I have a few questions for you all about some battery issues in my 99 TA.

I had to replace the stock battery 2 years ago, and I replaced it with a PowerVolt 72.*
Now keep in mind I don't drive this car a lot, but enough to keep it charged.* The past 2 weeks I have basically had to keep it on the charger...I can let it idle for 5 minutes or so and it will be fine.* Maybe an hour or more later, it click when I turn the key, and I have to hook it back up to the charger....I have it charging right now at 2 hours on 15A.
SO.
I plan to replace it....I have always been an Optima fan, as I have them in the other f-bodies...but just wanted to know if anyone has any other opinions on a battery.* I am just tired of worrying about the charger....the alternator checks good, so this is very annoying.* There are no drains, so I am guessing it's a crappy battery.
I thought about replacing it w/ the smaller red top, b/c it's easier to get in to the battery tray.* BUT I am open to ideas

 

Something is definitely draining the battery, it's not normal to put it on the charger even after two weeks of sitting. As far as battery choice, i've had my yellow top Optima for about 4 years with no issues.

 

Most batteries have a 36 month free replacement warranty - if it was fine for 2 years and at least 690 CCA bring it back and have them load test it.

 

Thanks for the replies.* I am going to let the car sit for a week and check the voltage again to see what's going on. I hope it's just a junk battery. I haven't messed w/ anything electrical at all, so I can't see where the drain would be....interesting.

Will post up results.

 

Until you actually test for drains, don't rule the possibility out. Many times you cannot visually detect a drain. And what's with the asterisks after every one of your sentences? That's annoying.

 

Optima makes a hell of a battery. It's hard to kill them and even though it can take alot of abuse from electrical gremlins, I'd still try and track down the real problem first

 

I didn't put them there, it didn't start until after I installed Vista. Sorry it's so annoying

 

Have you tinkered with anything electronic in your car lately? Maybe it's a bad ground?

 

Hey all!

Thanks for all of the replies.

I had the battery tested today, and it tested as a BAD battery! I was so happy to see the red light w/ the RED X appear! I felt much better about the car.

They did pro-rate the battery, and I replaced it with a red top Optima, like I have in the other cars, which is what I should have done in the first place.

Thanks a bunch for the replies

 

you should look further into the problem. Hopefully it stops here for you but this happened to me in my 99 and after going through about 16 batteries and eventually 6 alternators I found the actual problem. The bcm was bad which was draining the battery, which eventually drained the alternator because it had to keep recharging my batteries. If you hear any buzzing coming from underneath your glove box this could be the problem.

 

Interesting....I will keep this in mind. Thank you for posting that up. I will be keeping an eye on it.

 

Agreed -- the battery was probably bad because it was drained so many times. Car batteries aren't designed for that. Drain one too many times, and it'll stop accepting/holding a charge, which is what makes it fail the test.

 

This is the case I am hoping for....maybe just a bad battery. Heck, I don't know....but if the same thing happens to the Optima...I will know to dig deeper....

 

I'm telling you it's not just a bad battery. That's really quite rare on modern cars.

The odds are extremely high that something on your car is draining your battery. It'll kill the optima too, and then you will have wasted a bunch of money. Get it fixed!

 

Yes, I understand what you are saying....sorry for the confusion.....w/ the Optima, I paid under $100, b/c of the credit on the other battery, and a gift card I had received....not sure what could be draining it, since nothing electrical has been messed with. Have any ideas how to track it down?