My current situation, the car is hard to start, it just barely starts. I noticed on the voltmeter gauge on the dash that it reads around 13 volts when I am driving, but when I come to a stop and hit idle, it drops well below that to around 10 volts or so. I read in a previous post that the Optima batteries do not like to sit around and the car needs to be ran frequently. I rarely drive my car and it has been sitting idle for over a month and a half. It gets driven maybe once or twice a month and it is short trips usually. This Optima battery was replaced in the fall, is it possible that the lack of inactivity has caused a cell in the battery to die?

 

Bring it back to where you bought it from and have them load test it.

 

A battery could crap out when you leave it sit for awhile, especially a cheap one, but something confuses me. When the car is on, your voltmeter is reading charging voltage. Maybe something might be up with your alternator? If it is only supplying 10 volts to the battery, there is no way it could charge the battery to the roughly 12 volts it needs to start.

I dunno. It is 3 in the morning, and I am kind of beat. Hopefully someone else with chime in.

 

I'm taking it to Autozone today to have them load test it.. Also, I did just put a brand new alternator in it so I guess we will see what happens.

 

Well, I took it to Autozone and they told me "the battery is good but the charge is low." So I took it home, cleaned all of the connections real good once again with a wire brush and drove the car around for awhile. After keeping a constant eye on the voltmeter gauge on the dash, it still seems a little low from where it used to be at. I am still convinced that the battery may have some damage or it may be on its way out. Is it possible that a battery may have a damaged cell and not be at full working order but still pass a load test?

 

Take a multimeter and check at the battery, with vehicle running.... Should read 13.8~14.2 volts... If not then, possibly bad connection/alternator...

As for the load test, take the battery to another parts store to have it checked... It not uncommon the load tester read wrong.... If the charge was low, then it might be a cell going out.....

 

Great, thanks for the info. I only measured the voltage across the battery terminals with the car off, I will try it tommorow with the car running. I'm pretty sure it will be in the 13.6-14.0 range as that was what I was seeing on the dash gauge while driving the car around town. I am still convinced though that the battery is on its way out. I just put a brand new alternator on the car yesterday and cleaned up all of the connections and terminals with a wire brush. I also did a resistance check of the wire going from the alternator to the battery and the ohms reading was normal. I will try another store to have the load test done, the kid did seem a little fumbly and unsure of the equipment. Thanks again.