Can I use a volt meter to determine the strength of my car battery?

No, you can't use a voltmeter. Even if the battery is near dead, it will still produce 12+ volts. It's the amount of current a battery can produce that is most important, and a voltmeter won't tell you that. And even the average ampmeter can't read high enough.

Take your car to your local auto parts store. They can test the condition of your battery while it is still in your vehicle.

Hope this helps.

Load testing is worthless. All it tells you is how much current the battery puts out. Not how long it will put it out for. Just unplugging the coil and seeing if the battery will crank the engine for 60 seconds will tell you the same thing as a load tester. But the meter would be good for telling you if the alternator is working OK. You should get 14 volts or so when the engine is running.

The best check for a battery run time is to charge it all the way and then leave the headlights on with the engine off. If the battery can't run the lights for at least two hours, get a new one.

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RE:

Can I use a volt meter to determine the strength of my car battery?

Can I use a volt meter to determine the strength of my car battery? I think the battery is going dead, and want to figure out if it needs to be replaced. What should I look for on teh meter?

It is not the most accurate way but if done properly, yes. Disconnect the fuel injectors, put the volt meter on the battery, check to make sure you have at least 12.6v then crank the engine for 15 seconds and make sure the volts do not drop below 9.6 at any time. If it does drop below 9.6V, you need a new battery.

You can determine the voltage by simply placing it on DC Voltage, but you can't do load testing with a VOM.

They have battery testers that will simulate a load on the battery to determine if the battery is giving enough cranking amps. Take you car to a parts store and they will do the load testing for free. Or a cheap load tester for a car battery can be purchased for about $60.

Car Battery Voltmeter

I'm pretty sure that your either misreading it or your alternator if seriously malfunctioning cars and batteries run on 12volts a 100 volts is around 8 times that

Yes, you can. Put the volt meter on D/C and you can test the voltage. However you should have a "load" test done. Most any shop will do it free. Even Hires or wherever you can buy batteries can test it for you free.

Yes, you can. Check the voltage of your battery by simply tapping it to your VM. Now to simulate a load, run the radio, AC, head lights , dome lights , etc ... Your battery's voltage should still be around 12 volts when loaded.

No, a voltmeter will only show you voltage thats in the battery.

you need a battery tester that can test to see if a batter holds under a load.