Advice - 12v, no dash lights or sound

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LPH

New member
Joined
Jun 18, 2016
Messages
3
I recently moved a distance greater than 100 miles. This meant I couldn't drive the vehicle the whole distance from one town to the next. Instead, it was driven halfway to a friends and keep it there until it was possible to get it the rest of the way.

It turns out my friend didn't have an outlet near where I could park. He promised to move it and get it plugged in but this didn't happen. He also promised to turn the engine over since there was still 33 miles left on the main battery. I foolishly didn't disconnect the negative from the 12v.

Time passed as I tried to figure out what to do, until he called and said it was dead. Yesterday AAA towed the vehicle to me. To move it out of my friend's place, the tow truck driver jump started the battery. He did the same upon arrival so I could get the Spark EV into the garage.

Hooked up a Duralast 15 AMP to the 12v battery and it read 3.5 v at 2%. Set it to 3 AMP, AGM and left it for several hours. Came back to a green light. But opening the door quickly indicated the battery was still dead (no sound, no dash lights).

After fussing, realized the battery was being seen as 6v and not 12v.

Unhooked the negative from the 12v battery to the car, to clean just in case, and connected the Duralast 15 AMP again.

This time the battery was seen as 12v, at 2%. Let it trickle at 3AMP for about 5 hours and came back to a green light, 100%.

Hooked up the negative post again, after cleaning and tightening it.

Still no sound or lights from the dashboard.

Any suggestions at this point?

This is a 2014 Spark EV.
 
I am still looking around for an EV , have not purchased anything , yet .

I am trying to remember something I read . About inserting the key in a covered opening on the steering column , close to where the key would be on a gas Spark ? But maybe I am thinking about the wrong thing ?

So , you have the 12 VDC battery at 100% ? Will the propulsion battery accept a charge ?

You cleaned 1 or 2 battery cable clamps ? Got them tight ?

Nothing happens when you get into the car to start it ?

Sounds like something is unhappy that you removed 1 or both battery cables . There must be a way to " reset " the system because sooner or latter a 12 VDC battery will have to be replaced .

God bless
Wyr
 
LPH said:
I recently moved a distance greater than 100 miles. This meant I couldn't drive the vehicle the whole distance from one town to the next. Instead, it was driven halfway to a friends and keep it there until it was possible to get it the rest of the way.

It turns out my friend didn't have an outlet near where I could park. He promised to move it and get it plugged in but this didn't happen. He also promised to turn the engine over since there was still 33 miles left on the main battery. I foolishly didn't disconnect the negative from the 12v.

Time passed as I tried to figure out what to do, until he called and said it was dead. Yesterday AAA towed the vehicle to me. To move it out of my friend's place, the tow truck driver jump started the battery. He did the same upon arrival so I could get the Spark EV into the garage.

Hooked up a Duralast 15 AMP to the 12v battery and it read 3.5 v at 2%. Set it to 3 AMP, AGM and left it for several hours. Came back to a green light. But opening the door quickly indicated the battery was still dead (no sound, no dash lights).

After fussing, realized the battery was being seen as 6v and not 12v.

Unhooked the negative from the 12v battery to the car, to clean just in case, and connected the Duralast 15 AMP again.

This time the battery was seen as 12v, at 2%. Let it trickle at 3AMP for about 5 hours and came back to a green light, 100%.

Hooked up the negative post again, after cleaning and tightening it.

Still no sound or lights from the dashboard.

Any suggestions at this point?

This is a 2014 Spark EV.

sounds like a dead 12v battery. Maybe take the battery to a shop and have them load test it. If you have a voltmeter, a voltage reading form the 12 volt battery could be useful.
 
Here is the good news.

After trying to use 3 AMP and 15 AMP for hours and not getting very far, as well as the Duralast only seeing the battery as 6 V at times, I decided to take it to AutoZone.

Initially, the person wanted to immediately state the battery was dead and needed to be replaced. After asking more questions, the employee agreed to put it onto their fast charger for only a moment to see if it saw it as a 6 v or 12 v. As soon as he hooked it up, and within moments, the voltage jumped from 6.9v to 11v. I asked him to take it off and he hooked up the Duralast.

Immediately the Duralast saw the battery at 12v, 2% at 3 AMP. The % slowly rose to 3% as we were talking. He agreed to keep the battery in their back area for the night. I picked the battery up the next morning (as well as my Duralast trickle charger). The battery measured just over 13 v on my multimeter.

Hooked up the battery - and everything is great. I've driven the car for several days now - and am excited to have my little spark back in action.
 
NORTON said:
good grief,, buy a cheap multimeter.

There was no reason to be rude as well as wrong. If you have so much knowledge you could simply responded about AGM, CCA, charging times with 3 AMP, provided links with instructions, etc. Nope. You had to be a prick.

Admin,

Please remove my account and thread. There is NO reason to tolerate jerks.
 
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