[not on the rug]

pathy is randomly not starting. brand new optima red top battery. alternator tested good when I tested it last weekend. it's happened twice now. last saturday I drove it all day long, got home, and went to go out 2 hours later and it was stone dead. jumped it and it was fine all week long. this morning when I went to leave for work, it was dead again. I drove it saturday, but not sunday. wtf? possible short somewhere? how does one diagnose something like this?

 

[ChefXterra]

double check both of the battery terminals.. make sure they are clean and super tight... that was my problem once. the negative terminal was super stretched out and wouldn't grip the post of the battery anymore.

 

[General_Tarfun]

pathy is randomly not starting. brand new optima red top battery. alternator tested good when I tested it last weekend. it's happened twice now. last saturday I drove it all day long, got home, and went to go out 2 hours later and it was stone dead. jumped it and it was fine all week long. this morning when I went to leave for work, it was dead again. I drove it saturday, but not sunday. wtf? possible short somewhere? how does one diagnose something like this?

I would ditch the Optima. I had a redtop in a sports car of mine that I would rarely drive and one time the battery went dead and would never hold a charge. So I got another, and another. Finally after three the Optima went into the trash.

 

[skibum315]

double check both of the battery terminals.. make sure they are clean and super tight... that was my problem once. the negative terminal was super stretched out and wouldn't grip the post of the battery anymore.

This ... good first place to start.

... but yeah, I'll second the distrust of current Optima production/product control. They haven't been living up to their reputation in the last couple of years ... I only got a 18 months or maybe two years out of a Red Top when I had one (when it died last fall, I replaced it with the Batteries Plus high-end AGM house brand, X2).

 

[Surf and Snow]

double check both of the battery terminals.. make sure they are clean and super tight... that was my problem once. the negative terminal was super stretched out and wouldn't grip the post of the battery anymore.

This x3
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[not on the rug]

thanks

that's what I was thinking about the terminals. they definitely aren't as tight as i'd like them to be. it seems like the optima posts are slightly smaller than the posts of the battery I replaced. i'm hoping the battery isn't junk, but I'm hearing a lot more that the optimal quality is hit or miss lately. i'm kind of pissed about that. anyway...i'll probably have the battery tested today and i'll change the terminals this afternoon too.

 

[Surf and Snow]

that's what I was thinking about the terminals. they definitely aren't as tight as i'd like them to be. it seems like the optima posts are slightly smaller than the posts of the battery I replaced. i'm hoping the battery isn't junk, but I'm hearing a lot more that the optimal quality is hit or miss lately. i'm kind of pissed about that. anyway...i'll probably have the battery tested today and i'll change the terminals this afternoon too.

Be forewarned, that can be a waste of money, in that order. If they test the battery by clamping onto the terminals, as most places do, they can determine a bad battery even if the battery itself is actually fine. They may see low voltage, but in reality there is a voltage drop between the battery post and the terminal. I cannot stress enough to address the terminals FIRST. Clean them with wire brush or a terminal brush or sandpaper, do the same to the battery posts, then bend them a bit if necessary to make them tight when you tighten the bolt. If you can spin it on the post, that's a HUGE problem. You said yourself they are "definitely not as tight as you'd like them to be". That is your problem. Fix it. Don't waste money on a new battery or being ticked at Optima. It's not their battery and it's not their fault your truck won't start, it's yours. I'd give a 99% certainty the terminals are your problem. This comes from someone who spent his life diagnosing this stuff...
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[not on the rug]

Be forewarned, that can be a waste of money, in that order. If they test the battery by clamping onto the terminals, as most places do, they can determine a bad battery even if the battery itself is actually fine. They may see low voltage, but in reality there is a voltage drop between the battery post and the terminal. I cannot stress enough to address the terminals FIRST. Clean them with wire brush or a terminal brush or sandpaper, do the same to the battery posts, then bend them a bit if necessary to make them tight when you tighten the bolt. If you can spin it on the post, that's a HUGE problem. You said yourself they are "definitely not as tight as you'd like them to be". That is your problem. Fix it. Don't waste money on a new battery or being ticked at Optima. It's not their battery and it's not their fault your truck won't start, it's yours. I'd give a 99% certainty the terminals are your problem. This comes from someone who spent his life diagnosing this stuff...
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thanks buddy. that's what I planned on doing anyway. i'm going to hit the auto parts store and grab some new terminals, and then head over to my buddy's place (he's a mechanic) and throw the new terminals on. he's going to give everything else a once-over and test the alternator again for me. we'll test the battery after all that

 

[not on the rug]

the positive terminal looked good and was on super tight, so we left that one alone. we changed out the negative terminal and then he load tested. everything looked good. hopefully that was it

 

[Mypro4x]

I work at a recharge battery shop for army.... army has all types of optimas. Optima if you don't put on charger when you first get it, they won't last. You need to top it off, not just volts but amps also. Now that there made in Mexico optinas will recharge an average of only 11 times now... but when they fully die to nothing there cold cranking amps will never be back to factory. Just fyi, you battery since being dead 2 times fully the cca might be gone even though it is new, since you probably didn't put the new optima on a charger before installing..

 

[Surf and Snow]

I work at a recharge battery shop for army.... army has all types of optimas. Optima if you don't put on charger when you first get it, they won't last. You need to top it off, not just volts but amps also. Now that there made in Mexico optinas will recharge an average of only 11 times now... but when they fully die to nothing there cold cranking amps will never be back to factory. Just fyi, you battery since being dead 2 times fully the cca might be gone even though it is new, since you probably didn't put the new optima on a charger before installing..

So. Much. Wrong.
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[xterramex]

great info myprox.