Optima yellow top batterys keeping dying on me

[Spider]

check and see if your amps turn off when you shut the car off, if not, thats the problem

They do...

Well...

My sub one does. The other ones stuffed under the car seat...I know last time I messed with it it still turned off with the car off but I'd have to check again to be sure.

Kinkyllama also wrote:
..........."I'm pretty sure my alternator isn't putting out enough...but I dont really care.

Hey kinkyllama,


Don't know if you remember (I do, i'm 67) but sure that you know that back in the pre-computer days when you turned off the ignition and pulled your keys out etc. unless you had a short or left your lights on.?
no juice was being drawn from the battery.

In todays cars juice is being drawn out of your battery even after everything is "shut-off".
If your battery will hold a charge and is fully charged (BTW,it gets that from the alternator output)
Than, not a problem and you could go months that way without ever starting your car and it would crank over.

Only if you have a "draw" (from a short, or a battery that does not have much of a charge
and/or one that is not holding a charge.) Than you would have a problem. You would have to look for it, "test" stuff.


You have been getting a lot of good advice in this thread.
Nothing personal, but you seem to be not following most of it and are just guessing at this point.

Have you had your battery tested ? (load tested)
Have you gone over your electronic system with a multi-meter ?
Have you done any of the tests that were linked to you ?

I hope you have good luck !
[/b]

[kinkyllama]

You have been getting a lot of good advice in this thread.
Nothing personal, but you seem to be not following most of it and are just guessing at this point.

Have you had your battery tested ? (load tested)
Have you gone over your electronic system with a multi-meter ?
Have you done any of the tests that were linked to you ?

I hope you have good luck !
[/b]

There isn't much I can do at this point as my cars in the shop again.

What will load testing the battery tell me? I know it won't hold a charge. I had the car running for 30mins, at first electronics would go on and off and eventually one would stay on and the next would do the same untill it stayied on. I turned the car off and 5 seconds later it had NOTHING to crank over with at all. Even the beeper for the door ajar wasn't getting enough juice and sounded strange.

I know the car stereo isnt to blame...or shouldnt be. As I recently had tons of trouble with it and we went through the whole thing several times to check. I should check my MSD DIS-2 again though...it's caused problems in the past.

[Spider]

You have been getting a lot of good advice in this thread.
Nothing personal, but you seem to be not following most of it and are just guessing at this point.

Have you had your battery tested ? (load tested)
Have you gone over your electronic system with a multi-meter ?
Have you done any of the tests that were linked to you ?

I hope you have good luck !

___________________________________________
Spider answered:

Well, you quoted me (above) but you omitted the part where I said the battery gets it's charge from the alternator. ':lol:'

I wrote that in response to this (following) statement you made a couple of posts back:

"I'm pretty sure my alternator isn't putting out enough...but I dont really care."

________________________________________________
Anyway, now your saying:

"What will load testing the battery tell me? I know it won't hold a charge. I had the car running for 30mins, at first electronics would go on and off and eventually one would stay on and the next would do the same untill it stayied on. I turned the car off and 5 seconds later it had NOTHING to crank over with at all,..............

And now I (Spider) am responding again:

Your above 'test' for 30 minutes of running (especially if you ran it at an idle?) tells me (and you) nothing.

The way to know for sure if your battery is any good is to:
1)...Completely disconnect it from the electrical system.
2)... Put it on a slow charge, overnight with a good automatic battery charger.
3)...Take the charger off. Don't hook up the battery cables yet.
4)...Read the existing charge right after you take the charger off it. Should be over 14 VDC (the higher the better)
5)...Take a break, let everything sit for one hour.
6)...Read the existing charge again. It will have dropped to 13~13.5 VDC. Anything lower than 12.5 means your battery won't hold a charge.
Whatever it reads ? Even if its in the 14 VDC range ? I would still take it to an AutoZone (or a battery shop) They have a machine that will load test it for free.
These six steps I have listed, along with load testing on a machine will tell you (for sure) if your battery is good or not.

P.S. You will need a digital multi-meter set to 20 VDC in order to perform these tests,
they are cheap, easy to use and instructions are included.

again, good luck
and keep us posted ok ?

Spider

[daewoomofo]

you also might have a bad ground. i had a 1977 Cadillac hooptie-ville and it had a bad ground and wouldnt charge the battery so when i got in it wouldnt start. try checking your grounds

[kinkyllama]

P.S. You will need a digital multi-meter set to 20 VDC in order to perform these tests,
they are cheap, easy to use and instructions are included.

again, good luck
and keep us posted ok ?

Where should I buy one of these?

I'll probably just have the shop doing my F28 install do it since they probably have the tools and it takes 2 mins.

you also might have a bad ground. i had a 1977 Cadillac hooptie-ville and it had a bad ground and wouldnt charge the battery so when i got in it wouldnt start. try checking your grounds

Even if I had several other grounds that should be good?

[daewoomofo]

if the ground connector is bad that would cause it. i remember with my cadi, as soon as i put the new ground on it NEVER gave me ant more trouble (with starting) are you using the oem grounds or did you install a grounding kit ?

[kinkyllama]

if the ground connector is bad that would cause it. i remember with my cadi, as soon as i put the new ground on it NEVER gave me ant more trouble (with starting) are you using the oem grounds or did you install a grounding kit ?

Gotta grounding kit