Preparations Before The Test; Connecting The Tester; Battery Test - Midtronics MDX-300 Series Instruction Manual

Preparations Before the Test

Before connecting the tester, clean the battery posts or side terminals with
a wire brush and a mixture of baking soda and water. When testing side-
post batteries, install and tighten lead terminal adapters.
IMPORTANT: Do not test at steel bolts. Failure to install terminal adapters
or installing terminal adapters that are worn or dirty may result in inac-
curate test results. To avoid damage, never use a wrench to tighten the
adapters more than 1/4 turn.
If you are testing in the vehicle, make sure all accessory loads are off, the
key is not in the ignition, and the doors are closed. If the vehicle was run-
ning before the test, turn on the headlights to remove the battery's surface
charge. Let the battery rest for at least 1 minute to recover before testing.

Connecting the Tester

• Connect the red clamp to the positive (+) terminal and the black
clamp to the negative (–) terminal.
• For a proper connection, rock the clamps back and forth. The tester
requires that both sides of each clamp be firmly connected before
testing. A poor connection will produce a CHECK CONNECTION
or WIGGLE CLAMPS message. If the message appears, clean the
terminals and reconnect the clamps.
• The preferred test position is at the battery terminals. If the battery is
not accessible, you may test at the jumper post; however, the avail-
able power measurement may be lower than the actual value.

Battery Test

When you first connect the tester to the battery, it functions as a voltmeter
until you press the ENTER button to start the test.
After you press ENTER, scroll to each parameter using the UP or DOWN
ARROW button and press ENTER to select. If any messages appear dur-
ing the test, see "Test Messages" on page 11.
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MDX-300 Series