Checking Car Battery Voltage With Multimeter

Touch the red probe to the positive terminal and the black probe to the negative terminal.

Checking car battery voltage with multimeter.

To be more specific. Load test a car battery using a multimeter. Set the dial to 20. The battery ratings vary a lot from car to car but choosing 15 20 volt is good enough.

With the headlights on at 80 f there should be a voltage drop of at least 11 8 volts 25 charged and ideally 12 5 volts between the positive and negative terminals. How to check car battery with multimeter. Then proceed to check the reading on the multimeter display. We selected 20v before proceeding to measure the level.

How to test a car battery. How to check a car battery with a multimeter. Using your multimeter you want to measure dc voltage this is indicated with a solid line and a dashed line above a letter v. The first test with your multimeter will measure dc voltage indicated with a solid line and a dashed line above a letter v.

This will allow you to accurately measure 0 20 volts. In modern vehicles a load test is a better way to tell if your battery is good or needs to be replaced. Allow us to give you a piece of advice here you should keep the headlights on for a few minutes before checking the battery. You can use a multimeter to find out if your battery has enough charge.

A fully charged battery ideally measures at 12 66 volts and above but 12 6 volts at 80 degrees 12 588 degrees at 30 degrees and 12 516 volts at 0 degrees are. Checking the voltage can be misleading because the battery may test good based on voltage but can not hold a load. Any reading of voltage below 9 5 volts or if the battery holds a good record for a while and steadily drops or even when it falls instantly to 0 volts then it means there is a problem and the battery. A car battery s voltage is dependent on the outside temperature so assuming it s 27 degrees celsius here s what you should make of the readings you see on the multimeter display.

Set the dial to 20 which will allow you to accurately measure between 0 20 volts. Connect the multimeter probes to the car battery. For readings that are over 12 5 volts it means that your battery is fully charged and it is in good condition.