Dead Optima battery question
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Dead Optima battery question
I've barely driven my car this year (maybe 50-100 miles, tops), and put in a new Yellow Top last December or so. Car's been parked with battery connected, no trickle charger.
Each time I've driven it (once in spring and once yesterday) the battery was dead. I started it each time with a booster pack.
I recently bought a trickle charger and had it on 2 amp slow charge for about 14 hours, and it did nothing.
Is the battery toast? If I went out and drove the car for an hour or two, would that re-charge it sufficiently?
Next time around, when I store it for long terms, I'll disconnect the battery completely. That's what I used to do on another Vette that was stored and never had a problem with it firing right up even after long spells of sitting.
Each time I've driven it (once in spring and once yesterday) the battery was dead. I started it each time with a booster pack.
I recently bought a trickle charger and had it on 2 amp slow charge for about 14 hours, and it did nothing.
Is the battery toast? If I went out and drove the car for an hour or two, would that re-charge it sufficiently?
Next time around, when I store it for long terms, I'll disconnect the battery completely. That's what I used to do on another Vette that was stored and never had a problem with it firing right up even after long spells of sitting.
Tech Contributor
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From: Horncastle Lincolnshire, England
2023 C5 of the Year Finalist - Unmodified
Any battery would probably have died after such a long time and no serious driving to top it off.
You may have something drawing down on the battery. Dormant the car pulls 20 to 30MA so not surprising it's dead. It takes 20 mins to put back the drain from a start up. Do a draw check to be sure. Check out Bill Curlee's post in C5 Tech under the electrical sticky.
AGM batteries take longer to coax back to life when discharged although a Yellow Top is a deep cycle battery so it should be more resistent to discharge than a Red Top. I have to say, I'd expect a dead AGM battery to take up to 3 days to recharge fully on a trickle charger.
My Yellow Top sits around for weeks and starts first time but I wouldn't leave it months without putting it on the battery tender.
I'll dig out the advice from Optima which was posted here.
You may have something drawing down on the battery. Dormant the car pulls 20 to 30MA so not surprising it's dead. It takes 20 mins to put back the drain from a start up. Do a draw check to be sure. Check out Bill Curlee's post in C5 Tech under the electrical sticky.
AGM batteries take longer to coax back to life when discharged although a Yellow Top is a deep cycle battery so it should be more resistent to discharge than a Red Top. I have to say, I'd expect a dead AGM battery to take up to 3 days to recharge fully on a trickle charger.
My Yellow Top sits around for weeks and starts first time but I wouldn't leave it months without putting it on the battery tender.
I'll dig out the advice from Optima which was posted here.
Last edited by DeeGee; Nov 14, 2011 at 02:40 PM.
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Burning Brakes
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From: Iowa
I had a one year old yellow top Optima do the same thing. Never came back from a full discharge even with a battery tender and desulfation. Replaced with a red top, keep it on the battery tender if not driven over a week, and no problems at all. I thought a yellow top would be necessary with my big stereo, but the red top is the one doing the job just fine now. If doing it again, I would probably buy a top of the line Sears Diehard battery and be done with it. I know Optima has had periodic problems in batches of their batteries.
Last edited by 02HREBlue; Nov 14, 2011 at 02:45 PM. Reason: spell
Safety Car
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If you bought it from a local auto parts store, take it back. I've had a couple of friends (including myself) suffer from Optimas failing prematurely. We were able to exchange them where we bought them (Autozone, in 3 cases).
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yeah it wasn't cheap.
i just want to know if i can (or if it's safe) to try & re-charge this thing, and if re-chargeable, what is best way of doing so.
otherwise i'll just pick up a new battery, and this time be careful to completely disconnect it if the car is going to sit for any longer than a few weeks.
i just want to know if i can (or if it's safe) to try & re-charge this thing, and if re-chargeable, what is best way of doing so.
otherwise i'll just pick up a new battery, and this time be careful to completely disconnect it if the car is going to sit for any longer than a few weeks.
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Tech Contributor
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yeah it wasn't cheap.
i just want to know if i can (or if it's safe) to try & re-charge this thing, and if re-chargeable, what is best way of doing so.
otherwise i'll just pick up a new battery, and this time be careful to completely disconnect it if the car is going to sit for any longer than a few weeks.
i just want to know if i can (or if it's safe) to try & re-charge this thing, and if re-chargeable, what is best way of doing so.
otherwise i'll just pick up a new battery, and this time be careful to completely disconnect it if the car is going to sit for any longer than a few weeks.
Melting Slicks
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St. Jude Donor '13
There is a specific method for recharging optimas involving hooking another battery in line with it while charging. I don't remember exactly the steps but it was outlined in the paperwork. Maybe the youtube link above describes it? You should be able to find the
information easily enough.
information easily enough.
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From: Horncastle Lincolnshire, England
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Good (some weird) reading here:
http://www.optimabatteries.com/produ....php#deepCycle
http://www.optimabatteries.com/produ....php#deepCycle
Its horses for courses I'm afraid.
Le Mans Master
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There is a specific method for recharging optimas involving hooking another battery in line with it while charging. I don't remember exactly the steps but it was outlined in the paperwork. Maybe the youtube link above describes it? You should be able to find the
information easily enough.
information easily enough.
Thread Starter
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Optima just got back to me on my inquiry on this topic, and they said charge it for 6 hours at 10 amps with my charger, then cycle the battery a few times (not sure what that means).
Will see if that works.
Will see if that works.
Safety Car
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St. Jude Donor '09 thru '26
particularly a gel cell battery. if i remember correctly however there is a procedure to attempt to revive them. if you care, give it a shot. i agree if it is less than 1 year old, take it back to where you bought it and tell them you can't get it to hold a charge and you want it replace. they will tell you that they need to put it on their charger (usually for 1.5 to 2 hours) and run it on their battery analysis equipment to determine it is really bad. after that, they will replace it under the warranty.
Thread Starter
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Well, the recharging technique was a bust.
After 6 hours it was still completely void of any juice, and the battery got really HOT.
(I had the car cables disconnected during all of this, by the way. It was just battery and charger connected to each other.)
So, time to get a new one.
Recommendations? At this point I don't really care about Optima, am guessing that something from the local Napa dealer (they sell Interstate batteries) would be just fine, no?
After 6 hours it was still completely void of any juice, and the battery got really HOT.
(I had the car cables disconnected during all of this, by the way. It was just battery and charger connected to each other.)
So, time to get a new one.
Recommendations? At this point I don't really care about Optima, am guessing that something from the local Napa dealer (they sell Interstate batteries) would be just fine, no?
