battery on my 440 New Yorker is 3- 4 years old. Tested by Autozone and Interstate is was found to be "good" with a little over 600 CCA. The battery should have 800 CCA. I'm wondering if the lowered CCA would cause reduced current (amps to the coil) and therefore make the car harder to start. Thoughts? Paul
Question on borderline battery
- Thread starter spstan
- Start date
bronze turbine
Active Member
If it cranks the engine OK then I would say no.
If you are worried about volts from the battery to the coil, look at the smallest battery that was standard on Slant 6s and 318s back then. In a time before "CCA" was used as a measure of electric power in vehicle batteries. In earlier times, it was "battery cranking reserve in minutes", as I recall.
Just a slight bit of gunk between the battery terminals and the cable ends can result in a 10% loss it total alternator output, so "clean is best". That gunk can be there, hidden from casual look-sees, but a closer look can reveal it IS there, from my own experiences.
If the car has the orig points ignition, as long as the battery will turn the engine over and create a spark at the spark plugs, all is well. If an aftermarket electronic ignition is in place, the electronic ign box has a minimum voltage that it will need to fire the plugs. Usually in the range of 10Volts or so. If the battery is strong enough to turn the engine, but the vehicle does not fire/start, the momentary addition of "a jumper" can easily remedy that situation.
Just some thoughts and experiences,
CBODY67
Just a slight bit of gunk between the battery terminals and the cable ends can result in a 10% loss it total alternator output, so "clean is best". That gunk can be there, hidden from casual look-sees, but a closer look can reveal it IS there, from my own experiences.
If the car has the orig points ignition, as long as the battery will turn the engine over and create a spark at the spark plugs, all is well. If an aftermarket electronic ignition is in place, the electronic ign box has a minimum voltage that it will need to fire the plugs. Usually in the range of 10Volts or so. If the battery is strong enough to turn the engine, but the vehicle does not fire/start, the momentary addition of "a jumper" can easily remedy that situation.
Just some thoughts and experiences,
CBODY67
If you're reading 12. something volts batt should be ok. Amps performance is based on 0 and 32 degrees F for 30 seconds. I am sure you're battery is ok to crank that 440 without harm to other components downstream. As far as the loss of total amperage, is your charging system working correctly? Perhaps there is a draw in the system that caused the battery to read low when you took it to the auto store or.. maybe it's just natural degradation of the battery.
Detroit_Lives
Member
to answer your question; no
here's an old battery test for an old car, with the engine off, turn on your headlights and honk the horn, if it honks then there's enough battery current to crank the engine (and thus the no start is not the battery at that point. If the horn doesn't honk or weak honk don't expect it to crank over..
Also realize that a car battery can measure 12VDC all day long and still be very much "dead" when you try to crank the engine or turn on the headlights and honk for example.
Last edited:
Gerald Morris
Senior Member
If your battery still has an ostensible capacity of "600 CCA" then basically it has retained 3/4 of its new capacity. Your ignition coil probably has an impedance between .7-1.7 Ohms. Your starter impedance should be less than 0.1 Ohms. So, with 7 - 17 times the impedance of the starter, your coil should take 1/7 - 1/17 of the current available at startup. It actually won't run over 8 amps instantaneous per spark. As soon as you release the starter, the current then will be routed through the ballast resistor, increasing impedance and lowering the current draw further; which is exactly what its supposed to do.
I once "submarined" my alternator through a flooded street intersection, shorting the alternator, but NOT the distributor, so I was able to continue driving through the storm until engine heat dried my alternator out enough to resume charging. All of which is to say: you have PLENTY CHARGE TO RUN YOUR COIL!
fury fan
Senior Member
In my experience with questionable batteries, the computerized parts-store testers can give false 'goodness'.
I once had a battery that tested good, CCAs were great - battery would need jumped if the car wasn't driven at least 1/week.
I installed new alternator, VR, fixed wiring connections, etc - a slow-crank start problem persisted.
I was periodically checking the battery with a voltmeter - it was going down slowly. Even if disconnected. Store didn't believe me - they had tested that battery, of course.
Finally I wiped the battery top clean, charged it up fully, and set it bare on the workbench for 2 weeks, to remove all excuses. (bought a new battery to use meanwhile)
It dropped from high-12s down to low 12s sitting all by itself. (because it had a bad cell)
I insisted the manager give me a refund on the replacement battery, which he grudgingly did.
You will also hear the common story that they never see any bad 'my store' batteries, all the bad ones are 'other brand' batteries.
While 600 CCA is sufficient to start your car, I would not be excited about them testing this battery and simply telling me 'it's good' when it has quite obviously lost notable capacity.
A 12volt battery is fully-charged at 12.6, 75% at 12.4, 50% at 12.2, and 25% at 12.0. Lots of change over that small voltage range.
A healthy battery, in between regular usages, will readily hold 12.7-12.8.
And how much the voltage drops when applying load is critical, too. A battery at 12.4 is going to drop more voltage under load than a battery at 12.6.
If your charging system is good, and car is starting OK, don't lose sleep about it - but at 3-4 years old you are just a few years away from needing a new battery anyway.
I once had a battery that tested good, CCAs were great - battery would need jumped if the car wasn't driven at least 1/week.
I installed new alternator, VR, fixed wiring connections, etc - a slow-crank start problem persisted.
I was periodically checking the battery with a voltmeter - it was going down slowly. Even if disconnected. Store didn't believe me - they had tested that battery, of course.
Finally I wiped the battery top clean, charged it up fully, and set it bare on the workbench for 2 weeks, to remove all excuses. (bought a new battery to use meanwhile)
It dropped from high-12s down to low 12s sitting all by itself. (because it had a bad cell)
I insisted the manager give me a refund on the replacement battery, which he grudgingly did.
You will also hear the common story that they never see any bad 'my store' batteries, all the bad ones are 'other brand' batteries.
This. ^
While 600 CCA is sufficient to start your car, I would not be excited about them testing this battery and simply telling me 'it's good' when it has quite obviously lost notable capacity.
Oh, if it were only that simple.
A 12volt battery is fully-charged at 12.6, 75% at 12.4, 50% at 12.2, and 25% at 12.0. Lots of change over that small voltage range.
A healthy battery, in between regular usages, will readily hold 12.7-12.8.
And how much the voltage drops when applying load is critical, too. A battery at 12.4 is going to drop more voltage under load than a battery at 12.6.
If your charging system is good, and car is starting OK, don't lose sleep about it - but at 3-4 years old you are just a few years away from needing a new battery anyway.
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