Really Optima... Really?

Richard808 said:
A lot of battery testers do not work very well. I've used testers at bmw dealerships that would do the same thing, They test ok but the battery doesnt hold charge. The problem is the tester doesn't actually put enough load on the battery. I use to just turn the lights on for about 20 seconds before testing it and then it would fail the test completely. I recently had my battery warrantied at autozone and it tested good even though it only had like 1-2 cranks before it would die. after a whole day of charging and testing it finally failed there test and i got there duralast gold which actually seems to be a.decent battery so far. I also never get the recommended size. I try to always get a bigger more cca battery that i can fit reasonably.
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here
Inspecting & testing a battery
there's more to testing a battery then a load test, your not checking each cell when hooking up to their load machine make them do a gravity/float test on the cells, they should be able to do this as well, the local shucks and such has done it for me in the past as well.
 
It is very possible you just happened to have a bad redtop. quite a few years back, my brother bought one that crapped out after 2 months, warranty replaced it and went 3 years with no problems before selling his car. I used to work at an autoparts store, a guy brought his red top in to have it charged and tested. I didnt even have to charge it, it tested fine as is. 3 months later the guy still hadnt picked it up so I put it in my car, drove that car for almost a year, then put it in a different car that I drove for 3 years, my red top was still good to go when I sold that car a few months ago. I wish I hadnt let it go with the car, I should have kept it for my 4runner.
On a side note though, capacitors are a waste of money for stereos
 
theizzardking said:
here
Inspecting & testing a battery
there's more to testing a battery then a load test, your not checking each cell when hooking up to their load machine make them do a gravity/float test on the cells, they should be able to do this as well, the local shucks and such has done it for me in the past as well.
Click to expand...

I agree there are more to testing than just a load test. The problem is the shop or parts store is usually given a battery tester that does the test and prints out a pass/fail result. the shop has to use this printout to prove avalid claim. for instance bmw will not pay the dealer for the repair without it. so you end up eating it. So you can do other tests to determine if its good/bad but you need the tester to show its bad.
 
Richard808 said:
I agree there are more to testing than just a load test. The problem is the shop or parts store is usually given a battery tester that does the test and prints out a pass/fail result. the shop has to use this printout to prove avalid claim. for instance bmw will not pay the dealer for the repair without it. so you end up eating it. So you can do other tests to determine if its good/bad but you need the tester to show its bad.
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well if that's the case, do the other tests to determine if the battery is actually bad and if the tester is just giving a false positive, if that's the case there are plenty of ways to destroy a battery and make it fail the load test.

and really that's bull**** that bmw (of course BMW) wouldn't warranty a part that can be proven to have failed with another test, that's not the sort of thing you want to hear from people who claim to be the pinnacle of German engineering...a very short sighted approach to something that can have a few different problems.

that said, interstate,shucks,autozone ect should all honor the float/gravity test as a valid test to prove the battery is fubar'd, as i said before you can have a bad cell or 2 in a battery but still pass the load test as the load is being pulled across all of the cells, but when storing the charge, which is what you really care about in the long run, if all cells aren't good the battery is f'd and won't hold a charge for very long.....and a bad battery with a bed cell on it by using correct terminology has "failed"

Failure
A lack of success in something, or an unsuccessful attempt at doing something. A breakdown or decline in the performance of something, or an occasion when something stops working or stops working adequately. Note that "failure" is an event, as distinguished from "fault" which is a "state."
See Functional Failure.

Functional Failure
A specific failure that refers to the termination of, or degradation in the ability of an item to perform any one of the stated required functions.
 
pauls4runner said:
It is very possible you just happened to have a bad redtop. quite a few years back, my brother bought one that crapped out after 2 months, warranty replaced it and went 3 years with no problems before selling his car. I used to work at an autoparts store, a guy brought his red top in to have it charged and tested. I didnt even have to charge it, it tested fine as is. 3 months later the guy still hadnt picked it up so I put it in my car, drove that car for almost a year, then put it in a different car that I drove for 3 years, my red top was still good to go when I sold that car a few months ago. I wish I hadnt let it go with the car, I should have kept it for my 4runner.
On a side note though, capacitors are a waste of money for stereos
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no, optima went to crap about 4-5 years ago, maybe more... the chances are you either had an old optima from when they were good or you got lucky and got a good one.
i've heard of more failures on optimas then some of the budget brands at wallmart.

the new optima is Odyssey, well they have always been good, but the first 3-4 gens of optimas were really really good which now suck so personally i think for a $$$ battery i would only buy an Odyssey.
(i like the diehards as well but ^ those guys are the top of my short list)
 
When I went to buy two new Deep Cycle batteries in 09, I happened to be in Advanced Auto and asked about Optima. The manager, whose wife works with my GF, said not to waste my money and that the Walmart branded battery would probably last longer. So far he has been right on.

Not to throw any brand under the bus in this thread but I have had awful luck with Interstate batteries in the last decade and wouldn't take one if it was given to me for free. Three years and no more for auto batteries. Marine Deep Cycle, don't get me started.
 
theizzardking said:
well if that's the case, do the other tests to determine if the battery is actually bad and if the tester is just giving a false positive, if that's the case there are plenty of ways to destroy a battery and make it fail the load test.

and really that's bull**** that bmw (of course BMW) wouldn't warranty a part that can be proven to have failed with another test, that's not the sort of thing you want to hear from people who claim to be the pinnacle of German engineering...a very short sighted approach to something that can have a few different problems.

that said, interstate,shucks,autozone ect should all honor the float/gravity test as a valid test to prove the battery is fubar'd, as i said before you can have a bad cell or 2 in a battery but still pass the load test as the load is being pulled across all of the cells, but when storing the charge, which is what you really care about in the long run, if all cells aren't good the battery is f'd and won't hold a charge for very long.....and a bad battery with a bed cell on it by using correct terminology has "failed"

Failure
A lack of success in something, or an unsuccessful attempt at doing something. A breakdown or decline in the performance of something, or an occasion when something stops working or stops working adequately. Note that "failure" is an event, as distinguished from "fault" which is a "state."
See Functional Failure.

Functional Failure
A specific failure that refers to the termination of, or degradation in the ability of an item to perform any one of the stated required functions.
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I was just trying to reassure the OP that his battery was probably at fault as he had it tested and it showed to be fine when it wasnt. The testers that are used now are not very accurate. Ive found that by putting a quick load on the battery would help the tester to be more accurate in the cases where i knew the battery was bad but the test showed good. As far as bmw not warrantying a part due to something like not having a printout, It happens. They have procedures they make you follow as a technician. Ive seen techs get backflagged which is when they take away the hours you got paid on a job. If they didnt have these procedures techs would not waste time even checking it and rather just put a new one in. Most shops dont pay you for a lot of diagnosis done under warranty. you get paid a certain amount of time to replace things or remove things and reinstall. Bmw has to have procedures like this to keep techs honest. There are techs unfortunately at every shop that flag 30 hours a day from stuff like this. Ive even seen techs break head bolts after a car overheated purposely so they can slap a new engine in it and get the hours for it.
 
Richard808 said:
Bmw has to have procedures like this to keep techs honest.
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i know what your saying, i'm just ranting about bmw now that i've heard that...
fair enough require the tech to put it on the load machine and print out the test ,but if the tech does further testing and determines the part needs to be replaced by means not shown in the standard testing bmw should honor it.
a failed part is a failed part is a failed part, by whatever means you discover it.
you get what i'm saying, it has nothing todo with bmw's procedural writings
for their techs it's about how bmw handles problems that are found in uncommon ways, i mean of course when your in the shop your going to do the standard easy stuff first but if your tech has already done the procedural stuff and discovers there is a problem by doing further testing BMW should honor the replacement of the part and trust that they have trained their tech sufficiently enough to determine such things in the first place.

basically it's really stupid to not cover a part that can be proven to be defective or failing just because who ever wrote the procedures lacked the foresight to know that 1 test can't always determine the state of the battery ....


i would seriously just test the cells then toast the battery dead and carry it in there and ask if that's good enough for you at that point.....:gun5:



side note, yeah not a fan of interstate brand batteries either , i was just basically using them as an example...
 
BigFishAllDay said:
X3

You get an Odyssey for about 2/3 of the price and 4 years free replacement. Not to mention deep cycle ability and massive CCA/CA.

This is coming from a guy that has an Optima Red top in the '97 and a Yellow Top in my Supra. I've been converted.
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An Odyssey for 2/3 the price of an Optima? I'd buy that in a heartbeat

Supposedly the Die Hard platinums are rebadged Odysseys.
 
A lot of people are saying Optimas are just not what they used to be. The car shop I go to stopped selling them because they had so many returns.

My Optima red top went bad after only 1 year. I couldn't find the receipt so I bought a Yellow-Top and it has worked fine for several months.

I was eager to blame my alternator but there is a lot of feedback out there that these batteries are just not that great anymore.

:bat:
 
Hopefully the yellow top I got a month ago won't be as bad as others. If nothing else, I do have the 3 year warranty. Maybe Optima will realize their batteries won't sell like they used to if they are junk, and start making them better.
 
VERY NICE!

I looked this a few months ago but I must have gone to an old URL.

I don't like being wrong but I DO like having an extra 2 years of warranty :)
 
Reviving an old thread. Bought a red top about a year and a half ago. Last week I hop in my runner and turn the key. Just clicks once and nothing happens. Turn it again and cranks like normal. I'm think "great - my starter must be crapping out." I go several days before it happens again. I get in the car last night and it just clicks on me for several tries, then it acts like it wants to start but doesn't have the power to crank (which does lead to me believe it's the battery at fault). Then after a few seconds, it fires right up like nothing is wrong. My main question - do these Optimas act different when they're about to die? How can a battery go from nothing, to cranking your car with ease in a matter a few seconds? In reading through this thread, it sounds like others have had similar experiences with Optimas going from fine to dead in seconds. I HAVE to get this figured out today. I don't want to just take it to Autozone to have the guy say it tests fine and send me on my way. I'm also HOPING that it's not the starter or alternator.

*EDIT* - I just conducted a little test. Turned my lights on and tried to start it. Dead. Turned my lights off. Slow to crank, but it started. Let it run for no more than 10 seconds. Started it again and sounded like new. These Optimas are crazy.
 
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I'll chime in with my optima red top experience. I hear a lot of negativity about them but I've had nothing but good things with mine. First red top I had lasted 14 years, had about 1000 watts in stereo going in that. When we'd go camping I would crank my stereo up and play it for 2-3 hours and it would start right up everytime. Finally died last year, so I got another and it's going strong running a system that's around 1000 watts too. Great batteries IMO but seems like people have had some negative experiences.
 
Optima sucks now because in 2000 when Johnson Control (JCI) bought them and moved all their production to a facility in Mexico they started decreasing the quality of the parts and quit using 99.99% virgin lead. Now they use a more tin based lead which sucks. All to be able to make more money with cheap labor and supply to other countries for cheaper.
 
Go with a Diehard Platinum (same as the Odyssey, BTW) P4. Overland Journal had a great write up on batteries about a year ago. For the price, it was by far the best.
 
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