Quote:
Originally Posted by Graham
Barry,
I would have thought our cold winters would be harder on our batteries than warm days. Thick oil, cold engine, cold battery, longer gloplug preheat are all tough on batteries.
Mind you, I ran the 6 yr old Canadian Tire Eliminator on 300D dead flat last week (down to zero volts!). I was able to get it back to life and now have used it for about a week with no problems. On Schumaker load tester it stays about 25% in green after 10sec load test. Had a 9 year warranty and was hoping to be able to exchange it on pro-rata basis. But it now wouldn't fail test 
Merry Christmas.
Graham |
I didn't think it's possible to run a battery down to 0 volts. I'd think you'd measure at least a volt or 2. It'd be interesting to see how much longer this battery will function. I ran a newish Autozone flooded battery dead (do not remember final voltage or if I even measured it) by leaving glow plugs on for a few hours and was able to recover it by charging and it worked OK for a few months. I recall and did not have enough capacity to start the engine at max rpm.
Speaking of car battery longevity, I have a Blue top Optima AGM that's at least 15 years old and it's still providing reliable starts in my 92 Jetta idi. I should get it load tested and see what condition it's really in.
I had an old battery with low voltage 12.4 V @ full charge laying around for a few years and was going to bring it to the local recycler which is a long drive from here. They pay by the pound. I called Autozone and asked if they take batteries like used oil. They said yes. On a wim, I asked if they pay anything for it. They said no but will give a $10 store credit per battery. That's good as cash! Dropped the battery off, got store credit and bought 2 bottles of Marvel Mystery Oil for a little over $10.