battery trouble?
 

Not sure if its just i have a shitty battery or if theres anything thats draining it

I took the car to school last week and its sat there (forgot to unhook the battery) and it wouldn't crank up
it said that it was only holding 25% of what it should

what could be draining it?

did u try to push start it? what is the "it" that said it was only holding 25% of what it should? sounds like a bad bat. an amp meter will show how much draw is on it. then pulling fuses one by one will reveal the circuit it's in.

So you usually unhook the battery? there might be something staying on when the ignition is off.. This happened on my Volkswagen. You might want to start with a new battery. If you have a fluke or other suitable multimeter, set it to amps. Disconnect the negative battery terminal. connect one lead of the multimeter to the negative terminal and one end to the negative cable. this should be very close to zero. the only thing on your first getn shoud be your clock and maybe radio taking tiny amounts of power. If you are reading a couple amps then you have something shorting or staying on (dome light is about 3 or so amps?) leave this connected and start pulling fuses. when you pull one and it drops to zero or closel then you have found the system thats at fault. Be careful not to go aver about 10 amps is what ive heard. might blow the multimeter. so then you have to do a little more narrowing it down but this has worked for me twice that i can think of :)

1. eclipse window motor shorted
2. VW jetta trunk light switch was not shutting off the trunk light

to mikes post
the it was a battery testing/charging box

i didnt mess with it today but i'll try the fuse idea tomorrow if not welding on the exhaust

k got the exhaust on
sounds good as hell
but on the way home 2 problems happened

3 of my lugs came off driving home =x
apparently the guy working with me at rd didn't torque down the studs
so tomorrow im cussin his lazy ass out

i was working on the steering wheel and well he must have just been that lazy


but then second problem


it wouldn't crank after i pulled over from losing 3 studs


so the battery is just a big piece of shit
it won't hold a charge because it was sitting is what my teacher said
even though i stored it as it said on some websites i got off google

but i can take it back and pay like 50 extra and get a red top optima


so question is do i get the red top optima or a yellow top?
I have a 12abp with 2 gauges(soon to be 4), electric fan, radio, and speakers.

don't know the differences between the two but i'm sure one has more cranking amps than the other. depending on the power demand u'll be needing from it for the usual electrical system plus the type of stereo system u'll have. the battery i'm using is very old and has been in 4 different cars, all rotary, and it's rated at 1000 cranking amps. it was on sale at the time for like $70 and i had plans at the time for a pretty demanding stereo system. since then it has done very well and lasted for yrs and never let me down. i think the oem replacement is like 750 or 800 CA. oh and i'd fire that guy that was working with u.

I would say go get your alternator tested. If you are charging it and it isn't holding a charge then 9 times out of 10 is isn't the battery that has gone bad.

well the alternator tested good and the battery tested to be shit at school
so =] im guessing its the battery?

how did u test the battery at school? does it have removable caps? if so pop them off and see if any of the cells r dry. u can also check each cell to see if any r dead.

I have the optima red and it's REALLY GOOD. I have a small draw tooo somewhere that I haven't had the time to pinpoint and the car lately has been sitting sometimes even two weeks at a pop and she still starts right up... Where as the last battery I had in there would of went dead FOR SURE. It used to go dead in three - four days if I didn't start her.

Meanwhile, I still use the other battery in another car I been piecing together b/c it still works and tests fine.

my teacher has some testing thing they use on the race cars and he tested it and it wasnt holding a charge for shit
i tried charging it overnight and while at school and then i took it off and tried to see what itd do if i left it there for a few hours then went to check it and its already drained to 75% from what my charger said

Don't waste your money on Optima's. I burnt one out in ~4 months. I have had an Exide Orbit for 3-4 years now and it's amazing. It is pricey (it was $180 when I bought it in 2005/2006), but well worth it. Check out my thread that is linked below.

https://www.rx7club.com/showthread.p...ht=Exide+Orbit

G'luck with your choice. I can tell you that Murray's stopped carrying Optima because of quality control issues.

is your battery dirty because that will make the battery lose power

Hmmmm my Optima been kicking ass about a year. I hope mine isn't a faulty one. That thing was 180 sumthing $.

They could have gotten their quality control issues under control, but I know i won't buy one until I start hearing a ton of good reviews.

yea well the battery is clean thats in mine
im wondering if they didn't set the machine right or something testing the battery and shit or when they tested the alternator
shit its an oem alternator i couldn't believe it when it said it was good on the machine