Dead Battery Issue

New battery required. if you have doubt, let it recharge for 24 hours then have a battery test...

Ciao
Eugenio

 

don't use trickl charger they can over charge your battery, use Battery TENDER instead it goes to float mode automaticaly once its fully charge and it's alot safer you can leave it on for months without any problems. Also check the acid for its propper level.

 

Yup, a new battery is probably in order. Deep discharge is lethal to most lead/acid batteries. I've lost too many batteries that way myself.......now I have a tender for every car.......it has been a expensive and inconvenient lesson for me.

 

You do not have to disconnect the battery. There is a switch in the front hood area that disconnects the battery for you. You will have to recode the radio when you power up but that is all. This should reduce the drain on your 'new" battery a bunch!.

The "Battery Tender" an earlier post suggested is a good idea for the reasons he stated.

The one small point i would debate is if you are lazy you can trickle charge through the ligther socket. The key is it must be a low amperage charger, otherwise as the poster says you could damage your battery or other bad things could happen.

I use the Ford Gt lighter socket charger which does not step down but only charges at 0.50 amps. I used it one my 2003 360 for years without a problem. Either way is good. On my F430 I was forced to install a pigtail on the battery for a "Battery Tender". this is because the F430 lighter socket shuts off with the ignition.

Good luck

lee

 

Optimas don't take kindly to being discharged. Others can survive it once or twice.

But you can't really recharge a completely dead battery with a 1.5A tender -- a dead battery will require more charging current than the tender can supply. I have a 10A charger I use on batteries that get too low.

I also have a half-wave battery conditioner for lead acid cells I built from radio shack parts. The half-wave pulses helps dislodge sediments from the plates. I got 13 years out of a Die Hard by using the half wave conditioner to revive it after long storage (e.g. one 3 year stretch, another 18 month one). I think it's finally dead, this time -- I haven't tried the conditioner, because I never got around to mounting the parts in a box, and I'm getting old and lazy. A new battery every 13-14 years isn't that bad an expense.

 

I would agree with DGS, before giving up, check the fluid level, clean the terminals up real good, and give a charge with 10 to 15 amp charger and see if you can bring it back.

 

Batteries are commodities, we have to replace them in our cars every 3 years, no matter what, for whatever reason.
I made a comment to the wife 2 months ago 'we are about due for a new battery in the van', and sure enough, 5 days later....

We popped the top, two of the cells were dry/well-below the top of the plates. Adding distilled water won't usually fix it because once the plates (or part of the plates) dry out, they fall apart more easily, crumble, and cause direct shorts in the batteries themselves, even with the new water added, it's too late.

Wally-World, $65.

 

Distilled water itself won't help, you have to re-dissolve the sediments from the plates -- that's where the half wave conditioner comes in. If those sediments flake off in large chunks, they can cause shorts, but charging puts many of those chemicals back into suspension in the fluid. The half wave charger just gets the chemicals off the plates more effectively than a DC charger. (I got curious one year, and did some research in the engineering library. The homemade half wave conditioner was the result.)

It's heat that causes plates to deteriorate. I had a two year old Die Hard collapse completely in the Celica ... after sitting 8-10 inches from the glowing turbo for that time.

The battery in my Alfa is from 1993. But that's a trunk mounted battery with absolutely zero load when off. (Not even a clock.) I could leave that car sit for 6-8 months and still have cranking power in the battery.

But that being said, I did have one trip to the mall where I bought a new battery and a new SCSI-2 cable ... and the cable cost more than the battery.

I'm just worried that a new battery won't be as good as the older one. "They don't make 'em like they used to." (What's with the "Northern states" versus "Southern states" versions of the Die Hard, these days?)

 

Tender won't revive a dead battery. It will keep a good one charged, and can make up a small defecit in charge, but you'll never get to a full charge from dead.

Stick a charger on there. Watch closely. Don't overcharge it. give it another shot. what do you have to lose?

Then, when you realize the battery's dead and not coming back, hum the Hall and Oates battery song while wandering to Sears for a replacement.

Here's the chorus.

She's gone, she's gone...
Oh, why
Oh, why

I better learn how to face it!

She's gone, she's gone

Oh, why
Oh, why

I'd pay the devil to replace her

She's gone, she's gone

Oh, why
What went wrong?


That pay the devil thing sure is true. Batteries certainly seem expensive for what you get.

And we all know what went wrong. Should have had her hooked up to the tender all along.

BE SURE TO TAKE THE OLD DEAD BATTERY WITH YOU SO YOU DON'T HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT DISPOSAL, AND YOU GET $5 BACK, I THINK.

DM

 

Just my two-cents, but why spend time and money trying to revive wounded (deep cycled) battery? The reliability has been been compromised and you will always have that lingering fear that it won't start at the worst possible time and place. Just me I suppose........

 

Because the battery bought in 1993 is in the car I hardly ever drive, and has survived a dozen discharges already. A battery bought in 2007 will be made for the "disposable" generation: it likely won't survive a single discharge, and will likely die inside three years regardless.

And besides: fiddling around with gizmos past the point of diminishing returns is what real nerds do.

 

http://odysseybatteries.com/

Guaranteed longer service life - The ODYSSEY® battery, with a ten year design life and a three-to-eight year service life, saves you time and money because you do not have to replace your battery as often. It is also the ONLY battery that is capable of delivering a large number of deep cycles - up to 400 when fully discharged or up to 500 when discharged to 80%. Plus, the battery is specially designed for high vibration applications.
Longer storage life - Unlike conventional batteries that need to be recharged every six to twelve weeks, the ODYSSEY® battery, when fully charged , can be stored for up to 2 years at room temperature (25°C, 77°F). At lower temperatures, storage times will be even longer.

Overdischarge/deep discharge recovery - The ease with which the ODYSSEY® battery recovers from this type of application abuse is unheard of. Should ODYSSEY® become deeply discharged, simply recharge following instructions in the ODYSSEY® Owners Manual.

Superior cranking and fast recharge capability - The 5 second cranking power of ODYSSEY® batteries is double to triple that of equally sized conventional batteries, even when the temperature is as low as -40°C. Also, with simple constant voltage charging (alternator or independant charger), there is no limitation on the inrush current, so the user is assured of fast charge recovery.

Mounting flexibility - The ODYSSEY® battery may be installed in any orientation except inverted without sacrificing any performance attributes.

Superior vibration resistance - ODYSSEY® batteries are of military grade and have endured very rigorous tests that demonstrate their overall ruggedness and exceptional tolerance of mechanical abuse.

Worry-free shipping - The sealed Drycell™ design of the ODYSSEY® battery eliminates the need for acid vent tubes so there is no more fear of acid burns or damage to expensive chrome or paint. Owing to the starved-electrolyte design, the US Department of Transportation (USDOT) has classified the ODYSSEY® battery as a dry battery, so it may be shipped worry-free by UPS/Federal Express or by air.

Ready out of the box - ODYSSEY® batteries are shipped fully charged. If ODYSSEY® voltage is 12.65V or greater simply install the battery in your vehicle and you are ready to go! If below 12.65V, boost charge following the instructions in the ODYSSEY® Owner's Manual and/or Technical Manual.

Maintenance free - No routine maintenance of ODYSSEY® batteries is required.

http://odysseybatteries.com/
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So how much is this battery, Kerry, and what size is a 360 series?

 

Can you hook a battery tender up to those screw in posts?

 

Scott, why wouldn't you be able to? And in the alternative, there are other methods for sucessfuly hooking up a battery tender than directly to the battery terminals. The most common being through the cigarette lighter plug.

In a Ferrari you could also use the "trouble light" plug, by purchasing and splicing on the appropriate "BMW" accessory plug, pictured on the right on this web link:
http://www.rallylights.com/hella/cigar_plug.asp

You could also use the plug pictured on the left which is adaptable to both a standard cigarette lighter plug or the BMW accessory plug.

 

I have multiple vehicles and I use these Odyssey batteries in two of them. First let me say all of my 13 vehicles have battery Tenders or something similar.

I use Odyssey because these are great for high compression engines without compression release. I have one batttery in a race modified 427 Shelby Cobra 1965. I am amazed how the car could sit for two months and crank up instantly on a hard to turn motor. The question the gentlman asked is in the specs for Odyssey, just goggle it. I think the specs will impress you. The one in my Cobra is going on 7 years and still strong. They are a little more expensive than other batteries.

One last point is they have more internal resistance which means you need higher charge rates if you place it on a Battery tender. BT makes a special charger for the Odyssey battery. I put a Battery Tender on after six years probably for no good reason, except it takes me awhile to swing through the cars and drive the Cobra. it has never shown a need. I had my MDS fail and ground down the (at that time 6 yrs old) Odyssey battery and it took a charge like nothing happened.

As the gentlman says the specs say they keep charge for two years sitting idle. This is hard for me to believe but they do last along time. They maybe be right!

The other gentleman who built a half wave charger I would listen too. Sounds like he is in the business some how. That trick is used for shop batteries, very smart.

My advice on the Ferrari, just buy an Interstate batter for $65 recode the radio, put it on a battery tender and replace it in three years. oh yeh enjoy life and the car

Good luck,

Lee

 

just buy a new battery whatever it may be thanks for the info on the odessey I will have to check them out