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Old 06-21-2012, 07:57 PM   #1 (permalink)
Stosh Rickles
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Join Date: Jun 2011
Location: Pittsburgh
Posts: 31
Drives: 370Z Touring/Sport
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Default Symptom of dying battery?

Could a slow clock be an indicator that the battery's going to die? If you enjoy excruciating detail, see below.

Two pieces of info to set the stage here:
1) I don't profess to know anything about how batteries pass and receive their charges throughout vehicle operation.
2) I've had two batteries die on this Z within a few months, and I have a really hard time believing it's negligence on my part. Hence, this post.

After I had it towed to the dealer the last time the battery died (~2 months ago), I noticed that the gauge clock was about 15 mins behind the nav clock, so of course I reset the gauge clock. In fact, being anal retentive, I set it so that the two clocks were less than 1 second apart.

Now, in both instances of my battery dying, my Z sat for several days unused leading up to the incidents. Keep that in mind.

I soon started noticing that the gauge clock wasn't staying 1 second off from the nav clock... it was actually losing time, and most notably, it lost more time the longer I let the car sit. Yes, I measured this, I'm a dork.

After a month it was about 20 seconds off. If I let it sit for 2-3 days, it would be another 5 or so seconds off. It's now 58 seconds behind the nav clock. Is this evidence of poor electrical circulation, and an indicator of the battery losing its charge? Voltage reads fine per the gauge cluster, so I don't know what to think.

Any feedback is appreciated

Last edited by Stosh Rickles; 06-21-2012 at 08:01 PM.
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