F-Body Europe

Long story short, I got one and its dead. Jumped the car it started up fine. Let it run for about 20 minutes, drove it around the block. Parked the car went to turn it over and of course it wont start. It did not even pick up enough of a charge to let me use the power door locks!

So, my question is, is it now a paperweight? Or does it just take a long time to recharge a dead battery? I now know Optimas' do not like cold at all! Nothing was left on in the car, but I did go for about two weeks without starting it. I had only had the battery about a year and a half...

Hm ... two weeks shouldn't have depleted it if your car was not draining more than the stock power e.g. for remote power doors ... my 'vert can usually stand about 4-5 weeks with the standard use plus alarm on standby but inactive, after which it will barely still start ...

Problem, if the battery WAS empty, the cold weather may have done it in completely ... pull it out and put it on a regular charger, but my guess is ...

... it's dead, Jim .... (insert mental picture of Bones of ST TOS)

The battery is probably frozen from this weather . Bringit in somehwere wher it is warm. Let get to room temp then try to deep charge it.

I was wondering if that might be it. Never had any problems from it...

We have an 83 Mercedes that has not been touched in months, and it cranked right up! ???

As weird as it sounds, mine wouldn't do anything about a month ago. I had dash lights, turned the key forward and NOTHING. Ended up being the negitive terminal connection wasn't tight. Strange part was I hadn't disconnected the battery since I did the line-lock install (JUL 05)........

Did you buy it from AAFES??? If so I'd just bring it back to them and exercise your warranty!!!

Yep I bought it from AAFES up at vogelwegh. I will try to take it back when ever I make it up that way again. I don't have the receipt though, so they may say tough luck...

I put the delco back in it today and it started right up, try to die for about the first 5 min but then ok... Drove it around for a while, beautiful day BTW! Parked her and started her back up no problems!!!

I put a voltmeter on the optima and it show 4 volts. so maybe it just needs a slow charge. I just don't get though, the delco has been sitting in my storage room for at least 8 months, not used in 15 or so and it was 11.87 before I hooked it back up.

I just don't trust the optima anymore, maybe I just got a bum one...

I do know that the Optima batteries need a long trickle charge that can not be achieved in any right period of time by standard chargers. The company sells a charger specifically for their batteries. We have one in our VM shop here on base but for mil purposes only. The problem was that the common battery chargers do not do a good enough job of recharging so we had to buy one from the company. See if there are any shops near you that have an Optima battery charger. I wouldn't say that it is bad just yet.

I replace my Optima every 3 years no matter what. I currently use the yellow in the car now.

I'm wondering if that is the source of some of my electrical problems, I accidently drained it a few months ago and had it charged at the hobby shop. I'm thinking that I might try a new batter before I start buying new computers