03camrySD619

Every time you jump start your battery, you run the risk of shorting it out or damaging the plates inside the battery. Our vehicle batteries (standard lead-acid SLI - starting, lights and ignition) were designed to give your car that initial jolt of power to start then maintains that 12-volt integrity after the engine is started. When a battery's state of discharge falls below 75%-80% you won't even get an itty bitty LED light to work. At this point a boost is needed because the discharged battery can't even maintain 12 volts much less provide the cranking power necessary to start your engine. Boosting - Keep in mind, everytime you need a boost/jump off of someone elses battery or you use your battery to jumpstart someone else's you risk damaging either batteries in the process, one way to damage the battery is by leaving the booster cables connected longer than necessary after the disabled vehicle has started. Once you've brought the battery back to life - state of discharge above that 80%, normally after a few minutes the battery would have been able to restart the car without any help from booster (as long as there are no other unnecessary drains on the battery in this weakened state) unless you had a faulty or shorted cell in which case your battery wasn't even at 12-volts. Internal Resistance is another factor in a battery's short comings after being discharged - there is built up resistance in a discharged battery freshly boosted relative to its state of discharge and affects the battery's ability to accept a charge. It may take a battery one-half hour before it begins to even re-charge, or your battery was so old it won't conduct the necessary power needed for cranking ignition/starter - i.e. , a battery loses its "conductivity" like velcro loses its "sticking" strength when it reaches its service life (about 3 years - 6 if your lucky). Maybe you noticed the battery had begun shedding its conductive material off the lead plates which began separating your clamps from their posts eating away at the clamps (a blue-ish powdery sulfuric material). All are indicators you should be looking into a new battery. IMHO-sounds to me like a cell was shorted/faulty AND your battery reached its service life. If it was your alternator you would have paid more and the dealer would have told you not to mention the car would've died in a couple of days later. I know this is an old post but, I felt that this info is useful and valuable to any car owner