I bought a new phone charger to put in my car to charge my cell phone when on the road. I left the charger in when the car was off for only an hour or so. then I took it off and the next day my 1997 civic started but it sounded like it was struggling. please help. I desperately need my car to get around.

 

Coincidence with an unknown problem. Poor charging in electrical system?

 

some car outlets remain on while the car is off... if there is something plugged into it, it still may draw off the battery.... regardless if your phone is on it or not... same goes for the plugs in your house...

 

I can not think of anyway a cell phone charger will drain a battery. They use LED's in them for little light and they draw very little power. I know guys that leave the raidars pluged in all weekend and they dont even kill the battery.

 

Like most Japanese cars, the lighter in a Civic turns off when the key is off. Does the lighter still work? Like the others said, it's almost certainly a coincidence.

 

Thanks for your answers guys, i attempted to charge the battery with a rather old 10 amp charger my grandpa gave me but it yielded no results. the car started but it the starter cranked it so slowly.

i boosted the battery drove around for 5 minutes and when i got back it worked fine. battery voltage was reading 12.8 and when running was 14 V.

so far it looks like it just drained the battery and now it seems charged. is it possible that a defective phone charger is damaging the battery

aw man sorry for the long message

i really appreciate your help friends

 

so it looks like the battery will not hold a charge anymore. it gets juiced up but then slowly becomes discharged overnight. the only thing to do at this point is to buy a new battery

Do you guys have any suggestions for good quality/fair priced batteries?

 

I'd go to a parts store and have the battery and alternator tested. It sounds like to me that your alternator went out, you started the car and drove while running on just the battery, therefore draining the battery. Pretty sure you need a new alternator. phone charger has nothing to do with it. To check the phone charger, try it in another car.

 

^ To me it sounds like the battery is bad and he was driving around on the alternator.