Kyle4236

i never changed it but i've looked at it before. i'll go take another look at it in a bit and see what i think it is

rogersj

It vents battery vapors

Xavipheus

Its your battery vent, some dont need it, some do. If you dont see it on your battery then you dont need to plug it in, otherwise your battery is leaking vapor into the cabin.

Whats the temp like in your area? The Cobalt battery is in the trunk, it never gets any heat so in the winter its always dead cold in there. That kills a battery faster then anything

bsbllscnd970

im trying to help in this thread but i cant stop looking at the two hot chicks making out...

i would suggest testing your alternator to see if its bad. get the car started and running. while its running, remove the positive terminal on the battery. it wont shock you, just dont touch the negative terminal at the same time lol. if your car continues running, ur alternator is good and u probably need a new battery. if it dies, that means your alternator is dead and you need a new one.

murphy0789

iTrader: (1)

It's a vent tube you need it unless you buy a sealed battery for example an Optima. Otherwise you need the vent tube a lot of new batteries come with replacement vent tubes.

EmperorJJ1

iTrader: (5)

the vapor tube is mainly bullshit... if the battery has it its sealed so it doesnt need it. the reason its there is because thats not good enough for regulations on millions of cars. so they make batteries or more so battery cases with those on the slight off chance your battery is way over charged and breaks the plastic seal

HyperMuffin

Yeah thats the worst and most unsafe way to test an alternator. Easiest and fastest way is get a multimeter, start the car, then hook your voltmeter to the battery terminals and you should see 13.5-15 volts if your alternator is doing its job.

bsbllscnd970

Lol yea but it worsk, especially if ur broke like me

HyperMuffin

You can probably go to autozone and or any parts store and ask them to borrow a volt meter or see if they can test your alternator for free. Most parts stores do that.

CudaJoe

iTrader: (1)

orr........ have a Aeroforce interceptor gauge like I do and switch it to battery and watch the volts.

Alternators fine.

the battery was a bad battery. I didnt drive my car for a weekend aand the car started up fine this morning.

Turbalt2010

iTrader: (4)

good ****! if i leave my car sitting for like 10 hours with the radar on it will kill my ****. and when i leave my radar off it feels like the car struggles to turn over. i might have to get myself a new battery as well.

balt_ls

I pretty much had the same problem. I would let the car sit and it wouldn't start. Well took it to advance they said the battery was fine. Well went to the dealership my dad works at had them test it and the battery was junk. So yea don't believe what them hacks at parts stores have to say. Sorry if anyone works at a parts store on here.

ronn

iTrader: (3)

Are you SURE the battery is dead? Reason I ask...I just went to open my car...ZIP! No fob entry..no lights. I did unlock the doors with my key though. Turned out the negative battery terminal was loose! The terminals on these cars are pretty flimsy and can disconnect very easily.

CudaJoe

iTrader: (1)

I brought the battery to Autozone the girl hooked up the meter just fine, I watched her do it... I saw the number. It was a bad battery.

Watching the voltage whenever the car sits I see that when running the charge goes to 14.5v roughly, when shut off.. it drops to 12.7v, after a weekend of not driving, it was 10.9v.

turning the ignition over dropped the 10.9v to a 9.0v briefly before the car started charging back to 14.5v. no choke in start up.

everyday I check the volts before heading into work and check it after. usually the day is between 8-10 hrs long. When I shut off the car it shows a 12.5v-12.7v, at the end of the day its usually a 11.7v-11.9v. same with going to bed and seeing it in the morning.

EDIT: I AM NOW TALKING ABOUT MY NEW BATTERY. lol. I cant tell you what my bad battery read for volts but Im pretty dang sure it was alot lower.

Garret

iTrader: (1)

my stock battery also died. I think it was left in the cold with no charge at the dealership

HyperMuffin

Seems like its dropping alot of voltage over a short period of time. It's possible you have something hooked up weird causing it to slowly drain when turned off.

koch1ar

put ur radar on switched power lol

EmperorJJ1

iTrader: (5)

uh thats fucked bro something is draining that battery and or u got a bad new one.... 11.9= dead battery. 13.8-14.4= normal voltage on alt

EmperorJJ1

iTrader: (5)

that is true the design they use to clamp the battery is easier to work with over the standard stuff but overall fucked

CudaJoe

iTrader: (1)

well there is the radar detector. I will unplug that and see if it drains , lol :facepalm:

I dont think the Aeroforce interceptor is draining cause it powers down after about a minute.

ronn

iTrader: (3)

Found this at Whistler:

Vehicle Battery Saver
Vehicle battery saver mode automatically shuts off your detector after 3 hours if you forget to turn it off. The timer is reset if the detector is unplugged, turned off or any button is pressed before the timer has expired. The detector will alert you with an audible and visual warning (text units display "PWR OFF") before shutting off. Units with option select mode can turn this feature off. Most detectors draw around 300mA of power or just over 1/4 of an amp. When the vehicle battery saver kicks in, this power consumption drops by 90%.
What does this mean to me? Well lets assume that the radar detector is left on and the vehicle's battery has a 60 amp/hr rating (average sized battery). The above vehicle would have a dead battery in about 200 hours or approximately 8.3 days. Roughly the time for an 2 week vacation or company trip. Having a detector with a Vehicle Battery Saver feature will extend the battery life to about 2000 hours or 83 days making the travel home from that company trip a stress free one.

Note: These times are approximate and do not take into consideration the normal battery drain from the vehicle's electronics. The Battery Saver feature can be manually engaged by holding the city button for 2 seconds. Within 10-15 seconds the unit will turn off as described above, we call this turbo mode. If you tried to enter City Mode and the unit turns itself off, the city button was held too long.



Also found this:

2007 Denali Xl Dead Battery Problem - Dealer Blames Radar Detector? - GM-Trucks.com

If your radar detector is pulling 250 mA, according to GM, your battery will rundown within 3.3 Days

shadowfaxss

iTrader: (3)

You can also check for parasitic draw via a test light. Discoonect the negative battery cable. Hook the clamp end of the test light to the negative battery terminal and the test lead end to the negative cable (make sure the cable stays disconnected from the battery). If the light glows you have enough amps to drain the battery. You can determine where the draw is via process of elimination. Unplug the detector. You can pull fuses (alternators and starters can be culprits).
I haven't looked to see what the life expectancy of the OEM battery is but usually if you have a five year battery you are on borrowed time after 4.

NVMYCOBALTSS

This just happened to my 05. Solved it with an Optimum Red top.

HyperMuffin

Don't think that is very accurate. Guess it dependson how many mA it takes to light the led but most cars will have an average parasitic loss anywhere from 50-100mA.

MastaShaKe_88

iTrader: (5)

hmm.. I'm in for more details, I had a 'problem with my security' system an my it drained my battery... dealership said my it jus had a couple dead cells an then it jus drained the rest by itself which caused the security system to go off.. I honestly didn't care cuz they gave me a new one an installed it. I just want to know how it started dyin on its own.

I have a cobra radar detector thats always plugged in 2 btw... my car was sittitn there for like 12 hrs....