Optima battery

[Michael C Henry]

I have a yellow top Optima battery .I figure it's almost 3 1/2 years old The car has been laid up for the past 2 1/2 years.It seems to have gone bad .Is that likely?It was charged last week .When I started the car for cam breakin ,the gauge went to 16V and trimmed back to 13 to 14 V. Now I climb in and it has fallen to below 10 and I'm charging it Did I kill it?I bought it for releiability Is there a better batteryand where would be a good place to buy it or another?

[casaleenie]

I threw mine on a charger and fried it... I guess they're real sensitive to being overcharged... Fortunately mine was still under warranty and I cried foul and got another one...
Now I use a trickle charger to keep it up during lay-ups..

[G.R.]

Isn't the Yellow top Optima a deep cycle battery used for RV's and boats? Deep cycle batteries can not take the high cycle load a starting system imposes on them for a long period of time. Deep cycles are more commonly used to run things like house/cabin lighting and other low voltage/amp draw items in RVs or boats. They can be deeply discharged and then brought back to full charge fairly quickly that is why the RV and marine industry uses them--they use a "starting" type battery to turn over the engine.
I had red top Optima in my SPF for 3 years and have one in my 289 now and have never had a problem.

[Dan Stryffeler]

On the Optima web site, there's a couple pages about the applications for red-top or yellow-top. Here's the yellow-top:

http://www.optimabatteries.com/using...ionsYellow.asp

Here's the page on charging:

http://www.optimabatteries.com/usingOptima/charging.asp

-Dan

[Ron61]

I have used the same red top battery for the past 6 years. I just got one of the $29.95 battery tenders at NAPA and put on it when I am not using the car for a period of time and have never had a problem. That worked so wellthat i got another and put on my other cars battery which is just a regular battery and ithas now been in the car for over 4 years with no problems. I don'thave much chance to start them and run them during the Winter here because of the rain when we have a normal Winter.

Ron

[chopper]

I have an Orange top which I purchased 2 1/ 2 years ago. It's just like the Red top except the anodes are reversed; it was designed for some of the foreign cars which have the terminal wires cut so they are too short to cross-connect. They go with the ERAs because the positive terminal is supposed to be oriented under the fender with the negative terminal exposed. The Orange tops are usually special order and the last time I looked they aren't even mentioned on the Optima website. The thing has 960 cca's and spins the 427 like a top. And, since it's a gel cell, it won't spill when you lay it on its side to install in the ERA cars. Pretty good battery. My car tends to sit for weeks on end but it's never failed to start the car quickly.

[Michael C Henry]

I tried to charge.I was using a 10-2 charger.It got warm and resulting voltage changed little. I removed the battery and ended going to Sears. They put it in a Logic charging and testing unit that had a door over the battery.After programing by technecian,readout said it would take 37 minutes to charge before testing.In a couple of minutes it said 33 minutes,sounds rite..In a minute or so the printer started and it said the battery was good.The tech removed my battery from that machine and tested it on another machine ,12.56 V, sounds good.So I reinstalled. Could the turning it on its side to remove and reinstall have moved something.The car is up on frame stands again .A small oil leak at the remote oil filter .Dinged fitting , replaced fittings and waiting on #10 conical seals.Even located another version of the conical seal locally but no #10's on hand.

[Alan McCormack]

I am having my Cobra being built is there any advise about battery location? behind the seats or in right side of engine wheel well are?

[Back in Black]

1250 CCA's. They can be completely drained up to 400 times and revive with a charge. They can sit for 2 years on the shelf and be revived as well. Having said that I either disconnect the battery when not in use, or have solar charger/trickle charger for each vehicle. I will be using these types of batteries for my motorcycles as well as soon as the current units die.

My battery is mounted in a billet aluminum dress up unit (from JEGS.COM) behind the passenger's wheel well in the trunk.

[cobralee]

I ran a "Blue" Optima, 1000 cca for awhile, but did crap out on me when I didn't drive the car for about 3 weeks. I went to an Interstate battery for all my cars and it works great. I can go months without starting it and it starts right up.

Also, my battery is mounted in the trunk driver side just behind the tailight.

[Roscoe]

I've got a red top in my Cobra for 4 years now. The car pretty much sits all winter. Starts right up all the time.

Roscoe

[Michael C Henry]

Is it possible for the alternater to be a battery drain but charge when the engine is running?I didn't have the master switch off but ignition ,fans,fuel pumps were all off.

[Michael C Henry]

Is it possible for the alternater to be a battery drain but charge when the engine is running.I may have left the master switch on but the rest was off.

[G.R.]

The Master switch "could" drain the battery down if it is going to ground in anyway. An Alt shouldn't drain the battery down unless there is a ground issue, where battery power is being siphoned off due to a faulty ground--rare occurance on an alt.
Try charging your battery then remove the neg terminal from it--let it sit overnight or for a day then hook it up--if it shows a near full charge battery is good--if it is dead, battery is dead won't hold a charge---if it is a good battery and dies there is a ground fault drain on it from your wiring.

[kidcobra]

Another thing that will kill a battery is a audio amplifier. Just a thought.

[M & M]

Michael,

The optima batteries are excellant. Vist the dragstrip and see what most racers use in their dragsters. One of the greatest things about the optima is they can be placed in almost any angle and still will not leak. Again that is why the racers like them cause they get stuck in some pretty strange positions.

I have a yellow top in my dragster and it has been great. One of the reasons we use yellow is because after a run we let the water pump and radiator fan run for a period of time to cool the engine back down. I run almost 14.1 compression with a top dollar starter and it still works well for engine starts. I also hammer it pretty hard sometimes with a high amp charge to get it back up to full charge. It was couple years old when I got it and I have been using it all summer season since March.

Some racers do like the blue tops real well, mine just happen to have the yellow when I bought the dragster. Red is just fine for the Cobra application.

If Sears checked the battery with two different testers and they both said the battery was good then there is little chance your batter is bad. GR recommendation is good. Disconnect the battery and see what happens. Does it go down if you throw the disconnect switch off? Based on what you have posted I think you have some type of current draw going on. If you show a draw, try disconnecting the starter and see if it goes away. Could be a game of "hid and seek" until you trace it.

Let us know what happens! The suspense will drive us nuts! LOL

Mike

[Michael C Henry]

After recharging I let it set for two days.It was installed in car but no ground cable.Voltage stayed at near13 V.I re did the alt reg wiring to conform with thr ERA without indicater lite diagram .I tested for any current flow between ground cable ,CDI memory disconnected ,ignition off , master switch on. and negative terminal ,didn't even indicate on ohms meter.Then I reconnected ground cable to battery.Turned on ignition and heard a "boink" .Turns out to be the voltage regulater.Has something rolling around inside now.Bought a new regulater .It was tested at the alt repair shop, bad.Yet another regulater. tomorrow.

[Michael C Henry]

Remounted the Alt and hooked up the volltage regulater,the second new one. It worked great as advertised. yellow top Optima battery is staying gharged. Now the carbs are a problem again.the battery was the effect not the cause.The unswitched power to "A" wire must have been the problem.