New battery but now it doesn't start
Thread Starter
Safety Car
Joined: Jun 1999
Posts: 3,641
Likes: 2
From: Southern California
New battery but now it doesn't start
I have a '93 auto that unfortunately sits most of the time. I have a battery tender and drive it just a handful of times a year. Earlier this year the battery kept going flat even with the tender. After testing the battery, multiple times, it was finally replaced under warranty with a fresh red top Optima.
Yesterday I put the fully charged battery in my car. Normally when I touch the negative terminal I see a spark and hear relays come to life. Yesterday I heard nothing and had no spark at the terminal. I tested the battery and it is fully charged. I also put my jumper on the car and the weirdest display of lights happened. A lot of lights in the DTC area but the speedo was blank, no backlight either. The tach also jumped to 2k. Mechanically I heard nothing when I cranked. No fuel pump, no starter, nothing. The horns worked but even the interior lights were dead. This is a classic case of it worked when I parked it. Does this seem like a ground issue? Any clues where to start?
Thanks,
Jeff
Yesterday I put the fully charged battery in my car. Normally when I touch the negative terminal I see a spark and hear relays come to life. Yesterday I heard nothing and had no spark at the terminal. I tested the battery and it is fully charged. I also put my jumper on the car and the weirdest display of lights happened. A lot of lights in the DTC area but the speedo was blank, no backlight either. The tach also jumped to 2k. Mechanically I heard nothing when I cranked. No fuel pump, no starter, nothing. The horns worked but even the interior lights were dead. This is a classic case of it worked when I parked it. Does this seem like a ground issue? Any clues where to start?
Thanks,
Jeff
Thread Starter
Safety Car
Joined: Jun 1999
Posts: 3,641
Likes: 2
From: Southern California
Thanks for the reply. I fixed the car. It was a bad connection at the new battery I modified.
The Optima battery needed its top terminal shaved down so it didn't contact the upper frame brace. My last battery touched, even with its protective cap. I suspected this might have slowly killed the battery. I avoided that by cutting the positive terminal off the new battery. This voids the warranty but since it is a replacement it has none. Well after removing material the inner post lost connection from the outer post. the side connections are secondary in the Optima. They are connected to the top posts. I put solder in the gap and the car is back to life. I wish I didn't have to modify a direct replacement battery to fit my car. But I did. I failed at first but found my error. Just wanted to follow up in case anyone runs into a similar issue with battery clearance.
The Optima battery needed its top terminal shaved down so it didn't contact the upper frame brace. My last battery touched, even with its protective cap. I suspected this might have slowly killed the battery. I avoided that by cutting the positive terminal off the new battery. This voids the warranty but since it is a replacement it has none. Well after removing material the inner post lost connection from the outer post. the side connections are secondary in the Optima. They are connected to the top posts. I put solder in the gap and the car is back to life. I wish I didn't have to modify a direct replacement battery to fit my car. But I did. I failed at first but found my error. Just wanted to follow up in case anyone runs into a similar issue with battery clearance.
