About six months ago I complained my Battery was going dead if it sat for 3 weeks, and got lots of ideas from you guys. The battery charger I had at the time would not get the battery up above 12 volts. I took the battery back to NAPA for testing, and they said it did not have a full enough charge on it to test it. Instead of replacing the battery they talked me into buying a new battery charger. It got it charged up enough to start the car, and then the charging system of the car got it up to speed as long as I kept driving it a fair amount.

This week I pulled the car in and out of the garage several times, and did not let it idle enough to keep it charged. On top of this, if I do not rev the engine, the GM one wrie alternator does not go above ten volts. So this week the voltage dropped down so the car woukd barely start. Things are not right still. Here are the abservations:

1. With the battery charger on it for 12 hours, and the negative cable unhocked, set for 12 amps charge rate it will not raise the voltage above 11.8.
2. It will start, at which point the system reads 10.5 volts until I rev the engine.
3. After reving the engine the charging system kicks it up to 13.5 volts.
4. When I cut the engine off the voltage will be up above 12.2. It would probably be higher if I let it idle longer.
5. When I check the output of the charger, it reads 2.5 volts, but I suspect there is a solid state circuit that senses the load placed on the charger.
6. When I put an amp meter in series with negative post and negative cable it shows no parasitic draw. However, the voltmeter does show 11.8 volts when in series of negative cable. I must question the meter.

Thoughts? I think the battery or the charger is bad, but this is the second charger that has under performed. Although both of those products are/were cheap junk from China. The first one came from Advance. The second one,from NAPA, is fancy, with a selection for battery type and charge rate. But it is still built to a price, and of questionable reliability. I would like some support and ideas of what to say when I go back to NAPA with both the battery and the charger. Until I get this worked out I do not want to drive the car. I bet if I took the battery to Sears, they woukd tell me it was bad.

Sam

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Sounds like the battery is junk to me, maybe the charger too. I good battery at full charge should be 12.5-12.8 V with nothing connected. An older battery might be OK down to 12.2 or so when fully charged (when it won't take any more), but any lower than that and you are usually in trouble. Letting a battery sit a full or nearly full discharge for a few days or weeks will usually kill it permanently.

Lou

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Home of Slant6-powered fun machines since 1988

You could try charge the battery again, then check the voltage of the
battery. if still low volts, then bring batt to NAPA and tell them you
charged battery but still inop.

My battery charger voltage when hooked up to battery goes up
to about 13.8 volt then drops to 12.7 volts while charging, it keeps
cycling back and forth between these voltages.

bad cell in battery.

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Ed
64 Valiant 225 / 904 / 42:1 manual steering / 9" drum brakes

Did I kill it by letting it run down, or did the cell just die.? Seems like a chicken and egg question here. I had an Optima Battery before that lasted about ten years. The problem there was it never died. It just got weaker until it was too weak to run the computer right. It took a little investigation to figure out that one.

Any favorite battery brands out there? I hate going to the NAPA store because service is so terrible. The same is true of our local Sears store. Advance is no picnic either. I do like my local Pep Boys. Are the Batteries at NAPA or Sears worth the pain involved in dealing with them? Are Pep Boys batteries OK? What is the word on the street about Optima Batteries these days? How about Walmart? Is there stuff junk?

Thanks. Sam

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If you don't want to screw around, get an Interstate battery from a reputable (usually small) service center. You cannot buy them at regular parts stores or big box stores.

Otherwise, consider ordering an Odyssey battery online. PC1200T would be an excellent choice. Odysseybattery.com

Note that Odysseys are AGM cells, so you should not charge them "fast" using an old style charger (over about 6 A rate). I think they are basically the same design as Optima but likely higher quality. Optima may be perfectly fine, but I have no experience with those. If you got 10 yrs out of an Optima, maybe that is best?

Lou

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Home of Slant6-powered fun machines since 1988

Alot of the lead acid batteries are made by Johnson controls.
http://www.johnsoncontrols.com/content/ ... rands.html
http://bestbatterytips.com/tags/who-mak ... batteries/
So then it comes down to price and warranty.
That is Walmart by a long shot.
I have their MAXX battery in my 86 thats been ther since 2007.
It's been frozen once from sitting 6 monthes and has started my truck
everyday during the last 2 Polar vortex's we have had the last 2 years.
Warranty you cant beat Walmart.
All warranty and price's were check again when we put 1 in my brothers truck last year.
Also learned that they put a sticker on the battery as to what month it was received and filled with acid.
That sticker is used for warranty purpose if you dont keep your receipt.
So make sure you grab one that has current month on it and not one thats been sitting there for a month or 2, unless your really good at hanging on to receipts.

Dave

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86 Miser 170,000+
2 1/4" exhaust
Holley 1920 #55
HEI MSD BLaster 2
17.8 mpg

Got a 700 CCA battery from Walmart for $105 that has a five year warrantee, three year replacement. All interstate dealers were closed for Labor Day. Optima batteries were $220. I wanted to get this done on my day off. Now it fires up more quickly than I ever remember it doing. I bought a battery cut off and put it on the ground cable, and a strange condition revealed itself.i will post that in another thread. Thanks for the tips.

Sam

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I get the Costco batteries.

They're interstate now, previously Kirkland (both made by Johnson controls)


They changed the warranty. It's now 42 month free replacement no prorating........ (I foresee batteries failing at 41 months )



Costco will give you back the original purchase price (or prorated if you have the older Kirkland), and the current core charge at customer service.

You then go get the new battery (at current price) and pay the core charge. If you have another old battery you can use that as a core, and get a discount for the core back from that too.....

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Ed
64 Valiant 225 / 904 / 42:1 manual steering / 9" drum brakes

Be a bit weary of what your buying. Just because it's made by Johnson Controls doesn't mean its all the same. Even Interstate has different grades. Sometimes you can tell just by the weight or CCA's.

As Lou said, hawker odyssey are the bees knees. They are (slightly?) less expensive in the Sears Diehard Platinum dressing (yes, confirmed by the manufacturer). A bit more capacity for the same size as they use rectangular plates instead of spiral cells. Not as much space between the cells.

You can definitely charge them over a 6a rate. In fact the OEM literature has a minimum charge rate spec, not a max. Fast charge rates aren't an issue unless you go over 14.7ish volts. Even a 2a charger can overcharge these if left on long enough. The problem is dummy style transformer chargers that keep dumping in current until something goes poof. If you have a smart charger or at dummy one with voltage cutoff charge rate is a non-issue.

Seems quality is hit and miss on the optimas since they went to Mexico (Yep, Johnson Controls...)