Brand new Optima Red Top battery-dead/help

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    Author Topic: Brand new Optima Red Top battery-dead/help  (Read 2486 times)

    Offline ladman

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    Brand new Optima Red Top battery-dead/help
    « on: August 22, 2010 - 03:18:33 PM »
    So the few times I've driven my car this summer, I seemed to have trouble with my Optima and it was only about 2 1/2 years old.  Charged it, drove it, a week late dead.  So I finally took it to Advanced Auto and they said it was "bad" and gave me a new one free because it was under warranty.

    Well, last Monday I put the new Red Top in and hit the key just to be sure it was connected and closed the trunk.  Went to start my car today and dead battery, which tells me it's not my battery, but something is draining it.  I am short on electrical system diagnostics and don't have a clue where to start.  Any suggestions about where to start looking, would be greatly appreciated.  Thanks in advance.

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    Offline thedodgeboys

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    Re: Brand new Optima Red Top battery-dead/help
    « Reply #1 on: August 22, 2010 - 04:11:39 PM »
    I would start with any add on accessories that you may have added.
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    Offline 73Chally

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    Re: Brand new Optima Red Top battery-dead/help
    « Reply #2 on: August 22, 2010 - 04:17:15 PM »
    Here you go.  You can probably disregard the waiting period for the car to "go back to sleep" since there are no computers involved, but the rest is pretty straight forward.

    http://www.wikihow.com/Find-a-Parasitic-Battery-Drain
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    Offline MEK-Dangerfield

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    Re: Brand new Optima Red Top battery-dead/help
    « Reply #3 on: August 22, 2010 - 04:33:58 PM »
    Those red-top batteries will last for years. I think mine is 5 years old now, but the one thing you CAN'T do is let them go dead.  You have a short or major drain somewhere.
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    Offline HP2

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    Re: Brand new Optima Red Top battery-dead/help
    « Reply #4 on: August 22, 2010 - 04:44:37 PM »
    ...but Hot Rod did show a trick to getting them to properly recharge if you kill em. Trick is to hook up a second battery to the dead Optima, then hook the charger to that unit. This second battery creates enough of a voltage signal to trick the charger in to supplying charge, since a dead Optima does not produce enough voltage when they are dead to signal a charging event.
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    Offline BadJoey

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    Re: Brand new Optima Red Top battery-dead/help
    « Reply #5 on: August 22, 2010 - 08:01:32 PM »
    If you want to know for sure if there is a drain . Unhook the pos battery cable , then put a test light from the cable to the bat post if the light is on there is a drain . If the light is off no drain . Make sure everything is off in the car . Not sure how a clock would effect this test . If the light is not on turn on the head lights and the tester light should come on as that would be the same as a drain . I'm thinking a drain would have to be something not turning off . If a hot wire was touching a ground some place you would know it . Good luck .
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    Offline ladman

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    Re: Brand new Optima Red Top battery-dead/help
    « Reply #6 on: August 23, 2010 - 08:05:45 AM »
    Thanks for the suggestions.  Going to try to track it down tonight.
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    Offline ladman

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    Re: Brand new Optima Red Top battery-dead/help
    « Reply #7 on: August 25, 2010 - 04:43:13 PM »
    Had to have the alternator rebuilt.  Alternator rebuild-$100, new Optima Red Top-$185.  Crap.
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    Offline mopar12372

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    Re: Brand new Optima Red Top battery-dead/help
    « Reply #8 on: August 25, 2010 - 06:33:08 PM »
    FYI the red top batteries are not good draining down aLL the way and charging back up . you can put it on a 40 ampcharge for (20 min only ) to try and nurse it back keeping track of the heat, then trickle charge for a few hours.yel tops are best for our applications since we tend to store our cars and drive them less than our transportation cars .  napa sells a excide gel fill battery thaT is better than the red / yellow top batterys.  i use them batterys at work since we use a heavy load of electronic equipment on our  lift trucks . the red and yellow top batterys dont like heat so its better to mount them in the trunk away from the engine.
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