F355 battery issue

Your battery is probably so dead that it needs a large charge to come back to life. The trickle charge puny 1 amp is not going to do. You can ...

1) Try to charge it with a higher current charger 6-10 amps
2) remove the wheel, liner and battery to be charged by your auto store.
3) Change to a new battery.

You should not jump start it because it may cause damage to the airbag system. Then you are really eff.

Push starting a car with an absolute dead battery will not work either.

 

The jump start works fine when it is to help a weak battery. It will not work with a totally dead battery as the crocodile clips, due to small contact areas, cannot transmit high enough current to crank the engine (and all current has to come from the external battery in this case).

 

Is it an Optima battery? Once those die a trickle charger won't charge them. You need to hook a second battery in-line between the battery and the charger to "trick it" to take the charge. I have done that twice now on batteries I have left out of cars.

Why not just pull the battery out and bring it in for a charge & check? Pull the front wheel and the forward panel and the battery is right there....not that big of a deal. Between you and your buddy you could have this done in short order.

 

I would just change it and be done with it. Not a difficult job really.

 

It's not too difficult to pull the battery, but I keep in mind 2 things when doing it:

1) Ground 1st, ground last - remove the ground wire first (the negative pole) when removing the battery, install it last when reinstalling. It's a tight space in their, I remove my wedding ring also.
2) Keep it flat - on the way out, and back in, do not tilt the battery more than a couple degrees in any direction.

 

I agree with Jim.

John, maybe this will help you.

WATSON - thank you for the info above regarding the redtop - I did not know that
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You don't want to hook up a good battery to a dead one. The dead one will just pull the good one down. Make sure the battery switch is turned to OFF. Pull the wheel and the battery cover and connect a real battery charger to it for a few hours of more.

 

If you have a stand alone battery booster, put that on the jump terminals for awhile, like a couple hours. Then put a real battery charger on it and fully charge it.

If the battery isn't toast, it will then allow you to use your trickle charger.

I just went through this and did this.

What was interesting is that the fully charged booster alone would not initially turn the car over. I think the existing very dead battery was stopping it.

I have no idea why the battery drained so much in a couple weeks without the charger. I have left it off before with no issues. The only thing that changed is that I repaired the headlight motor a couple weeks ago.

Hmmmm......

 

96% of the time it's due to aftermarket stereo installations, so I'm told....

 

Buy a new battery, do not try to jumpstart. I'd only attempt that if the battery was at least engaging the starter but not able to turn it over Running a car with dead battery will kill the alternator, and likely screw with most of the elctronics.
If its dead, it will not come back either.

 

When my battery was getting wea in 2009 I called Optima direct. When I explain to them what car it was for and that sometimes it sits for periods in time they told me get the yellow top. Winter of 2014 my battery tender went bad I didn't know for how long, went to start the car it was dead. I bought a new tender hooked it up and 3 days later it kicked right over and haven't had an issue since.

 

Depends on what you mean by "dead". If internally broken down, yes. If simply fully discharged there is no reason it would not hold a proper charge. Here is a quote for Interstate:

I.E. slow charge a fully discharged battery.

 

The presumptive theory is to recharge a battery at the same rate it was discharged.

 

That is likely true for less aged cars.

By 20 years, any and every electrolytic capacitor in every circuit is leaky.

 

Yup! Even on newer Ferraris. 4 days off a tender and that's about it. Good luck after that!

 

It's not easy to jack up the car to change the battery, but it's not rocket science. Make really sure you know the jacking points, and I really like two jacks.

Years ago, Optima was THE battery, but they fell off the straight and narrow. I don't know where they stand now. I have and use a local marine battery service, and I used their "glass mat" battery.

When I installed the new battery, I installed a new "battery maintainer", but I have left the car to sit without that unit for a couple of months with no problems.

A new - or less than 3/4 year old battery is great for the car - and the owner's peace of mind.

 

Richard, one jack at the front factory point is all that is needed

 

OR...

You put the battery on a charger. Almost EVERY charger out there has a "minimum Voltage" input required. Most times your battery is under that threshold when dead.

You hook it up to a charger like you are charging it.

Then you JUMPER CABLE a battery that is good *I used my lawnmower battery, to jump my battery in the car, to the dead battery. All you have to do it 'bump it'. A light tap, spark, and your good.

What it does: It tricks the charger into thinking you have minimum voltage and then charges the battery. It will revive your batter most of the time. If the cells were drained too long, then it won't work. I have never had it not work.

Your welcome all.

BOOM. mind blown.

For you engineer monkeys, obviously this puts the battery in "series" and puts it just over the required voltage to charge.

This is a great trick I learned years ago. This will ONLY work in 12v and 24v systems.
Ask me how I know..