Phoenix Gold Phorum

My 3 year old Optima Bluetop is starting to act up again. After sitting for 24h, it can barely start my car (I have to turn off all the accessories, lights, etc. and it BARELY starts). It's left me stranded and needing to call friends for a boost several times now. Last night it refused to start for Wendy after only 5 minutes of turning the car off.

What's strange is that the measurements seem to totally disagree with the symptoms. I've checked for current draw while the car is off... 0.1 amps, which is slightly higher than stock, but nowhere near enough to drain a battery overnight (or especially in 5 mins). I had it load tested, and it came up with 760 cranking amps at 12.4v. They recommended putting it on a ~5 amp charger for 12 hours... I have both a 70 amp power supply and a trickle charger that I have tried, which they said were too much and too little, respectively. Is there any truth to that? After charging it on the 70amp for 5 hours, then trickle charging it for 24 hours, the battery seemed REALLY good, starting immediately with no low power symptoms... but 24 hours later, same thing!

So... what the heck could be going on here? One of the six cells cutting out intermittently? It's definitely not a starter problem because all of the accessories have just as much trouble with the low voltage. The externally regulated 200 amp Wrangler NW alternator is putting out a steady 14.4v, and the car runs perfectly whenever I get boosted, so I doubt its the alt.

Needless to say, if it is the battery at fault, I won't be replacing it with another Optima. This is already my second one to fail after only three years, and they've cut their warranty down to two years now!! Probably going with Deka or Odyssey, which also means I will also have to get new battery terminals, because my stock harness doesn't reach a true group 34's. I wish PG still made their fused dual0+dual8 terminals, as they would have been PERFECT for my car, and I could have gone back to my ISO battery rather than the group 34 I have to run for dual terminals.

crazy sorry to here that again

I have had batteries that they tested as good, but afte they let the battery sit there for 3 hrs with nothing hooked up it would still drop to 11-12v....

I have not heard anything good about optima for the past 4-5 yrs and why I am going for stinger when my check comes in.

I have had the same problem with optima batts for years now from yellow tops and red tops.I have a yellow top in my civic that came out of my girls bronco it does the same you have going on right now.My buddy had a yellow top in his acura that would not start his car I had to go to his house to help him out.His batt was reading 12.9 I told him I had seen them read good and be bad we checked my red top in my truck it read 12.5 so.4 less than his we took my batt out put it in his car and it started right up.I have seen this happen many times I can't remember how many we warranted when I worked at Discount Auto Sound.

It took me 3 Optimas to realize they are garbage. I would never consider buying another one.

I will say though, 100 milliamps is a significant draw. My Legend has more electronics than you can shake a stick at, and still is nowhere near that- .062 amps.
A quick Google search pulled up this (ironically) straight from Optimas website-
" In fact, we suggest a 25-milliamp draw is normal and anything that exceeds 100-milliamps indicates an electrical issue that needs to be addressed"

Do you have an alarm? It may be a good idea to start pulling fuses and determine what it is that's drawing all that current.

agreed parastic drain should not be more than 0.02-0.08 of a amp any more theres something wrong

oh crap I missed that... Time to hook up the amp-meter and start pullin fuses....

when you check the parasitic voltage make sure all doors are closed and dome lights go off and give the electronics (black boxes) time to reset. it will have a higher reading at first till everything resets to normal after you insert the meter to take the reading.

Optima crapped out again last night, hours after leaving the battery shop with a good test, so I picked up a Deka Intimidator 34/78. Will have to get the Stinger's GM side posts for my 0 gauge feeds, and need to extend my stock harness by a few inches to reach the terminals (my car has a group 48 stock, so rear terminals). Got some mil-spec terminals and 8 gauge to take care of that. Also need to fab a new mount for my fuse because it no longer fits beside the battery (Deka's a bit wider).

I agree .1 amp is a high draw, but it's not going to nuke a battery overnight. Come to think of it, these issues started getting worse after installing a cap in my stereo, though you wouldn't think that would be causing a constant draw... probably just a coincidence. Either way I'll be checking it out to see how much I can reduce it, because I like to go camping and hate "surprises".

I do have a stock alarm, but the siren module is removed because the dying batteries caused the alarm to go off repeatedly, and there is no source for them anymore (short of buying a full alarm module from Saab, or a lot of 5000 batteries). Who knows, maybe the lack of siren is causing the security module to freak out.

If the cap is the older style 1 farad types, it "could" be to blame, but it would be very rare. Just like leaking PG amp caps, the big can types can chemically change, and it may now have a small resistance value, which is drawing constant current from the battery.

Again, I really doubt it though.

.1 isn't enough to kill a good battery but no matter what the battery shop tells you it is not good. As I said before charge it up, do not connect it to anything and then let it sit overnight and measure it again and I bet you read a voltage drop. .1 amps I would say though is enough of a slow drain that over time could slowly cause the battery to go bad. I was having problems last year with my batteries that I finally figured out was being caused by the back-up batteries in my alarms(both cars). Ever found 1 good battery to fit the remote but not be able to find the 2nd? Well yes it will work but probably for less then a week as the bad one will create a draw on the good one and take it down. They(alarm batts) were 3-5 yrs old by that point and by simply disconnecting them did the trick but they had just barely above the .1 draw you had(.18 I think it was?).

this is pretty easy....you have a bad cell.....-1 cell brings it below 10v (that will eat the starter) you need to charge it then load test right after charge....9/10 times I would say dead cell


5 amp charge is good enough... 70 is too much...15 is as high as I would go...

tonym wrote:this is pretty easy....you have a bad cell.....-1 cell brings it below 10v (that will eat the starter) you need to charge it then load test right after charge....9/10 times I would say dead cell


5 amp charge is good enough... 70 is too much...15 is as high as I would go...

That's exactly what I am thinking as well... at least it's intermittently failing. My last Optima had the same issue, though it would never start or charge afterwards. The one before that failed completely, putting out 0 volts...

I agree; sounds like the typical problems caused by a bad cell.
We have customers who buy a optima for they use their classic MB only a few times a year. Many have a alarmsystem....Voltage reads good after a few months, but starting the engine is impossible.
While testing it for CCA it looks O.K, but depending on the outside temp. it randomly fails.
After many complaints we do not sell or recommend Optima batteries anymore.
Spiral-cell technology is promissing but not perfected yet...
My 2 cnts.

I thought I had rememberd hearing at some point that they were bought out and that the quality went down after that?

The people I talked to said that optimas are good for show cars that are not ran much but DD are just not good places for them. I am going with stinger as soon as my money comes in.

Never had any problems with any of mine......things happen at random to every part on a car.

Stryker wrote:Never had any problems with any of mine......things happen at random to every part on a car.

x2 tom it might another problem in your car and after time it just damages the battery?

another problem I have heard about I think it was the yellow top was that they will suffer damage if not charged at 14+v. They said if your car has a weak alt and is closer to the 13v mark that it would somehow cause a problem. I wish I could cut and paste out of that post as it was not long ago when I asked them what brand of batteries they would recomend. None of the experts recomended optima anymore unless it was strictly for a show car that would be charged through a power source most of the time....

Jesus. This whole ordeal sure reminds me how much I hate Canadian brick & mortars...

So I'm trying to find these so I can use my existing Stinger 2x0 gauge ring terminals:
http://www.stingerelectronics.com/produ ... egoryID=10

I go to the official PG/Stinger retailer (Visions). After waiting 15 minutes for the three douchebags working there to serve two customers, I finally get to ask if they are available. Nope. But we have these generic brass ones that we bought at the local auto parts store. How much? $50 for the pair. Wat. Then I tried to buy 4 feet of red 4 gauge, but they no longer sell wire by the foot. Instead, they offered me a shoddy 8 gauge wiring kit for $80. I declined. As a PG dealer, they had absolutely ZERO PG in stock. Only JL and Kicker prefabs.

Went to Future Shop (Stinger retailer), and again, nada. Checked the other stores in the area, Best Buy, etc, for ANY brand... nope. Zilch. Auto parts store didn't have them either.

So I guess I will have to order them online like I always do. I'll get some cheap brass 0 gauge ring terminals from the battery shop in the mean time.

i might have some from a walmart stinger kit i had
i might have sold or gave them away but i will look
they are 14 each at walmart

I have some of the more modern 0 awg ring terminals I can part with if it will help you.

Tom, if you send me more info about what exactly you need I can look over here.

Thanks for the offers, but I got some replicas on eBay for $10 shipped. In the mean time I am rocking ring terminals. I managed to switch the battery over today... it's not pretty, but it does the job. Now let's see if the car starts tomorrow

If it doesn't, just buy a old T-Ford Tom.......

while you have the battery disconnected I would slap your amp-meter in there and pull a couple of fuses to see what that draw is from or this battery will do the same before you know it.