Battery Question

Check connections for corrosion

 

Check connections for corrosion

 

Mine was doing the exact thing so I took my battery to have it check they told me to leave it for 30 min. When I came back the test shows that my battery is not holding charge so I end up buying a new Interstate battery group 34 and now it's been working fine ever since.

 

Agree. Especially, check the negative terminal, clean it really good. And check the place where it attaches to the body. The negative side is prone to corrosion. If you see a lot of corrosion or white powder on the ends of the negative cable, consider getting a new one and be sure to clean the mounting point on the body really well. I used some battery terminal spray on both ends to prevent that from happening. Also, check the grounding straps on the engine. They tend to go bad as well.

As for the battery itself, take it to Auto Zone or one of those places, and have the put it on a battery tester. That will tell you if it's going bad or if you have a bad cell in the battery.

 

Sir: You don't say which car you have. Surely, you could have any number of problems. Check all the easy stuff first; terminals, an electrical leak, an old battery. You know what I am saying. If you have a later car and don't drive often (every three weeks or so), You need a battery monitor to keep your voltage up. My 575M is always plugged in, especially now that there is a lot of salt on the road. I never have a starting problem. Later cars are rolling computers and their systems are, "vampires" After about a month, batteries go dead. Please feel free to call or e-mail on this subject. I have been there. Cheers. Ken

 

Many years ago my wife had an old Buick convertible, 51 or so, anyway one morning as she was leaving for work it wouldn’t start. I knew the battery was probably fine so I grabbed a hammer and a small nail, went out, opened the hood and drove the nail down between the cable clamp and the post.

I said “Start it” and of course it started right up and ran that way for the rest of the time she had it.

You should have seen the look on her fellow teacher’s faces when she told them about how her husband got her car running by driving a nail into the battery.

 

What he means is "battery maintainer" not "monitor".

 

Sometimes called a battery tender or trickle charger. If the car is sitting around for weeks on end, it's a good idea to hook it up to a trickle charger. You can wire a plug to the battery leads, and when you park it, just plug it in and you're good to go the next time you want to start it. I have two of them that I got from Sears. You don't want a regular battery charger. You want the automatic tender or trickle charger.

BTW, I have a 2003 Z06. It doesn't "eat" batteries. You should try to figure out where you are losing power from, if something is shorting out. But for now, just check the battery and see where you're at.

p.s. Another alternative is a battery cut-off switch. It will protect the battery from going dead if it is sitting for a while, but you'll have to reset all your electricals when you turn it back on. IMHO, battery tender is the way to go.

 

How old is the battery?

 

Average battery last usualy 2 to 2 1/2 years but my Interstate bettery lasted me 5 years and it's the only battery I know that last that long.

 

Actually, with the current terminology, you don't want a "trickle charger" as those usually do not shut off when the battery reaches full charge...it keeps the "trickle charge" going. The key words on the package should say "maintainer", "tender" or "microprocessor controlled".

 

I've had the same battery life record as Mike , and I also now have an Interstate battery in my 355.
If you get 3 yrs from non Interstate battery you are lucky!

 

Having fooled with antique cars for years I learned an interesting tid bid about what type of battery works best for cars frequently stored. Antique cars and Ferraris are stored in the winter and therefore don't need high amp output batterys for cold cranking. Lower amp batterys (cheaper) have fewer plates. With use these plates corrade the debris settles to the bottom of the battery and shorts out the plates. Now the cheaper batterys (less plates) produce less debris and last longer. Believe it or not. I'm sure there will be some disagreement on the theory so what do you think?

 

Consumer Reports used to tout that line of thought and even specifically stated to avoid the marketing hype of high cold cranking amp batteries, as they tended to fail sooner than batteries with more "reasonable" CCA ratings. They seem to no longer make those recommendations, and I noticed in their last rankings that some, very high CCA batteries, like the WalMart Maxx in group size 34/78 (which should fit many Ferraris) was top rated AND has 875 CCA. That is significantly higher than the Interstate Group 34R equivelant, which is rated at 700 CCA.

But, the Costco group size 34/78 battery, also rated at 875 CCA was rated only "average".

 

Not a bad theory in some ways. Large storage batteries started to go to horizontal plates some years ago for just that reason. The debris settles on the insulator between the plates. It is important in those. They are expensive and are expected to last 40 or so years. I suspect though that many of the auto batteries going bad are doing so from plate sulfating rather than debris related shorting.

Your comments are a good illustration why you are not supposed to tip wet batteries over very far though.

 

Used to be considered a valid repair method. Do it now and I'd be laughed out of business.