Cumalot

iTrader: (8)

I was about to head off to school. I crank up the ignition, and got nothing. I mean nothing, there was no sound or anything. So, I had to borrow my brother's semi-riced out '00 Accord to school; kind of embarassing driving around in a riced out car to be honest with you. He had stupid *** Calvin stickers, a "Honda Sport" windshield banner, and muffler cap(and it's fugly.) Anyway, when I came back home, I tried to jump the battery using my brother's car. After charging for awhile, I tried to start it up. And I got nothing once again. This was really odd to me. Was it the battery? How can it be, it's a new Optima red top battery. Anyway, I had my old battery that still in good condition, so I put that one in. And it worked! So, I was still confused. I thought maybe it had to be my alternator or starter. So, I brought my car to the dealer to let them take a look at it. I got a call back from the dealer, and the guy told me the alternator was charging(not sure what that means, but I guess it means the alternator was fine), starter was fine as well, but the belts did need to be replaced. Well, my car is still at the dealer; I probably going to get it back in the morning. Now, I'm confused. The alternator is fine and the starter is fine; how could it be the new Optima battery? Now, does this means my Optima battery is no longer useable? I mean, I tried to jump it, and it didn't work. So, I have no ideas right now. I'm also wondering maybe I had too many thing hooked up to the Optima battery at the time? I had this connector thing that goes to the fusible links box(have no idea what this connector was for, but I connected back because it was there before.)I also had my amp power cables connected to the + battery terminal too. There were two more thing that were hooked up to the + battery terminal: the two power wires from the APC wire harness and the wire for my Varad EL scanner. Was this overload? I just don't have great knowledge about these kind of stuff. I hope that some of you would know what the heck is wrong with my car. I know that that a few of you have helped out before, and I really appreciated. I really do. So, I hope that you can help me out here once more. Thanks.

Mike S.

If your belts needed replacement or tightening....the car would not make any power. The dealer is saying all electrical componets are good but the belts are slipping so bad(and you keep using that belt dressing crap ) that the alternator is not turning and making any power the run the car or charge the battery. You have been driving your car running off the power of the optima.

Cumalot

iTrader: (8)

Yes, I did read your post, but I guess I didn't really understand it fully. You do make sense though. So, what about my Optima battery? Is it still good? When I get my car back, if I put the Optima battery back in, it should work, right?

Cumalot

iTrader: (8)

I would like to also add that with of my questionings and confusions, you can tell that I still have a lot to learn about cars in general. So, please excuse me.

Btw Mike S., thanks for the information.

Mike S.

The deep cycle optima is meant to be drained several times by a high power car stereo(without the car running).

Our regular optimas are not the same BUT I'm sure they can be drained fully a few times without hurting it. One thing for sure. Take your battery and have it fully charged.....THEN put it back in the car. DON'T make the car charge it up. Its HARD on the alternator. I assume your car is at the dealer.....what battery is in there now? You have your optima with you at home?

Cumalot

iTrader: (8)

Yes, I have the Optima battery here at home. The battery in my car is the old battery; Diehard battery. How can I charge up the Optima battery? I don't have a charger here or anything.

Maxima97GLE

My battery was dead when I tried to go to the store around 2 hours ago. Its the Factory battery but like Cumalot I got amp cables and fogs wired to the battery. I was going to buy a red top Optima today but after reading this I'm not so sure I wanna invest my money in a battery that will do the same thing as my factory battery (die). Well if the red top Optima is going to make my car better and not die from my system, let me know because I'll buy it as soon as I can.

Cumalot

iTrader: (8)

If you want to buy an Optima battery, I suggest you buy the yellow top one. The Yellow top is a deep cycle battery and is more designed for cars with a heavy stereo system. If I had to do it again, I would get the yellow top instead.

Maxima97GLE

thanks... i'm gonna get the yellow top and paint the top red to match my engine.

Cumalot

iTrader: (8)

Paint the top red? You can do that? What type of paint you going to use? I would think you have to cover up the terminals though? I also want to paint mine, but paint it blue to match my engine's interior. I'm planning to get blue hoses from Hose Techniques soon. That will match up my engine bay nicely.

Maxima97GLE

i'll cover everything real nice so that just whatever is yellow turns red... i'll use high temp red paint and high temp clearcoat... u can check pictures of my engine in the more pics section of my web page at the bottom of my sig... im the only one with red under the hood

Eric L.

Well, the first thing you should have done is take a voltage reading of your battery to see if that was the culprit. If the battery is completely drained (like under 8V total), it will not even make a clicking starter sound when your turn your key. It's that drained. And you can't jump a severely drained battery either. There's no excuse for not having a volt meter...they cost $20 for a small digital one at Radio Shack. It's not the best, but will be fine for measuring battery voltages. It's better than paying the dealer to tell you your car is fine and still leave you mystified as to what the actual problem really was.

I would say return the Optima, get a good normal brand like DieHard or Exide and get a battery charger with the money you would have spent on the Optima. It's worth it in the long run and most mechanics recommend that a trickle charge now and then to even a healthy battery will keep it in good shape. There is no proof that an Optima Red top will outlast a normal premium battery. If you think about it, how much confidence will you have in the Optima five, six, seven years from now. By then a normal battery will be at the end of its warranty and you will probably buy a new one, but if you get an Optima, you will have to gamble that it will last like ten years before dying in order to make it worth your money.

As for the Yellow Top, it's only for people who must run their batteries down for stereo competitions. Or for people with like 1000W audio systems. It's overkill for everyone else. Even a good conventional battery will power your stereo for hours (volume set at a sane level) before draining so much that you can't start your car.





[Edited by Eric L. on 01-17-2001 at 04:55 AM]

Eric L.

If the battery is dead, it needs to be charged. No other way to charge it but to hook it up a good old fashioned trickle charger. It will take quite a while to charge up a dead battery though. Most dealerships have a charging machine, as do most service stations. I'm sure if you pay them like $5-10 they will charge your battery for you.

But why not spend $45 at Costco for your own battery charger?

party_boy

first of all, you should purchase a trickle charger
secondly you should purchase a voltmeter.
Third...especially if you live in an area where you do a lot of short trips or extreme tempratures (cold) you should charge your battery once every other week or so. (i charge mine every time i wash my car) The only other way is to drive for longer trips of half hour or more to let the alternator charge the battery to a certain extent.

Optima batteries are the top of the line interstate battery. I have never had a problem with one unless the alternator wasnt sending power to the battery. I have the yellow top 750 dt i think