Optima yellow Top
Optima yellow Top Anybody had trouble with their Optima yellow tops? I bought one in Feb. at Autozone and it has worked fine up to about two weeks ago. My car is not driven and sits in my garage through Dec.-March. When I tried to start it I noticed the car was dead I had to jump start the battery and it seems to work for about two days and it dies again. Another battery works fine or has been for a week now. Does Cold temperatures effect them? I'm taking it back to Autozone tomorrow to have them check it.
Could my radio CD, two amps with subs be draining the battery when my car sits for while or is this impossible?
Could my radio CD, two amps with subs be draining the battery when my car sits for while or is this impossible?
You can check to see if there is something draining your batt. Use a multi meter set to dc amps disconnect the neg batt cable put the black lead on the batt and the red on the batt cable it will read the amps being pulled from the batt. 0.2 V or so is o.k Make sure your doors are closed or the int. lights will show on the meter. Hope this helps
Teching In
Joined: Nov 2007
Posts: 13
Likes: 0
From: Missouri
I have had a yellow top in my truck for 5 years, its been in boats runnings trollers, in powerwheels doing drift duty, its a great battery. I would check for a draw, the draw with nothing on or in(key) as it would set in your driveway should not be more than 30 milliamps, thats 0.030 amps. This amperage is what is keeping time on your radio, security, presets and some ecm power. Hook up your meter like Dave 70 said put it on the lowest amp reading it has (unless you have an autoranging meter) and see what your draw is. Be sure all lights are off most meters have fuses on milliamps circuits. so hook up the meter to the post and cable before seperating the terminal from the post, you wont get any nasty amperage spikes that can pop a fuse in the meter (if it has a fuse-some just burn up) I learned the hard way
Teching In
Joined: Nov 2007
Posts: 13
Likes: 0
From: Missouri
Also sometimes those batterys will set part store shelves for years because they are usually ordered seperately so they dont get rotated out of stock like they should, make sure the one you bought was a new one. lol
If you leave it hooked up and it's cold it will drain and go dead. They're never quite the same again once they've gone dead. I forgot and left mine in the car last year and it was dead when I went to fire it up. Now if it sets for 3 weeks or so without being started it's nearly dead. One of the cells may have died too. My dad had a red top in his street rod and it went dead and then wouldn't hold a charge. He got it replaced under warranty.
Shameless plug for a Battery Tender...I'll never leave my car sitting without one ever again, and they even make ones that are waterproof for outdoor use if you don't keep your car in a garage.
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Teching In
Joined: Nov 2007
Posts: 17
Likes: 0
From: Arizona
back when I worked at checker the gel cells always did screwy things when they went bad. the most common problem was them working one day, dying the next (drop to like 5v), then charge and test fine on the machines, plenty of CCA's, they'll put them in they're car and start it up but the next morning...nothing.
I never figured out what killed them, or why they did what they did, but if they give you crap about warranty tell them to keep it for 24 hours and test it the next day. Almost all the time they read 5v-6v with no CCA's after testing good 12 hours ago.
I never figured out what killed them, or why they did what they did, but if they give you crap about warranty tell them to keep it for 24 hours and test it the next day. Almost all the time they read 5v-6v with no CCA's after testing good 12 hours ago.