RE: [DML] Questionable Optima Battery and voltage problem

["John Hervey" <john@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Joe,
Your the second person that had a bad experience with an optima battery. The
other person burned up an alternator regulator because the new Optima
battery was shorted.
This is why when I sell an alternator and I explain how to check the battery
and they say it's a new battery I cringe. It could still be shorted, over
voltage or just bad. I have stated this before on the list but it's worth
repeating.
If you want to do a quick test on the battery condition ( OCV )Open circuit
voltage test on a new battery or old one, it won't take long and nothing to
unhook.
Here is what too do.
Charge the battery over night on a slow charger( 6 or 10amp ). Then the next
morning, unhook the charger and read the voltage across the battery
terminals with a DMM. If it's above 12.66 volts then turn on the lights for
a couple of minuets to bleed off the surface volts. Then read the voltage
again, it should be 12.66 volts to be fully charged and the condition good.
If the battery has a problem then here is what lower voltages show what the
battery condition will be.
12.66,,100% Good and holding a charge.
12.58,,90%
12.51,,80%
12.45,,70%
12.35,,60%
12.28,,50%
12.20,,40%
and so on.

Remember, Alternators are not made to charge the battery but to maintain it.
If you try to charge with the alternator you may burn up the regulator. Any
time you have a low voltage condition you need to charge the battery and do
the above test. If it turns out that your battery is below 100%, then the
alternator is always trying to charge and it will never get caught up. This
also why people have low voltage problems with the cars in lights dimming
and poor performance. Again, this is what keeps alternators rebuilders and
builders in business. Get a new battery, they aren't that expensive and
should be replaced every 2 to 3 years depending on the condition.
Instead of trying to track down all the places the drain could be. Install a
battery cut off switch and forget it. If you still want to track it down,
then you would have to look at the design of the parts and even down to the
inside of some relay's that have a resistor inside them.
Hope this helps.
John Hervey
www.specialtauto.com






-----Original Message-----
From: Palatinus, Joe [mailto:jopalatinus@xxxxxxxxxxxx]
Sent: Friday, April 02, 2004 10:23 PM
To: dmcnews@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [DML] Questionable Optima Battery and voltage problem


Last Thanksgiving I installed an El-Glo dash kit (from Ryan on the list) and
a new optima battery from Pep Boys
 in my daily driver.  I started driving the car and after leaving it for 3-4
days at a time the car battery would be dead, and i could only start it with
a jump. I ran the car for a while to charge the battery, but this problem
kept repeating. I was convinced that the problem was I had miswired the dash
kit somehow and it was somehow draining the battery.  After I would run it
for a while it would start right up, so I was under the impression that the
battery was still good.  This problem persisted for several months, and I
finally decided to take the battery in for a test.  I took the battery to
Pep boys and they tested it and within 2 minutes their analyzer said battery
bad.  I hadn't even had this battery for a full year!  Luckily Pep Boys
exchanged the 130$ battery for free and I have had no problems starting
since then.
I have noticed however that my voltage seems to drop to exceedingly low
levels randomly (lower than the first red mark).  (The battery light remains
off, and the car still seems to operate fine, but I worry that this is due
to the battery being fresh and new.  I have one of 105 amp delco
alternators, so I wouldn't immediately suspect the alternator.  If the
battery light remains off the alternator should still be ok right?
Thanks
Joe P.
VIN 17167 6808



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