Bad battery ?

[zellamay]

Odd situation. 1998 Z3M. When the car sits for 12 hours, it will not start. Voltmeter reads 6 volts. Jump works fine, but here is where it gets odd. The battery seems to charge in about 60 seconds. Unhook jumper cables, let it run for 1 minute, voltmeter reads 14 volts. That's way too fast. Second odd part: parasitic drain is about .055 A, within "normal" range. Everything I've read says it should take many days to drain the battery at .055 A, but again, after only a few hours, it reads 6 volts. Anybody run into this? Bad battery? any thoughts, help appreciated, thanks...
(Edit: .055mA changed to .055 A )

[ProductUser]

My roadie is only driven a few times each month. I've had zero battery issues.

If nothing else has changed, then I'd suspect a bad battery.

[Tigershark48]

Check/clean terminal connections. Sounds like battery is maintaining full charge, with intermittent circuit. If not terminals, some other poor connection downstream in the wiring. If everything else looks good, a load test on the battery makes sense.

[BimmerBreaker]

Its not charging to 14v immediately, its reading the alternator voltage at that point

The battery is dead. Replace it

[MartyBtoo]

^ What he said.

Marty

[zellamay]

BB was right, as usual. It was a bad battery. It fooled me by kind-of working for a few days. Today, it would not start the car at all. Costco was great. Didn't even check the old battery. Just gave me a new one because it was under 36 months old. .... Incidentally, This still supports my decades old rule that batteries last about 2 years in AZ, regardless of whether you buy an el-cheapo or a good one. This one lasted 30 months.

[ProductUser]

BB was right, as usual. It was a bad battery. It fooled me by kind-of working for a few days. Today, it would not start the car at all. Costco was great. Didn't even check the old battery. Just gave me a new one because it was under 36 months old. .... Incidentally, This still supports my decades old rule that batteries last about 2 years in AZ, regardless of whether you buy an el-cheapo or a good one. This one lasted 30 months.

Daily driver? I'd agree.

My last battery (Autozone special) lasted 7 years; however, my roadie is not a daily driver and spends most of its life in a garage. No battery tender or any other kind of charger used.