So what happened to my Ultima Battery???

[clnilsen]

Well, In a previous thread I was looking for help for what was rapidly discharging my battery, which after a full charge woudl be dead in 24-48 hours. In this troubleshooting process, I tested the battery several times and it always tested "good".

After much testing, I decided to chargethe battery up, and leave it sit unconnected to anything and test after a similar period. Suprise.. it STILL died!!!

Well, I went and bought another repacement battery, so the problem's solved, but I'm trying to do a postmortem on this. What happened to the Battery? I took it to TWO seperate retailers, who both confirmed that the battery was still good. However obviously I would not expect it to discharge itself that quickly.

Any ideas on this?? The battery was just outside it's 3 year warrenty (of course)

Thanks!

Chuck

[RickM]

That's what prevents me from getting one of these batteries. I'll stick with Interstate. Haven't had a problem in years. Yes, it's heavier and can't be mounted in different positions but it's always there when I need it.

[vash]

exact same thing happened to me. chevy truck. i took the truck in, and the mechanic changed some wiring harness, and sent me home. poof! battery still died. took my brand new battery back to pepboys, they tested it, said it was good. when they tried to recharge it for me, it failed. it was losing juice right before our eyes on the counter. they gave me a new optima, but i really dont trust it. my 911 has an interstate. it doesnt fail.

i think the older optimas do good. i have a 10 year old one in my mom's benz. but maybe when the optimas showed up at costco quality suffered?

[anthony]

When Optimas get run down they need more than a trickle charge to get going again. Are you sure the battery got fully charged?

I killed my first Optima over 3 years by under charging it (flakey voltage regulator). Fortunately it came with a 3 year replacement/84 month pro-rated warrenty so I got a free one. With a new voltage regulartor it's been rock solid. Over the winter I've also gotten into the habit of disconnecting the battery after using the car so that it's not slowly decharged by the car's clock.

[clnilsen]

Anthony,

it was indeed trickle charged by the Autozone guys, and on a battery float maintained (tried after the fact).

I also had the ground disconnected over the winter too, so not sure what's happened.

Any way to test the voltage regulator?

Chuck

[chrisp]

I've read here that sometimes a shock to the system helps them retain a charge. Perhaps a high amp charge (like a starting charge of 10A) for a short period will "open the system" to accept a full charge.

[rick conrath]

If you run an optima down, you must hit it with a high amp charge to "shock" it or it will never recharge. I went through this last Winter....I learned my lesson now.
Rick
'78 930

[anthony]

What they said. I'm not exactly sure how to test the voltage regulator in a 911. This was in a 914. I could see that the volt meter in the console showed low volts (12Vs or less if accesories were turned on). I swaped in another voltage regulator from another 914 and could instantly see the proper voltage on the gauge.

So, the new battery may be temporarily masking your draining voltage situation or there may be nothing wrong with your but you simply let the old Optima run too low and then didn't properly charge it back up.

[RickM]

Originally posted by chrisp
I've read here that sometimes a shock to the system helps them retain a charge. Perhaps a high amp charge (like a starting charge of 10A) for a short period will "open the system" to accept a full charge.

IIRC you have to hit it with a 50A charge which is typically classified a jump or starting charge. This will sometimes bring the battery out of hibernation mode.