It's been rather arctic in the pacific northwest as of late, and my automatic 86 has been parked outside since tuesday night. I finally managed to get the lock unstuck this afternoon with some rubbing alcohol and quite a bit of force. When I went to start it in an attempt to move it, there was absolutely nothing. No interior lights come on, no dash lights, and the starter doesn't make a sound. I've had my Optima Red-Top battery for probably around a year, and up until now have had absolutely no reliability issues with it. It always cranks quickly and I've never seen it drained. The only thing that I can think of is that the interior lights possibly stayed on for some reason(this has never happened before), even though the doors were both firmly shut, and they drained the battery through 5 days of operating.

Now this normally wouldn't be a big deal, just pop the hood and jump start the car, right? Well the hood's frozen shut, and being that the car sits in the shade all day, it's not likely to defrost anytime before tomorrow(we're supposed to have a high of 41).

Has anyone else had problems with their Optima in freezing conditions? I thought that the sealed gel-cell type batteries were supposed to not have problems in cold weather. I also had absolutely no problems like this 2 or 3 months ago when it sat for 4 days during our last snow.

 

 

I run an Optima Red Top in my daily driver. I haven't had an issue with the one in my car used regularly. But we have had cars in the shop that have seemed to kill some Optima betteries sitting in the cold for a long period of time. I'm makeing no comments on the electrical systems of the cars that had the dead batteries though... .

One thing I noticed when I bougth the red top is the cold cranking amps is a little lower than other batteries I have owned. But I had no issue through last Chicago winter with the car starting.

 

I doubt the low temps had anything to do with your dead Optima. You are more likely to have excessive leakage current that is either just started or had a longer period than before to discharge your battery. Charge your battery up and then disconnect the negative cable and use an ammeter to measure the leakage current after the courtesy lights time out and you either have the hood down or hood light fuse pulled. GM says leakage current should be less than 50 milliamps. My 87 draws 27 ma.

 

I have little faith in the Optima anymore. I am on my 2nd in both the Vettes. The 90 is basically a DD and the battery lasted about 1.5yrs. The 86 doesn't get driven much and that killed it too. Neither would hold a charge from either the alternator or a separate charger.

I like the leak proof design but they really have issues with spotty reliability.

 

With no apparent electial power at all, I would check the battery cable connections at the battery. Pull the negative cable off and look for any sort of corrosion or to see if there is enough material on the inside of the cabel to make a good connection. You can use a voltmeter between the positive and negative posts to see if the battery is between 11.5 and 12.5v.

If you have some jumper cables, attach one cable end to the post terminal and the other end to a good ground like the alternator bracket. If the battery has any voltage at all, you should at least see an interior light go on.

There have been a number of threads about failing Optima Red Top batteries over the last year. Some seem to las about a year, some only a couple of months.

A buddy put a Red Top in his ZR-1 las April and it lasted two months. He had it replaced under warranty and the replacement lasted about 6 months. He now has an AC Delco battery in the car.

Given the number of reports of Optima failures, it's possible that there was a bad batch of Red Tops that got shipped all around the country.

Any decent battery with a full charge should be able to handle the temps we have been seeing. My daily driver 99 Silverado sits outside and with the 12 to 15 degree overnight temps down here in the Olympia area, the truck has not failed to start. It has a AC Delco Professional battery that is 5 years old.

There is also a chance that you could have a drain of some sort that is discharging the battery. Underhood lights, console light, or even the lights in the sunvisors could be left on.

Once you get the car started, take it to a reputable shop and have the charging system checked out. The test will show if the battery can hold a charge or if the alternator is providing the necessary current to charge the battery. The fact that the voltmeter is showing 14+ volts doesn't necessiarly mean that the battery is taking and holding a charge.

 

So it defrosted a bit more this afternoon and when I got home from work, my boyfriend(90Z51) and I took a look at it. The hood finally came open, and the battery was very much dead, the multimeter read 1.9v.

We pushed it out of it's icy graves, and pulled Craig's 92 up next to it to jump. We hooked up the jumper cables, and it took no less than 15 minutes of charging to get the car to the point where it would start.

During this time, I took a closer look at the car. The hood was covered with a 3-4" layer of snow and ice, and a spot in the very center of the hood was a completely bare dry spot. I investigated it more, and there was frozen condensation on the inside of the hood in the same spot. What sat under that spot? My MAF Sensor. I replaced the sensor in October, and both of the relays in December. I guess the burnoff circuit kept drawing power all 5 days, and the cold didn't help.

Does anyone have any experience with the burnoff relay supplying power to their MAF when the car's off?

Thanks.

 

hey laurel do u still have those wheels for sale?
maybe that's why they recommend you change the relays when u change the maf?? If it sticks, I would ohm the maf and see if it's resistance is really low in comparison to a rebuilt or a friend's unit. but be careful you only ohm the burnoff circuit and not the air measuring circuit, or it's toast anyway.