I went to start the s yesterday and let it run for a little while, but the battery is completely dead. No lights would turn on. I have a jumper box or whatever is called, but it wouldn't get the car to start it would get the lights to work however. I went out and bought a battery charger this afternoon, but I have never used one and want to make sure I do it correctly. What would be the best way to use it? It has 150, 55, 20 and 2 amps. How long should it charge for? Should both the negative and positive be connected while charging or should just the positive be connected with the negative attached to something metal? Any advice would be great.

 

why didn't you get your battery tested and if its defective get a new one? Isn't that much simpler than buying a battery charger?

 

the battery charge is a $100. I'm pretty sure the battery's fine. It's pretty cold in Chicago and the car hasn't been tested in a while.

 

that battery sounds completely toasted. you should have gotten a new battery.
but since you got a charger instead; connect positive to pos, neg to neg.
the amp settings are for how long you want to let it charge.
most battery chargers have a "crank" setting for when a battery is just drained to the point of not being able to crank the engine over.
your battery didn't have enough juice to even turn on the lights so i would recomend you set it at 20A and let it charge overnight.

 

the amp settings are not for how long you want to let it charge, but for how many amps you want to use while charging.

 

right, but you dont want to set it at 150A overnight. the battery can explode in that situation. and you can't expect a battery that can't even turn on a small light bulb to turn over an engine after charging for an hour on 2 amps.

get what i'm saying?

 

Yeah i do. I just was hoping it wouldn't have to charge over night. Both the positive and neg are connected and it's at 20a. Could I try and start it in 5 hours or so without disconnecting anything?

 

1) Take battery out of the car
2) Take battery to a local parts shop
3) Have parts shop charge your battery to full
4) Have parts shop test your battery
5) Make an informed decision on replacing the battery
6) Get a trickle charger (battery tender) to prevent this in the future

 

This charger I got has a tender feature on it, what exactly does that do?

 

The Battery Tender family of chargers is fully automatic - they will completely charge a battery, then automatically switch to a float/maintenance mode to maintain the life and health of the battery for as long as necessary.