Dead Yellow top :(

[alosix]

Went out to drive the Jeep this morning.

It had been sitting for a week.

Battery was installed May 4th. Now the charger doesn't even acknowledge that its a battery.

Checked over everything. All accessories are only on when the key is in. Might have a slow leak somewhere but it can be much.


Glad they have a decent warranty on those things.

 

[dbreid]

Many battery chargers won't start charging if the battery is too low. Trickle charge it first, then the alternator should take over.

I also once had a Yellow top with a bad cell. It would never charge up, and killed a couple of my alternators before I figured it out.

-Dan

 

[ExpoMike]

Welcome to the world of Optima. Over the last number of years, the quality of them went in the crapper. You couldn't give me one now. Since it would still be under warranty, go have it swapped out but when you are finally fed up with them or need to replace it, go look at the Sears Platinum battery. It is a relabled Odyssey and has been getting great reviews. That is what I replaced my less than year old yellow top with because we were going to do El Camino Del Diablo trail solo and I needed to count on the Jeep starting.

 

[alosix]

I should prob give that a go, though the charger has been pretty good in the past at giving really dead batteries a go before giving up.

It came from Coscto, so replacing it shouldn't be a big dead. Just means I had to drive the WRX to work today...

Jason

 

[dbreid]

For what it is worth, I have slowly switched to Sears Platinums as well. I have two trucks with dual batteries. They used to all have Yellow tops. I now have three Platinums and one yellow top.

I am not an Optima hater (there are lots of them out there... kinda like the people who HATE Fram filters), and I have gotten lots of good service out of optimas over the years. But I had a couple bad experiences, and am a little gun shy at this point.

 

[Cody1771]

Baldwin filters ******, yeah i rune sears platinum as well. ive never had any problems at all with it, but if im doing solo stuff i always have a handy solor panel i can hook up just in case

 

[alosix]

I've killed several optimas. So far the longest lasting was the original Red Top in my TJ.

I replaced that with an Exide Orbital that I got cheap from a napa connection ($60 for 2 of them ). That thing was a workhorse and survived several headlight on induced deadenings.

That finally gave up the ghost in may after several years of trusty service to be replaced by a yellow top since I saw it @ costco and needed something that would deal with a winch.

Also killed the red top I used to have in my WRX earlier this year. It just got a normal wall mart battery.

To top it off, the Jeep does have a fram filter on it that's check valve is dead causing a low oil pressure light @ startup. Time to swap that out too...

Jason

 

[IXNAYXJ]

I recently went through this with my Yellow Top, but I was able to trickle charge it and coax it back to health. Win some, lose some.

-----Matt-----

 

[teotwaki]

My first yellow top died right outside of warranty. For comparison my stock Toyota Panasonic wet-cell battery lasted 5 years.

I had to replace the yellow-top with the same because of my battery tray set up. The replacement Optima came from CostCo and will get swapped at 11.5 months for a fresh one, regardless of condition.

 

[Backwoods Rambler]

To top it off, the Jeep does have a fram filter on it that's check valve is dead causing a low oil pressure light @ startup. Time to swap that out too...

Jason

Fram hater here (for oil, not air filters).....Not sure about the baldwins, but I run the Napa Gold 1515 since it's built well and easy to get my hands on. Plus it's about 25%, or more, larger than a stock 4.0 filter.:victory:

Oh yeah, I'm also running the Sears Die Hard Platinum...love it!

 

[Root Moose]

WIX is the the manufacturer for NAPA Gold. Among the best.

 

[elcoyote]

I prefer Deka. They survive brutal deep discharges and have good warranties. I also like that they have one of the most extensive recycling programs of any mfg. They recycle lead, acids and plastic casings, all in house.

A case study is a group 31 that is in a discharge and recharge cycle, 24/7 running a fountain pump my yard for the past 18 months. 36 amps are pulled off of the battery every 24 hours dropping it to 60% and it is recharged via an 80 watt solar panel during the day. On overcast days it does not fully charge so additional amps are pulled, getting as low as 40-35% capacity. It comes back to full charge on clear sunny days without fail.

It is also notable that the Deka battery of choice in the fridge comparison test in the Spring 2007 issue of the Overland Journal. Go figure.

 

[MTNTECH]

The Yellow Top Optima is known for taking a long time to charge up. A good friend of mine has one in his CJ and was constantly having trickle charge it where the one I have always worked with no problem. He has a 4 mile one-way drive to work where I have a 18 mile one-way drive to work. Talking with tech at Interstate Batteries he said that was why. The Yellow top will not charge fully up in that short of a drive. After a couple of months the battery ended up discharged. The longer drive I had fully charged it up. I still won't by another one, going with the Odyssey myself next time.

 

[Stumpalump]

Trickle charging with the right kind of charger is the key. The Optima's build a barrier of sulfate on the coils and won't take a charge. Trickling is the way to break the sulfate and bring them back to life. Pick up any "dead" Optima's when you can and you will be suprised at how many come back to life after a few days on a trickle charger. My yellow did the same thing but next time I'd buy a red just because the warrenty is a lot longer.

 

[getlost4x4]

are any of you guys upgrading your alternators?

what is the amp rating of your alternator? if your alternator is not large enough you are just going to kill a deep cycle battery.

i have a 160 amp alternator and my yellow top has not been a problem. always plenty of charge. i had a 100 amp alternator on my yota with a deep cell battery and didn't have any problems. but when i had the stock 40 amp alternator my battery always discharged.