Fully charged Battery but hardly any power
 

Went to start car a week ago and all I was getting was clicking, was too cold to mess with it last week so tried again today and even though Batt is fully charged my doors won't lock or unlock, and head lights won't turn on either. Thinking it's an electrical problem. Anyone with any thoughts?

I think you need to load test the battery. You may have enough voltage, but not enough amps.

how old is the battery? why not try a new one...

Most autoparts retailers will test a battery free of charge. Apparently you have a daily driver. Swap batts and see if it solves your problem. I know it may not fit. It doesn't have to. Just need to connect the terminals to see if it works. And/or take your batt for testing. Finding out if you have a good batt is step 1. If it's not the batt we'll move on from there.

Yep, gonna need a load test done. Just because a battery has been a charger for a long period of time, doesn't mean that it's a good battery. After you get the battery part sorted out, then it's time to check the charging system (alternator).

Maybe a loose connection? At your terminals.

check this and ALLL your grounds,..

I will have to take batt for testing to see if its good. Thx all for suggestion.

how do you know its "fully charged"? do you have multi-meter and checked voltage? ever checked to make sure battery posts are very clean?

^ Yep, a multi-meter and ammeter (http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=...w=1280&bih=685) to check your alternator will let ya know whats going or not going on.

Just because a battery is showing 12v doesn't mean its good.

this
 

^^ I was wondering the same thing, did you use a hydrometer to determine this "Fully charged" state? :confused:

agreed but its still a good rule of thumb. multimeter can give one a good idea of the health of alternator as well as the battery itself. minus actually ripping out components for load test etc etc, multimeter is an excellent tool for any DIYer. everyone should get one ASAP!

Easy way to test the alternator is to hook up a volt meter with all loads off it should be above 13v. If it passes then turn on every electrical item in the car such as headlights, high beams, rear def, wipers, etc and the voltage should still be above 13v. If not then the alternator is not good. Before you do this test you need to be sure the battery is good or this could skew the results. Oh and if for some reason it goes over 15v then the voltage regulator is bad.

It was showing over 12 volts but still not enough power to turn car over so I hooked a battery booster up to it and my car started right away. I think I screwed it up by letting it sit too long then charging it with a standard charger. Thx for the tips everyone.