I topped off distilled water in my battery and now it doesn't want to charge anymore. did this happen to anyone? I am going to get an INTERSTATE battery tomorrow.

 

Why did you have to top it off to begin with? Alot of batters are maintenance free batteries which means you dont need to add water.

Was it working before? If so, there is no reason why it would stop after adding some distilled water. If the battery didnt hold charge before topping it off, then I bet the plates are screwed because of sediment.

Dixit

 

Maxima stock battery is not maintenance free. It even says that in the manual to add distilled water to it. It felt to me that the battery wasn't cranking as good in the winter, then I checked the level and it was between Min and Max and level was at Min on some cells, so I added water to bring them all to the level.

 

Yes, the OEM battery is not maintenance free. You'll find that in general, if you keep a watch on battery level a non-maintenance free battery will last far longer than a maintenenace free battery. My guess is that maintenance free batteries still lose water but at a much lower rate. But since you can't add water eventually the level goes low and the battery dies. For me, it's worth checking the level every month or two (if you have to add more freqently your battery charging system is not working right or the battery's on its last legs anyway).

As for your dead battery a couple possibilities. If you let the water level go real low you damaged the battery and adding more water was the "straw that broke the camel's back".


Other possibility is you contaminated the battery while filling it. Before filling or checking always clean the area around the battery caps. I even use a little spray cleaner like 409 or Fantastic with a paper towel. Then take the caps off and wipe again in the areas covered by the cap. Wipe in a direction AWAY from the holes. Then use a clean funnel to add water with a mininmum of spillage. Any water on the top of the battery has a chance to be contaminated and then wash back into the hole. It doesn't take much contamination to defeat the whole point of using distilled water.

 

Yeah, I tried to be careful when filling it (I cleaned it and stuff before opening it up), but who knows

 

I didn't have a problem with mine when I filled the level. Yes, you have to make sure there's no dirt around the caps before taking it off, that's what i did and used a funnel to prevent spillage as well.

 

I went and bought a new battery and everything is fine now. When I took the old one out, I noticed that one side was buldging out quite a bit, so there is a problem. Not sure what caused it though, probably a short between the cells.