
Originally Posted by
AChildOfBoredom
I didn't think hers was either, especially being a 2004. It's just that diesels are more apt to having inlet air heaters, though I've seen gasoline powered vehicles with them, as well.
You gotta be mindful that CCA is measured specifically at zero degrees. Me, I'm in North Carolina, so I'm not so fussed by CCA as I would be if I still lived in Wisconsin. I'll typically look at the CA rating, and the disparity between that and the CCA rating. It doesn't get that cold here with any regularity.
If you've got a pretty fresh battery and drain it on account of leaving the headlights on, I wouldn't replace it unless you had recurring problems immediately afterwards. Draining a battery all the way down or close to it then recharging it is what's known as deep cycling, and most car batteries aren't made for that. Marine batteries, golf cart batteries - they tend to be. Yes, it's bad for the battery, but not necessarily an instant battery killer. It does cause a lot of the water in the battery to be used up, and that will ultimately shorten the battery life. Which again is why I don't buy maintenance free batteries, and I top off the water on a pretty regular basis. You can use any distilled water I'm told, but I get the stuff from Fastenal which is for just that purpose.
Of course, you can go have a jump start protocol done afterwards if you're unsure, but that involves load testing the battery, checking voltage and amperage from the alternator, and doing a parasitic draw test. Which, if you know why the battery went dead, you're not going to pay to have all that done. If you go to an auto parts store, Batteries Plus, whatever, they'll hook a handheld tester to it (which may be as simple as the AC Delco tester with the coils, or as complex as the GR systems) and it's almost always cast in stone they'll return a bad reading. If you have threaded top post studs (such as with Group 31 batteries), you're supposed to put lead covers on them in order to ensure a good contact, and these places won't do this. Also, they test it at whatever state of charge it's at, even though the batteries are supposed to be fully charged whenever a load test is done. So they get a 'fail' reading on the handheld tester, and call it bad at that. In reality, you're supposed to move up to a full service tester, such as a Snap-On D-tac or a GR-8 tester - and perform the test with that, because those will trickle charge the battery to top it off and test it under those conditions. Supposedly, they're supposed to be so much more accurate than using a digital multimeter. DMM always seems to have worked for me so far, though if I have time to kill at work, I'll hook up the D-tac to it.
My last two cars had a means to hook a quick coupler for a fuel gauge into... looks pretty much like a schrader valve for a tire. Some of the shade tree sorts will just depress it with a screwdriver to see if they're getting fuel pressure, but I really don't like this method for a couple of reasons, one of which is engine surfaces get hot, gasoline has much lower flash point than diesel, and you're not actually measuring what the pressure is that way. And now I realize I don't know if the Cruze I'm driving now has such a quick coupling or not. If not, they probably rely on a sensor and you'd have to hook a scan tool to it to see what the fuel pressure reading is, but of course those ones you buy at Auto Zone won't do it. Fortunately, I can always use the Snap-On Verus they have at work. With a $10,000 price tag and $1,200 for each update, I'm sure as hell not buying one on my own.
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