Battery Questions
 

At best, I can figure that the batt in the 'Teg is at least 5 years old. I EOC quite a bit, and for safety purposes, I drive with my headlights on whenever driving. The biggest drain is usually the fan blower, often used with the engine off.

Winter is approaching. Some weeks, the car sits for about 4-5 days outdoors before I get back to it (no EBH plug access).

So, with that in mind...

Question 1: What is a good Voltage Reading at engine-off? When does it show signs of giving up? I'll probably wait until it fails, but if that's tomorrow, I'd like to have an idea of what to buy pretty quickly.

Question 2: Is there a good battery folks can recommend? I've heard that Optima brand batts have declined in quality over the last year or so.

Any thoughts of a battery that works well under these conditions?

RH77

uhh any battery pretty much. i use farm and fleet (farm type of store) and havent have any problems. usually the higher the warranty on em th ebetter quality, notice i said usually tho. id avoid walmart batteries tho, i havent had good luck with them at all.

well at voltage off it should read around 12-13V (accross the battery) with it running it should be 14.8V. now i wouldnt worry about letting it sit for 4-5 days. both my car and truck sit outdoors and start up every time in -20*F weather to +100*f.

https://www.fuelly.com/attachments/fo...2facc1e932.jpg

hehe last winters storms

I've never had trouble with my store-brand batteries either. I've had unknown used ones in the last few cars I've had, and never had one go bad. I even bought the cheapest battery I could find a few times (walmart cheapest), and never had a problem with them either.

If your battery does drain a lot when EOC, you might want to think about upgrading the size / capacity of the battery.

12.6 minimum after several hours since the car was last run.

Signs aren't always related to voltage. A battery can show 12.6+ resting voltage, but not have the capacity to deliver current for starting, or have enough capacity to restart the car after discharging even for a short time.

The only way to know for sure is a load test.

But my bet is you'll detect the battery's impending demise on your own - slower engine cranking speeds is a giveaway. The colder weather will reveal a dying battery too.

well sometimes its not easy to detect a dying battery, it used to be back in the day because it would take several seconds of cranking to start, now with todays self priming fuel injected stuff it takes less than a second to start. load testing will tell you if a battery is good or not but it puts alot of strain on the battery, so too many load tests will eventually kill a battery too

Hello -

Can someone post that super-expensive battery option here (like maybe $200+)? I can't find where it is on another battery related thread.

CarloSW2

Thanks for the info...

I'm getting about 12.1 volts across the batt before startup. Probably any day now, but...

Over the past 2 Winters, when it gets below 20*F, the starter sounds labored and slow. But, it keeps firing and off it goes. Vett's right though -- it takes only a couple seconds to crank in the worst of conditions. Many times with EOC, just a quick flick of the key and it fires. Hard to predict...

So, I guess I'll wait for it to fail and go from there. I'll probably go with a larger capacity automotive/farm store brand. Last I recall, CR rated some Sears models pretty highly. I wouldn't take a free batt from Wal-Mart, tho -- just a personal decision.

So I assume, going with a higher cranking amperage means more capacity??? It has to be rated for hot and cold here. -1 to 101*F.

RH77

Yeah, that's not good. It'll leave you stranded on a cold day.

If you're looking for another starting battery (vs. deep cycle), you want more reserve capacity, not necessarily CCA.

People who do lots of EOC really should be running deep cycle batteries, IMO.

Well there are many of them .
the Optima is prolly the least expensive spendy type batt
Enersys Odyssey is a great one that I've had excellent luck with . A real dry cell , compact and fairly light.
Any more suggestions from the peanut gallery ?

Juice
 

With the "new" driving style over the last couple years (EOC), deep cycle looks like a candidate. The ones I remember are much larger than stock, so should I be looking to relocate it to the rear hatch? Not much room there...

Good info, thanks!

-R

I would see if you can find a compact deep-cycle (not sure if they exist), otherwise, I agree that you will have to move it to the trunk since there is very little room there for integras.

it cranks slow in cold weather because of the cold oil and other lubes. oil is liek syrup(just not as sticky) if you have cold syrup its not gomma move to easy, heat it up a bit and its like water.

Compact deep cycle battery: Odyssey pc925mjt or if you need the reverse terminals pc925lmjt . Only 6.4"Lx7"Wx5"H and mountable in any orientation. 380cca rating worked very well with my genIII SHO through the Mn winters with no garage. They make smaller dimensioned ones also - but cranking amps drop .

I've heard batteries manufactured by "johnson controls" are good(rumors of course). I'm currently still working on the original delco battery in my saturn. Its made it 5 years and I'm abusing it with 150f underhood temps and tons of eoc.

I've seen some very old 5yrs+ and still healthy motorcraft batteries. I do not like duralast brand batteries they don't seem to last.

yea my dads aerostars stock battery lasted 10 years before he swapped it out (going on a 2000mile roadtrip, didnt wanna take a chance, i think we still have it somewhere)

the one in my s-10 lasted 8 years before it bit the dust.

i gotta say at least domestic batteries are lasting a long long time for beign stock batterys

Yeah Delcos are prolly as good as they get. I had to replace an 11 year old Delco this year in my Monte. It would still start the car, but it didn't have much capacity left. I went to the drive-in and was *almost* stranded there at the end of two movies in May.

See deep cycles won't give you much life during automotive use, I mean, unless you can turn the alt off. You will chop thier life in half if used in a car because any alternator will constantly be charging it. They are designed for the outboard no alternator boat, to be charged up before launch and then charged after 8-10 hours of use when you come back into port.

Maybe just get a Diehard (sears) for your Acura's group 51R, 495 CCA's
Thats probably the highest capacity you are going to get in that small size.(higher than delco at least) Make sure you get the freshest one! One thats less than three months old. There will be a manufacturer date code on it as a sticker usually. Ask when it was made if you dont' see it. 3 year free replacement, 100 month prorate warranty. Sweet.
~Will

MnFocus -

If I got an Odyssey, I was thinking I would need the normal(?) 38 pound PC1200, but the PC925 is only 26 pounds. I love those little dimensions. I'll have to spend some time comparing specs between what I have and what Odyssey offers.

CarloSW2

It (pc925)was plenty good to start (very easily I might add) the 3.4 V8 Duratec in the dead of winter.The size/weight of it was what really drew me to it also. Unless you are running a high amp draw car stereo or other electronics in either of those vehicles it should be fine in S. Cali .

SoC it to me?
 

Hey Will -

A bit off-topic, I still haven't gotten around to changing the transmission fluid. :o Any luck with your application?

I read-up on deep cycle batts last night, and had the same concerns with State-of-Charge issues. I know this was addressed a long time ago, but I wonder how many hours / trips it would last without charge from the alternator and charged overnight instead? I also forget / need to search the gain of removing the belt vs. hooking-up a disconnect to still use use the alt to charge up in "urgent" driving situations.

RH77

Rick,

Heck I dont' know about how long it might last, think you'd have to figure the draw, then divide by the CA...or something? The major brand deep-cycles have 5 year prorata warrantys...who knows how many times they are thinking the average fisherman goes out in the warm months?

As for the fluid...I think that "pull" I was talking to you about in the 1700-2500 rpm ranges is still there, and before it felt like it was slipping more there. Maybe good for .75 mpg. I think more of the gains will be seen in the wintertime like what toecutter was saying.

J-yard. Just make sure to check the dates... I can spend $60-80 for a brand new battery that should last ~4-8 years, or I can spend $20 for the same thing that's about a year old. :thumbup:

i used to have a 4yr old batt that my dad hadn't changed on the car, so when i got it, i had to drive it everyday. Previously he commuted to work everyday with it so it still lasted for the next day to start it. I still managed to start the car, when after 3 days, it had dropped to a voltage of less than 10 volts. Amazingly, i still started it up. This happened quite a few times. Then i finally convinced him that batteries should definitely last more than 3 days and more like 2 weeks or so. I replaced it with a Energizer batt wit 500 cca and 80 rc minutes.
I would of tried to reconditioning the batts if i would have known how to. :)

oo and for testing the battery, you should find the internal resistance: you measure the voltage of the charged battery without a load. then you add a load and measure the amps of the load and the voltage of the battery With the load. Then you find the difference of voltages of no-load and loaded battery, then divide the difference by the amount of amps of load you put on. the equation is: R = (Voc - Vl ) /amps
it should be something around a few miliohms but i dont know how many ohms is considered "bad".

Im the poster child for changing out battery's. Five years max. And they are gone.

but.. my neighbor has had his for 9+ years... wat about that! using a desulphator.

If the battery is still cranking. I do give them to folks. :)