyway, I went to Advance Auto to have them do an in-car test, and their test said the alternator was fine, but the battery was bad. As the battery is just over 1.5 years old with a 5 year warranty, I went to the guy that sold it to me and installed it. His testing consisted of putting a large drain on it, seeing that it hadn't drained and saying that it was good based on that. However, he offered to replace it anyway, and I declined, thinking I'd wait it out and go back if necessary. That said, here are the basic results from the battery test at Advance Auto:
RESULTS:
REPLACE BATTERY
VOLTAGE: 12.56V
MEASURED: 261 CCA
RATED: 575 CCA
TEMPERATURE: 102°F
Obviously I can't count on the guys at Advance Auto to know everything about electrical systems (or anymore than what the diagnostic system says in this case), but the guy I got the battery from isn't knowledgeable about them either, so that's why I'm posting here. The car always starts right up (usually on the first crank, so I don't know how much that even matters), I don't even hold the key in the start position, does this car automatically crank until it detects firing? I know it doesn't have remote start, and I wouldn't think that would have even been an option in 1999.

Anyway to sum it up (forgoing the incidental question at the end of the previous paragraph), the cold crank amps are less than half of what they should be (according to a number on the battery's sticker), but the battery stands up to a major drain. Also, my headlights were dimming when I braked a month ago (for less than a week, I haven't noticed it since). Then at some point I had the problems mentioned in the other thread and recently, someone suggested replacing the battery solved those problems for them.

[xs03mich]

Draining...cold cranks....The only reason I replaced the battery, was the car would not start. After I put the new battery in, I could tell the difference in starting....the dic features were good and the volts in the dic did not jump around anymore. With the volts jumping around, I thought the alt. was going bad. If the battery did not go dead....I would not have changed it. I would have drove it as I had been doing.