Optima Battery Problems

TFRI

Observer
Problem with my yellow top in my 04 Jeep LJ

I posted this on the Jeep forum, but thought this might be a good place to get some help also.

I started having issues a few weeks ago with my jeep starting in the morning. all of the gauges come up. the clock and trip odo reset. with a few pushes on the gas I can normally get it to start. I have been using my Battery Tender JR over night and it will run great that day. the next morning same problem as before. I'm not sure if it is the battery, the alternator or the PCM. I'm running Optima Yellow Top (It was in the Jeep when I bought it, so I don't know how old) and stock alternator.

I have read a few articles about the stock alternator not having optimal output to keep a deep cycle battery in the best condition. I also read that the PCM for this year (it has a power regulator for charging the battery on the board) can malfunction and cause charging issues.

I am new to working on my own electronics and not sure where to start troubleshooting and all replacements are a little spendy... Any help would be great!

Thanks! -T
 

teotwaki

Excelsior!
I posted this on the Jeep forum, but thought this might be a good place to get some help also.

I started having issues a few weeks ago with my jeep starting in the morning. all of the gauges come up. the clock and trip odo reset. with a few pushes on the gas I can normally get it to start. I have been using my Battery Tender JR over night and it will run great that day. the next morning same problem as before. I'm not sure if it is the battery, the alternator or the PCM. I'm running Optima Yellow Top (It was in the Jeep when I bought it, so I don't know how old) and stock alternator.

I have read a few articles about the stock alternator not having optimal output to keep a deep cycle battery in the best condition. I also read that the PCM for this year (it has a power regulator for charging the battery on the board) can malfunction and cause charging issues.

I am new to working on my own electronics and not sure where to start troubleshooting and all replacements are a little spendy... Any help would be great!

Thanks! -T

The very basics are always a great place to start! Many local auto parts stores have battery testers so drop the battery off at a store that you trust and have them do a load test. This is also a good chance to check out all of your cables and make sure that the connections are clean and tight. This includes the ground cable to the engine and firewall, the cable to the starter and so on. Once those baselines are out of the way we can have you take some voltage readings and report back on what you find. There are plenty of Jeep enthusiasts here so they can offer advice on the PCM specifics.
 

HenryJ

Expedition Leader
Great idea to gather all the different threads. Unfortunately you have your work cut out for you. I have see half a dozen in the crew cab and jeep forums alone, and I am not looking for them.
We just had another crew cabber with a yellow top die. Not a happy camper to be sure.
 

teotwaki

Excelsior!
Great idea to gather all the different threads. Unfortunately you have your work cut out for you. I have see half a dozen in the crew cab and jeep forums alone, and I am not looking for them.
We just had another crew cabber with a yellow top die. Not a happy camper to be sure.

If evryone posted up just one particular thread that they knew of I'me sure it would be quite a collection of information
 

Jersey4x4

Adventurer
Running risk of possibly kicking up the dust cloud that has now settled

Has anyone found a rise in quality in the last two years?

I read up to page 20 and got bored as it seamed to go round in circles so I am not quite sure the result of all of this

I am planning in buying a yellow top for my auxiliary battery and the starter battery will be staying standered these will be linked with a CTEK 250S DC to DC charger and will be topped up with a CTEK 7000 battery charger every week or so

Now that might seam over kill but I live on a little island called Jersey which is in the English Channel... It is only 5 miles by 9 miles long so cars are plaged with constant starts and stops with little charging opportunity

The system will eventually be backed up with a 80w solar panel but that won't be for a while

That yellow top will he for running the camp lights CB Radio and small inverter for charger laptops but this won't be a daily drain

Now my dilemma is that there is only one battery manufacture dealership over here and it's vitara they worked well in my jimny but struggled when running lights for long periods of time...

So I need to take a chance and order one online... This means other then a phone call I have no one to return it too meaning I would have to send it back via post with would cost me 50-80 quid to do so... I don't want to have to do that...

A friend of mine has a redtop and a yellow top in his range rover and even though his split charge relay gave up on him away on a sailsbury plain trip the redtop still manged the job of both...

However he don't require long periods of time discharging like i do (he is into getting stuck in 10 ft muddy puddles and winching out)

Hopefully someone can shed some light on this with out starting cyber ww3

Thanks

Jay
 

Hilldweller

SE Expedition Society
YellowTops are primarily starting batteries, robust, but not deep-cycle like a solar power station is a deep-cycle. If they're discharged they want to be recharged fully as soon as possible.
I treated a pair of BlueTops like you're saying you'll be doing. They fought the good fight but I deep-cycled them (down to 10.5 volts) too many times for too long and I ultimately rendered them unserviceable. They lasted over 3 years with that abuse though which is a testimonial to their design. But even the best of batteries will hate you for sitting at 10.5 volts for a week over and over again.

The more often and farther you drain it without charging it back up soon, the faster you will kill it. Depending on how that plays out, your YellowTop could last a good long time. You just need to know what you're getting into.
If you only take it down to 12.5 volts and get it topped back up again in a couple of days, you'll do much better than I did.

http://www.optimabatteries.com/en-us/support/faqs
 

Jersey4x4

Adventurer
Thanks for the info

I chose the yellow top as I would like to use it to jump start myself in the event of loss of the starter battery

I will be adding two more blue tops once I have the canopy on the back of the hilux which will run the fridge (again yet to get in till canopy is sorted)and bigger inverter for charging/running tools etc and finally to run the pumps for water and compressor

Two 75 ah blue tops should do the job

However I will only be taking a maximum of one extended trip per year and a few weekend camping trips to France and the UK for dofe expeditions so the vehicle will be run pretty much all day before a night of discharge

Hopefully as I am not deep cycling them on a regular basis (I am not planning on running the fridge day to day) these should last at least 5 years? Is that sticking my head I the clouds abit? Haha

Thanks again

Jay
 

stingray1300

Explorer
I just bought a Yellow Top Optima. It has the light gray case. It is listed as a "Deep Cycle/Starting" battery now according to the paperwork I got with it.
.
http://www.optimabatteries.com/en-us/products/yellowtop
.
There have been quite a number of negative comments about the Optimas ever since Johnson Controls took them over. But as you point out, not much in the last couple of years. I started my own Optima Questions thread for JUST this reason. I too would like to know more.
.
Thanks for poking the hornet's nest... uh, I mean, bringing up the topic :sombrero:
 

Gunnslinger

Adventurer
I installed an Optima yellow top as my main\starting battery and it runs the fridge when we camp overnight. The fridge is set to turn off when battery voltage drops to 12v. The Optima may have a longer overall life, time will tell, but the stock Nissan battery would run the fridge longer than the Optima.
 

Jersey4x4

Adventurer
That all depends on your batteries amp hour rating... traditional wet cell batteries tend to have higher ah ratings then there AGM counterparts... that's what I have read anyway...

And someone had to open the can of worms again! :)

Two year should of been a long enough time to short something out... surly
 

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