Hi
I just had a lower balljoint repaired on my 2006 hyundai Sonata.
After 1 day, the battery dies. Had it jumpstarted last night, and it’s dead again this AM.
Could this at all be related to the balljoint repair? They don’t seem related but it also seems like an odd coincidence since there were no other recent issues with my car.
Thoughts?
The ball joint repair would not effect the battery or anything else. Call AutoZone or something similar and see if they have time to check your battery and alternator. Batteries can function just fine and 5 minutes later need replaced.
+1
I can attest from personal experience that a battery can seem to be fine, and yet it may need to be replaced only a few minutes later. As was said, there isn’t any possible connection between a front-end repair and a dead battery.
One thing about which I am wondering is…How old is the battery in this 10 year-old car?
If it is the original battery, then you got much longer life from it than could reasonably be expected, and it was due to die.
Even if it was the second battery for this car, you were probably ready for a new battery anyway.
Coincidence, and nothing more…
The previous replies are probably right, but it’s slightly possible that the mechanic disconnected the battery ground cable before working on your car, and in reconnecting it did not get a good clean connection. If it were up to me, I’d check back with the shop that did the ball joint work.
Why would they disconnect the battery for a ball-joint repair. No need what-so-ever.
@MikeInNH I wrote “slightly possible” because of exactly what you say. It makes no sense to disconnect the battery cables, and you might expect to see the radio stations all jumbled up or the clocks wrong if it was disconnected, but I was fishing around for answers and that’s what I came up with.
When I’m doing something complicated in or around the engine compartment w/my Corolla I’ll usually just remove the battery as a course of doing the job. It usually pays off b/c I have more room to work, and can see down through that area from above, which is helpful even when removing something like a front drive shaft for a cv joint repair. Besides the battery I’ll often also remove the air filter housing and the entire intake rubber boot stuff right uup to the throttle body intake. It takes such little time to do all that, that it usually pays for itself in spades in making the job easier and faster to do. @wentwest 's comment could certainly apply to this situation.
It’s also possible some connection or another didn’t get re-connected properly. Besides the battery I mean. Esp if they got the connectors on backwards or something, that could create a parasitic drain which would discharge the battery.
And of course it could be a coincidence, and the battery was about to die anyway. But no need to guess. Any good shop can do a charging system and battery test for you, and test for parasitic current drains.
Don’t know the Sonata set up . . but.
What did they DIS-assemble in the fender well area to get the arm off to replace the ball joint ?
at first glance , a lower ball joint looks like a two bolt easy access job . . but ?
If they took stuff apart, like ground brackets along the cable route, and did not reassemble those.
or
Pinched some wires during reassembly.