Customer's battery dead after detail.

Before I start I check the resting battery voltage. If it is under 12.4 I consider the battery to be on it's way out and it won't have very much reserve power. I then put a battery tender on it and leave it on as long as I have the vehicle.

But if the battery is under 12 volts it's either been run down or it's had it. Then I put my 40amp garage charger on it for twenty minutes. If the voltage comes up to 12.6 when I shut the charger off I will switch over to the tender and continue charging it.
But if the voltage does not come up with the heavy duty charger I call the customer and tell them that their battery is bad and I will put a temporary charge on it but it will probably just get them home.
 
Maybe the wrong approach, but I would put a charger on every car I'm doing (not mobile of course). When customer comes in to pick up, I would say "we charged the battery as a courtesy". Would be a nice gesture especially in the winter here in Canada. Now if your shop does 3-4 cars at a time, it might get a bit pricey for 4 chargers, but I think most people would appreciate the "attention to detail" . By the way I am not a Pro, so just IMHO. I try to trickle charge the battery every fall as part of my "winter prep" on my daily driver but sometimes forget, and guess what happens?
 
This happened with the Audi I just did. Initial startup was strong when I pulled it into the garage, so I didn't worry about it. However, with it being a newer Audi, I'm sure it has more control modules than I could fathom, and even though it cuts power to the interior after a door being open for more than 10 mins, the voltage was too low to start the car when I was done.

I always keep a jumper box charged and close by. Only weighs maybe 10 pounds and I don't have to worry about pulling another car up to it or which way the dead car is facing. Once it's started, let it run for at least 10 minutes. Newer cars have alternators that charge at idle, so it will charge the battery back up just fine - as long as everything is in good shape. Older cars, and I'm talking classics here, have alternators that only charge at an engine speed a bit higher than idle. So if you have this happen to you on an older car, once you get it started, sit in it and hold the throttle to about 1500 RPM's for a little while so the alternator can charge the battery. You'll probably notice the interior lights become brighter from idle to a higher RPM.

Either use a battery tender, or make a note to start the car at set intervals while you're working on it so the battery doesn't die. If you do the latter, keep a jumper box handy in case it does die on you. Take a look at the battery - if the date stamp on it is old, tell the customer it died relatively quickly compared to cars with newer batteries, and they might want to have it tested/replaced.
 
hello. the lights turn off
on any gm after the doors are open for 20 minutes i have had gm my whole life
 
I purchased a battery tender to prevent that... never used it ;) So far I have been lucky. I do shut down anything I can that draws power when I do interiors. I also try to keep doors shut as much as possible. I really should get a regular charger. I don't use the battery tender because I don't want to have to set it up everytime I do an interior job... if I had battery die on me it might motivate me to do it but since it hasn't...
 
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