I've been working on my '54 Chev a bunch and appearently ran the battery down a little. I don't own a charger yet, so I took it in to the Autozone down the street as they charge 'em for free. So the parts guy says he needs to test it first I tell him no, you don't please just charge it and he just throws it on their fancy tester anyway. So the tester throws two loads on it (it only had 10 volts) and the digital readout says "Bad Battery". I tell him "charge it anyway, it's less than a year old and it's an Optima". I come back about 3 hours later he claims it's still bad with a smug look on his face, so I tell him to show me. Now the battery's got 12.3 volts and the tester comes back with "Good Battery, Low Charge" should have seen the look on his face. Lesson: If you ever get your battery tested by one of those machines get a second opinion (in my case it was from the same machine).
Well, I know the (deseved) rep these guys get, but I don't really think he was at fault. Those machines (this one was a "bear") are fairly simple to work with: install clamps, press a button and "Bingo".
"AutoZone Parts Guy" . Isn`t that an oxymoron ? Last week he would have been asking "Want fries with that ?"
Do you think they really "want" to charge your battery for free? What they "want" to do is sell you a new battery.
On every page of our GM factory diagnostics for YEARS, it always points out that you can't test a low battery, I was hoping it hadn't changed.
It hasn't. I used to service a fleet of golf carts at a local country club and had over 500 batteries to maintain every month. I had a tester and always checked any that seemed sluggish myself. I'm sure glad I'm not checking and adding water to 500+ batteries every month anymore, that sucked...
haha, well I wasn't going to admit it, but I used to be a store manager for Kragen (CSK) years ago. We wouldn't test unless it was charged AND we would test each cell with a hydrometer. With most batteries being sealed you can't do that anymore. I was just trying to warn you guys on those machines, regardless of where the testing occurs they are obviously innacurate.
you should really get your own battery charger..buy a good one and it will last you the rest of your life.
One of the perks of being a parts guy, is when your battery dies, you have access to the core pile for core cost or even just exchange. There's often a good battery if you start charging and testing. Maybe he wasn't so dumb after all.
This is exactly why I wouldn't go into a big chain parts store to buy a fire extinguisher if my vehicle was on fire in their parking lot. They suck. -Brad
The sad part is how many batteries DID he sell to people who didn't have half the knowlege that you have. Last I checked, AutoZone stock was doing well. I wonder why. The only thing worse than selling someone a part that they don't need is to take the money straight out of their wallet and not give them anything in return. I hope you made him feel like the incompetent auto diagnostic guy that he is. AutoZone sucks.
That's a good lesson that you need to get yourself your OWN battery charger... I got a Diehard one from sears for 39 bucks and it works great... self shut off and everything...saved my ass at least 3 times just this past year alone. Go get one...There's NO question you'll need it again sometime down the road... if your luck is anything like mine, it won't be too long from now either.
I also have to sometimes argue with these so called "parts guys", I feel they are an insult to every real parts guy out there. I also usually try not to drive any of my toys to these places since I have had a few bug me about my cars and then they want to look at it and I have to hear an earful of inaccurate facts about my own car, I also get the "challenge" to a race against there mom's Park Avenue.
The Jalopy Journal
