My brothers Battery died so we jumped it and ran the engine for a half hour. Checked the voltage while engine was running and it was at 14.34 volts. Turned it off and slowly went to 10.22. We checked the battery and it was low on water, you could see the plates exposed by about 1/8 inch. My question is if we put water back to proper level will we be able to save the battery or is it wasted??? The battery is a 3 year old Diehard Gold Series.

 

You might need to buy distilled water, but today's batteries shouldn't need to have water added. I suggest you take the thing to Sears and have them check it out. Do you still have the original receipt? Most batteries have a certain amount of time on them which they can be replaced for free by the installer if there is any problem. Sounds like it's leaking somewhere, which is definitely not good.

 

i have seen batteries that would hardly keep a charge be saved just buy adding water back into them, worth a try.

 

Its not leaking, he just didnt check it since 2000. I hope hes been doing the other maintenance on the car.

 

MD is right, try adding some distilled water then trickle charge it-do not hard charge it. If plate sulfation has occurred the battery is more liklely to come up closer to capacity if you slow charge it. An alternator is not the same as a battery charger and will not give you the reserve capacity that a slow charge will even if the battery is reasonably good.

 

So I should add distilled water and set my charger on 2 Amp slow charge and see what happens in a few hours????

 

Yes, but give it more than a few hours, 8-10 hrs at 2 amps should tell the tale.