Accidentally drained OEM car battery

Maintenance/Repairs
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In NY State you can pay a little extra for your drivers license and provide more documents and get a license that is good for driving to Canada or Mexico . I am amazed at the number of Americans that do not know you have needed a passport to enter Canada for some time now. I met some tourists driving a large Class A motor home towing a car who had traveled from Chicago who didn’t find out that they needed passports to cross to Canada via Sault Ste Marie until they were in upper Michigan. They had passports sitting at home in Chicago but didn’t know they needed them.

Enhanced licences are currently issued in Vermont , New York, Michigan, Minnesota and Washington state.

You can get a passport card that is wallet size but they are more expensive.

The beauty of the enhanced license is that if you are driving and decide to make an impromptu trip to Canada for dinner, you don’t have to return home to get documents.

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Well, I live in California

So I wouldn’t know what kind of driver’s license you can get in those states you mentioned

The last time I visited Canada was well before 9/11, and during a time when the passport was not yet required to enter

Since I have no current desire to enter Canada or Mexico, you should not be amazed at what I do not know

No offense intended to any Canadians or Mexicans reading this . . . or anybody living there @irlandes

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Write the experimental data down in a notebook. 12.47/12.12/0.35, along with the date.

Every time you do this experiment, write it down in the same notebook. Then you’ll have objective data to reference to monitor battery health. The 0.35 above is the difference in the unloaded & loaded voltages. With a -.35 voltage drop due to the headlights, that looks to me like a battery that isn’t brand new, but is still serviceable. As the battery ages the 0.35 volts will grow to 0.5 and then 0.75. By the time it gets to 1 volt, the battery will be on its last legs, if it even cranks the engine by then.

The reason that works is b/c a battery has internal resistance. It’s like an actual resistor in the circuit, but you can’t see it. You measured a 0.35 voltage drop across that resistor. If you knew the current the headlights draw, you could calculate the resistance from the formula R (in ohms) = 0.35 v/ current (in amps). You can approximate the current by comparing the brightness of the headlights compared to a 100 watt light bulb. Say both headlights together are about as bright as four 100 watt light bulbs, or 400 watts total. Then the current powering the headlights is

current = 400 watts/12 volts, or current = 33.3 amps. (Since power = voltage * current.) So if the headlights draw 33.3 amps, and the voltage drop you measure is -0.35 volts, your battery’s’ internal resistance is 0.35 v/33.3 amps = 0.01 ohm. As the battery ages that resistance will increase.

The biggest challenge for a battery is cranking the engine, which may draw 120 amps. Since you know your battery’s internal resistance now, you should be able to calculate how much the voltage at the battery terminals drops when cranking the engine. Suggest you calculate that, and try the experiment to see how closely what you measure matches your prediction.

33.3 amps to power the headlights seems a little on the high side. That’s probably more than is actually needed. But it is just an approximation.

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Whoever said an enhanced driver’s license was needed to drive in Mexico or Canada may well be correct, for all I know. But, my information has been that by international treaty all licenses in those three nations are valid in all three nations, without enhancement.

I guarantee you that the US license is good in Mexico. I drove with a US license for many years here in Mexico. That one I am sure of. And, it is also certain I have no enhancements.

A Mexican d/l is useless for identification. It has one function, to show you are authorized to drive by the correct agency. Authorized, not qualified.

My niece got her license without a driving test. Only the eye test, and a computer test, ten questions on the regulations. A year or two ago, I decided to get a Mexican driver’s license, and for sure I had no driving test.

So, there is no learner’s permit here. You get your license so you are covered by insurance on the car you learn on – assuming there is insurance on the car. Mostly there is not. Then, you learn to drive.

No problem. If you are found responsible for damages and you don’t have insurance, you lounge around the local jail until the money is found by family or friends, or loan agencies…

There is, I am told, a standard charge for a death. I was told it came to around $18,000 USD. That presidential candidate quite a few years ago made a big deal about minimum wages in Mexico. That minimum wage is a legal definition by the Federal government, and it has nothing to do with what workers are paid.

It’s function is to calculate fees; fines; and other standardized costs. Such as accidental deaths.

No one receives minimum salary that I heard of. Where I live which is pretty far into the boonies, it would be very rare for anyone, no matter how basic the task, to receive less than twice the minimum.

My builder normally charges nearly 8 times the minimum salary, and his assistant gets 5 times.

The lowest I have heard is a woman who cleans floors in a clinic gets twice the minimum.

So, the amount you must pay if your car kills someone is listed as NNN times the minimum salary at the time. So, as the minimum salary is changed, I think once a year, he amount is thus automatically changed.

As far as anyone wanting to come to Mexico, Mexico is simply not for most people. If you do come here, please do not come to my village. I have done what is called “going native”, which precludes having a lot of North Americans around. Don’t worry. I will let you know if you get too close. :smiley:

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The enhanced part is to get you back into the US after you have gone to Mexico or Canada. It’s for border crossing, not driving.

If you have a passport, an EDL is superfluous.

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okay, that makes sense and is what I thought it meant. But, a comment above did not seem to spell it out like that.

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Those chargers had a switch, 10amp/50amp. The 10 amp position was for charging up a customers dead battery. The 50amp (sometimes 80 amp) position was to start a car with a dead battery if the customer had just run the battery down by leaving the lights on or cranking an engine too long that just would not start.

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I’ve got an old Schumacher charger with a 125 amp ‘start’ position. Never tried it on a car, but it could easily start a lawn tractor with a dead battery.

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Our Midtronics GR8 diagnostic battery charger will charge at up to 60 amps in automatic recharge mode. The Snap-On charger/charging system and starter diagnostic unit will charge at up to 80 amps in auto mode.

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I really can’t remember, but would charge the batteries in approximately 45 minutes. Non adjusbale rate, just a 6/12 volt switch. I did try it on my 6 volt motorcycle battery, remember I was 16, it really cooked that battery. Swelled the case, but did not explode! Still worked on the bike.

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Don’t waste your money. Just hook up the 8A charger at night and disconnect it in the morning. It’s not going to turn into a bomb or some other catastrophic event. Given the state of charge mentioned above, it’s unlikely to draw more than 5A anyway after a very short period and will continue to diminish as the charge is topped off. Even if it’s not a real float charger, a few hours at minimum charge rate will not be the end of the world. I have an older 10A Schumacher that I actually prefer over the newer smart chargers because I can get a better charge out of it and the newer “smart” one tends to be uber safe and shut off way too early. Yes, I have the right equipment and knowledge to do the testing to verify the actual condition…