[dbuono14]

I have a 2005 Arc. My battery died on me the other day and I have a few issues/questions and was hoping someone could help.

When I first discovered my battery was dead I was able to jump my car with no issues. I drove around for a couple of hours hoping that my battery would charge. When I shut the car down I was not able to restart it. The following day I removed the battery and decided to charge it on my bench. When I removed the battery from the car I was measuring 10.8 volts and after two hours of charging I was measuring 12.8 volts. I checked the voltage a half hour later and it was measuring 12.6 volts (so the battery was losing a little voltage).

I immediately re-installed the battery and was still measuring over 12 volts. When I went to start my car all I got was loud clicking and my dash lights went crazy. I again jumped the car and was able to start it.

Here's my problem: After jumping the car the second time my climate control fan is not working. I went into the SID settings and nothing is out of the ordinary. I tried turning the heat/AC on auto and manual and could never get the fan to blow. I have heated seats and they are working fine. I can't tell if my rear defroster is working. A circuit breaker is my only guess but I was hoping someone could offer some good troubleshooting advice.

Also, my battery was out of the car for over 3 hours and my radio presets were still programmed. My climate control was also set on the last temperature that I used. My second question is (out of curiousity), how come these things didn't reset when I removed the battery?


Update:

I replaced the battery and now everything is working fine. I'm assuming that the anomaly with my AC/heater fan was caused by the bad battery.

The only problem I ran into was that after inserting the key I had to wait a couple of minutes before the car recognized the key. I believe this is normal because I read it in another post. Once the car recognized the key I turned it to the accessory position and allowed all systems to reset for a few minutes. Finally I started the car and everyhting is working fine.

Thanks to everyone for there help

 

[Dave 37]

Eagerly awaiting answers. I wonder what gets saved and what doesn't when the battery is removed. I need to write down what radio stations are kept in the car radio in case it "forgets" them.

I, too, have a 2005 car. I hope the mild summers and mild winters here allow my battery to last longer. Furthermore, my battery only sat about 6 weeks without driving when it was in Sweden and another 6 weeks after some driving there so hopefully, the battery is in reasonably good shape. I am slowly looking for a new battery and will look in earnest by this summer, if I haven't found one sooner.

 

[Ferms_93_2.8T]

Well, our 9-3's come with notoriously bad batteries. Or at least they do not last long. If you got 4 years out of the battery you did quite well.

Due to the complexity of all the electrical/computer systems in the car if the voltage is a bit low weird things can happen. Anywhere from dash lights flickering to getting false warnings on the SID such as transmission failure etc. All of these quirks are usually due to your battery getting old. You will read many posts on here about odd electrical gremlins that appear and the fix is just a new battery.


As for the memory settings, I am sure all of that is saved on the many microprocessor/ram combination's in the car. You may not realize this but something as simple as the passenger door window switch has a microchip with ram in it so that the door knows the lock and window positions at all times. VERY complicated computer systems in out cars.

 

[05saab9-3]

okay so you tested and got good measurements the reason your battery dropped from 12.8 to 12.6 is because any battery other then a yellow top is wired in series with 6 cells each at 2.11 do the math and you get 12.66 making a healthy battery, so you could have a bad battery and you didnt give it enough time to charge but to check start by charging the battery get it to 12.6 and then put it in the car and see if you have a voltage drop it will let you know if you have a bad cell or not, then measure while trying to start the car, then after you jump it measure it again and make sure your getting at least 13.1 or 13.2 anything less and your alternator is shot hope that helps sorry its in paragraph form

 

[05saab9-3]

im sorry i just re read that post i wrote a healthy alternator should be around 13.8 volts

 

[dbuono14]

Unfortunately I did not check the battery voltage once the car was running. I have already removed the battery and its down to 11.2 volts. My car is 5 years old so I'm just going to buy a new battery.

My main concern is once the car was running my AC/heat fan no longer worked. Anyone have a guess at what is causing this?

 

[aerojon]

im sorry i just re read that post i wrote a healthy alternator should be around 13.8 volts

healthy alternator voltage 14.4

 

[JonV]

As I recall I've never had to reset anything but my Clock and Pinch Protection.

After two hours you just read the surface charge on an unloaded battery, a battery is best tested with a load on it.

 

[dbuono14]

Update:

I replaced the battery and now everything is working fine. I'm assuming that the anomaly with my AC/heater fan was caused by the bad battery.

The only problem I ran into was that after inserting the key I had to wait a couple of minutes before the car recognized the key. I believe this is normal because I read it in another post. Once the car recognized the key I turned it to the accessory position and allowed all systems to reset for a few minutes. Finally I started the car and everyhting is working fine.

Thanks to everyone for there help

 

[05saab9-3]

healthy alternator voltage 14.4

sorry sir but let me make myself clear 13.8 is the minimum required voltage to charge a battery in a healthy manner anything less will not fully charge