Settings On My Car Battery Charger
Posted in Car Batteries | Asked on Apr 13, 2010
My 1993 Mazda Protege sat for about a week and when i turn the key it clicks now.
I got a battery powered jump starter but that did not work so now I have a Schumacher Battery charger and am trying to charge the battery before paying the crazy fees to tow it to a garage.
I have a 2 part question- there is setting for charge that is 12 volt/2 amp and 12 volt/ 6amp – which one is correct for my car?
Also- if the battery charger doesn’t work, what could it be? It clicks when I turn the key and after i tried to jump start it, it sounded like it wanted to turn over but never actually did.
Since I am female I don’t want to be fooled by the mechanic, so thanks for any input in advance 
There are 9 Answers for "Settings On My Car Battery Charger"
get a cheap 5 to 10 dollar volt meter from auto prts store…test battery 12.5 volts or more
clean battery cables
either will work…2 amp is for slow charging like if your on vacation for 2 months…try the 6 amp for 30 min…should turn it over.
12/6 amp then check the post’s on the batt. u can clean them or get it done @ a parts house
12V/2 amp is a trickle charge. Overnight. 12V/6amp is a fast charge. I would give an hour and check the voltage. and try starting the car. next time if you leave the car sitting for period of time, you should take off the negative cable on the battery. That opens the circuit and voltage can’t be drawn from the batttery.
Don’t ever charge a battery longer than overnight. (10 hours)
I think that a overnight charge is going to get you better results. A battery can take a slow charge better than a fast charge.
A battery that has 12.5V is fully charged
It’s always best to charge any battery at the losest amp rating avalable on your charger. It may take up to 6 hours to fully charge it but your battery will love you for it! Most modern battery chargers are self leveling. That means as the battery reaches full charge the amprage decreases finally to the point of a low maintenance charge.
Charge the battery for about an hour on 12/6 and if it doesn’t work then get it checked, they do it for free at Autozone, the battery might be bad. If there is white stuff on the terminals clean em.
charge with 6 amp for quick ,& whatch on meter on charger it showing 100 % then graduatly down to 0 % ( after 3-5 hour depend on your battery size ) it mean full ,u can used your charger to test if your battery holding after a while put in charger again if it is fast going down from 100 % to 0 % ( after your charge full before ) it mean it good, but if it charge stay in at 60-70 % it mean your battery is dead,about starter if your battery already charged in full but you only hear clicks it probably your starter bad, but also possible bad connection on battery head try to clean the head with wire brush. be carefull when you remove the cable from battery always do negative (-) side first, to reinstall do positive side first.
put in on 12/6 it will charge faster. first take off the cables from the posts or side mounts and make sure there isn’t any build up of acid. it will be in the form of white and green chalky substance. if it has build up get some baking soda with water and clean up the cables and posts. put the cables back on. if you still don’t get it to start replace the battery. from what you say its either one of these two problems. whatever you do don’t tow it. it is a simple solution. you will kick yourself if you get it to the shop and they tell you it needs a new battery
It could be thr starter motor solenoid that is the problem. The solenoid is usually mounted on top of the starter motor.
That depends on how fast you want to charge your battery. Divide your battery amp hour capacity by the charge rate you set the charger to and that is how many hours it will take to fully charge a dead battery. An average car battery will have a 70 to 100 amp hour capacity or higher and so a 6 amp charge rate, for example on a battery with a 70 amp hour capacity, will take nearly 12 hours to fully charge. Doesn’t your charger have a charge rate higher than 6 amps? If your charger has a 10 amp charge rate setting it would be much faster and a 12 amp or 15 amp charge rate would be faster yet. Some cheap chargers even have a 50 amp rapid charge rate and that would get you going even faster. But forget the 2 amp charge rate setting because that is more for just maintaining the charge on a car size battery or for charging small batteries like that of a motorcycle or lawn tractor and similar size batteries.