bluestreak63

Ok, well this is going to be a PITA getting a battery back in.

Just removed an Optima RedTop and I thought I was going to break the expansion tank pot weld connector. Obviously this would be bad.

Autozone tested the Optima and it was at 0% and after an hour of charging, only went up to 2%.

Ended up with a Duralast Gold Group 24 battery. This one seems a little larger than the Optima.

This being a one-man job, am I going to have to drain the coolant from the whole system, remove the expansion tank, remove the heater core hoses just to get in the battery?

I'm not sure how I can hold off the expansion tank with one hand (because it wants to go back down in it's normal position) and lower the battery into place without damaging something. They don't give you much room.

Am I missing something?

Comp Cam 1

Stop! Just loosen or undo the expansion tank holder only (two straps) slide it forward as much as you can (tie it up with string if no one around). Dont drain a thing or loosen any clamps. Grab the battery on the post with a pair of good size pliers and slide it in place. Dont forget to cut off the tabs on the side if the battery is sold with the plastic handle before putting in place. Forgot this with mine and the cover hold down would not clear them.

Westlotorn

The Optima Battery has a history of going dead in Collector Cars.
They like to be used and don't do well if sitting.
The trick to charge them is to hook up another 12v non Optima Battery to your Optima using jumper cables. Next hook your battery charger to the second battery and slow charge it. This tricks the battery charger into charging your dead optima. I don't know the why's and how's but this trick works to charge the Optima. Hope this helps.
Maybe someone with more battery savvy can explain the reasons.

5thvet

Yup, that's what I had to do when mine was completely dead. I think the Optima website explains the reasoning behind this way of charging.

TheSaint

It is easy on a factory AC car where you just take off the battery access panel and lift out the battery

bluestreak63

I do have some rubber tie downs and I can probably hook them up to hold the expansion tank out of the way...thanks for the help!

It does have the strap and I actually tried putting the battery bracket on top of the battery and it was a tight fit, but it did fit.

Does the side of the bracket that has the protection go toward the engine or toward the fender? It was toward the fender and it was a pain to get it out with the heater motor and the wires. I would think that side protection would go toward the engine to protect the battery from the heat of the engine.

Unfortunately, I already did the exchange. I figured for 90 bucks, I have a brand new battery with a 3 year replacement and 5 year prorate warranty. I think the Optima was about 10 years old.

I wonder how come they didn't say this at Autozone? They sell Optima's. I guess they probably wanted to sell me a new battery...

Thanks, but unfortunately...that doesn't help me much except to wish I had a factory AC car....

Comp Cam 1

Engine. You will get it in just go slowly and dont get fustrated (you did the hardest part already). This is probably one of the worst things you can do except maybe changing out the rear bumpers....

bluestreak63

Um, yeah...well after putting the battery in the car (holding off the expansion tank with some bungee cords..thanks again for that tip!) and trying to put the battery bracket on, it didn't exactly fit like I thought it would. Meaning, while I could thread the wingnuts on, the battery cables would not stay secure....ugh....didn't think about that when I originally tried to fit the battery bracket.

Well back to the FLAP and they had nothing else in stock that would fit with the terminals (+/-) on the correct sides. So they still had my Optima, so I took it back and returned the new one.

Now as luck would have it, the "blast charge" they tried to do initially didn't work well, but it did put enough that when I put my Battery Tender Plus on, it was charging it. So I'm going to stick with the Optima and charge it back up...

One question about the BTP...it says if the battery is out of the car that you need to attach a cable to the negative post and then the alligator clip to the cable? The positive alligator clip can connect directly to the battery post.

Why can't I just clip the alligator clips directly to the battery posts, pos to pos and neg to neg?

Westlotorn

I have not heard of this issue ever. The car attaches direct to your negative post. I think the charger could also. Was it possibly referring to charging in the car with the cables hooked up?

Chuck Gongloff

Yep. I might add that you should invest in one of those plastic battery carriers, the kind constructed of a plastic/rubber strap that has a metal loop that slips over the + and - terminals on each end.

Slide the carrier loop over the + terminal, and let the battery hang from that when you install it.

"Neater" than using pliers or a vice grip IMHO.

Chuck

Chuck Gongloff

Like this.

TheSaint

If you have a really bad battery i would take off the battery cables and put the alligator clips on and charge the battery in the car.

Somehow if i have charged the battery with the cables on i have not gotten a good charge on the battery
It might be my battery charger

OptimaJim

Hello, I noticed your conversation regarding our batteries and wanted to offer some assistance. bluestreak63, it might be a wise investment on your part to pick up a voltmeter or multimeter at your auto parts store. You can usually find one for about $12-15. Measuring battery voltage directly at the terminals will give you a much better idea of what is going on with your battery, than a machine that spits out a charge percentage. Fully-charged, your RedTop should measure about 12.6-12.8 volts.

If your battery is completely discharged, it could take far longer than one hour to recharge it. Assuming a charger has 100% efficiency (which they do not), a 50 amp hour battery can easily take more than 24 hours to fully-recharge at a 2-amp charging rate. Because of the age of your battery (approximately 10 years), I would encourage you to fully-charge it and have it load-tested by a battery professional. This will help determine whether the battery can continue to be used or needs to be replaced. We don't recommend a charge rate on our batteries that exceeds 10 amps, so if you have a retailer hitting your battery with a “blast charge” which greatly exceeds that rate, you may want to consider another retailer.

If a load test suggests the battery can continue to be used, you should investigate why the battery was deeply-discharged in the first place. Was your battery on a maintenance device when you discovered it was deeply-discharged? The reason we recommend this parallel charging technique is because many chargers will not recognize or charge a battery that has been discharged below a minimum voltage level.



Each cell in a 12-volt battery generally has at least 2.1 volts, so if a charger is connected to a battery that measures something less than 10 volts, some chargers may not turn on, because it is expected that a battery that only measures 10 volts must have a “bad cell.”

The problem is that AGM batteries have far lower internal resistance than their flooded counterparts. This allows them to accept and deliver current at much higher rates than flooded batteries and for much longer periods of time. That's great news if you are a tournament angler running a trolling motor all day long in windy conditions. That's not so great if you parked your car at an airport and went on a four-week vacation, while your car alarm pulled 100 milliamps out of your battery every hour. Our batteries could end up being deeply-discharged well into the single digits and still work fine, once fully-recharged. However, the internal resistance of flooded batteries will usually prevent them from continuing to deliver current much below 10.5 volts.

Using the parallel charging technique will allow battery chargers to see normal voltage in a fully-charged battery, while delivering current to your deeply-discharged battery. Once you recharge your battery above 10.5 volts, those chargers will probably be able to finish charging them without the need for the second battery wired in parallel.

We NEVER recommend lifting, carrying or moving your battery by the terminals. That is dangerous and could damage the terminals and battery. Our batteries come with an integrated carrying strap that can easily slide in and out of the side of the battery case. If you need one of those straps, please call our 800 number- 1-888-8-OPTIMA and ask that one be sent to you.

Jim McIlvaine
eCare Manager, OPTIMA Batteries, Inc.
www.pinterest.com/optimabatteries

jimmies63

Thanks for the lesson

MikeM

It has always been beyond me why owners complain about the difficulty of changing a battery in a midyear.

I guess tasks that require a little physical effort are just too great a hill for some to climb.

Maybe that is why some clever person invented the checkbook!