You know, I just went out to check on the car and test again, but I had left my low beams AND high beams on...:shakehead...so my battery was flat. It must have sat there with all the lights on for an hour!
I pulled out my battery charger and charged the battery back up. Now, the battery is reading about 13.1 volts rather than the ~12.6 to 12.8 I was getting before. When I turned on the car to check the voltage across the battery terminals, I was getting 14.1 volts! I've never seen anything in the 14 range from this car! Even after I turned on the A/C, radio, low and high beams, I was getting like 13.7 volts. These numbers are way higher than what I measured previously--I was getting 13.6 with the car idling and 13.2 with the accessories on.
I suspect that the fact that I found my lights to be subjectively terrible after I had let the car sit for a month is due to the battery! I did note that it was very hard to start the car after having it sit for that long of a time. The battery was obviously low on charge. I suspect that the alternator charged the battery back up to 12.6 volts and called it a day. I don't believe that car alternators are exactly designed to fully charge batteries.
https://www.optimabatteries.com/en-...nators-are-not-designed-charge-dead-batteries
I suspect that a half-charged battery caused all of this confusion and frustration. I put my charger back onto the battery and I'll let it top off until the evening. Then I'll go for a ride and hopefully my subjective impressions of the headlamps will have changed! Or perhaps I'm just completely wrong and I'm falsely impressed by the battery's "surface charge."
I pulled out my battery charger and charged the battery back up. Now, the battery is reading about 13.1 volts rather than the ~12.6 to 12.8 I was getting before. When I turned on the car to check the voltage across the battery terminals, I was getting 14.1 volts! I've never seen anything in the 14 range from this car! Even after I turned on the A/C, radio, low and high beams, I was getting like 13.7 volts. These numbers are way higher than what I measured previously--I was getting 13.6 with the car idling and 13.2 with the accessories on.
I suspect that the fact that I found my lights to be subjectively terrible after I had let the car sit for a month is due to the battery! I did note that it was very hard to start the car after having it sit for that long of a time. The battery was obviously low on charge. I suspect that the alternator charged the battery back up to 12.6 volts and called it a day. I don't believe that car alternators are exactly designed to fully charge batteries.
https://www.optimabatteries.com/en-...nators-are-not-designed-charge-dead-batteries
I suspect that a half-charged battery caused all of this confusion and frustration. I put my charger back onto the battery and I'll let it top off until the evening. Then I'll go for a ride and hopefully my subjective impressions of the headlamps will have changed! Or perhaps I'm just completely wrong and I'm falsely impressed by the battery's "surface charge."
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