Battery going or just needs a charge?

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Some quick info: 1996 Camaro, Optima Red Top roughly 5 years old.

Checked the voltage last night at the battery and was surprised to see 12.3 on the multimeter. I drove the car this past weekend on a few short trips and it started fine.

Started her up this morning, voltage was 14.7 and after a 30 minute drive to work, voltage was still 14.7 so the alternator didn't drop. Checked the voltage right after I shut it down and it was 12.7.

Came home about 7 hours ago and the car has sat in the garage, checked it about an hour ago and it was back to 12.3 volts. I haven't had any starting issues as it starts right up without any problems.

I have the battery hooked up to the charger right now. Any guesses?
 
Sounds low for room temperature wet lead acid; I would try to find an optima specific chart though for open voltage vs state-of-charge.

The 12.7 was a surface charge; they say you need to wait to let it sink in or drain it off with a few minutes on high beams.
 
I was on a Red top kick for awhile. I am not impressed with how they hold up. I have gone back to regular batteries. I was trying out 5-6 of them in my as well as family vehicles and am now down to 2. They just don't seem to have a good ability to hold up or keep a normal static voltage reading. Some people have good luck with them, but not me.

They have really jacked the prices up as they have become more popular. That and the quality not being there has taken me right out of their market. Just be sure that if you ever charge them you don't let the voltage go above a certain voltage or you will cook them. See their website. I use a batter minder.
 
I have read that you can't trickle charge optimas. I thought I read you need a minimum charging rate of 4 amps to properly charge them.

Most trickle chargers are around or below 1.5 amps. Hopefully this information might help.
 
Originally Posted By: Jim 5
I have read that you can't trickle charge optimas. I thought I read you need a minimum charging rate of 4 amps to properly charge them.

Most trickle chargers are around or below 1.5 amps. Hopefully this information might help.


I thought I had heard/read this somewhere as well but read up last night on Optima's website that you can trickle charge them.

I have my small 6/4/2 charger on it now...currently on 6A, it goes to maintain mode after its done charging.

Originally Posted By: oilboy123
I was on a Red top kick for awhile. I am not impressed with how they hold up. I have gone back to regular batteries. I was trying out 5-6 of them in my as well as family vehicles and am now down to 2. They just don't seem to have a good ability to hold up or keep a normal static voltage reading. Some people have good luck with them, but not me.

They have really jacked the prices up as they have become more popular. That and the quality not being there has taken me right out of their market. Just be sure that if you ever charge them you don't let the voltage go above a certain voltage or you will cook them. See their website. I use a batter minder.


I guess I've been lucky. The first 4 years on this redtop I drove it daily and it never gave me any grief although most batteries would probably be just as fine. Even now, it starts fine I was just surprised by the 12.3 usually it's around 12.5.

FWIW, I bought this at Pep Boys with a $30 off coupon so it wasn't too bad, price-wise.
 
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Originally Posted By: Jim 5
I have read that you can't trickle charge optimas.


You can trickle charge SLAs and gel cells, and what is the optima but a fancy SLA?
 
Originally Posted By: eljefino
Sounds low for room temperature wet lead acid; I would try to find an optima specific chart though for open voltage vs state-of-charge.

The 12.7 was a surface charge; they say you need to wait to let it sink in or drain it off with a few minutes on high beams.


I think you meant that the 14.7V was the surface charge, not the 12.3V.

According to the Wikipedia, a new, fully-charged lead-acid battery should have an open-circuit voltage of 12.6V. Since this battery was still connected to the car and there was likely a minimal drain (whatever is powered when the car is turned off, perhaps the clock, maybe a couple circuits, etc.), 12.3V doesn't seem terribly low.

I'll concur with the conclusion that the battery is in pretty good working order for being 5 years old.
 
What problems are you having that make you question the battery?

agree you need to load test it. Either at an auto parts store or have a helper start the engine while you are watching your multimeter, and see what the voltage does.

otherwise it sounds like everything is in good working order.
 
Last edited:
Originally Posted By: heypete
Originally Posted By: eljefino
Sounds low for room temperature wet lead acid; I would try to find an optima specific chart though for open voltage vs state-of-charge.

The 12.7 was a surface charge; they say you need to wait to let it sink in or drain it off with a few minutes on high beams.


I think you meant that the 14.7V was the surface charge, not the 12.3V.

According to the Wikipedia, a new, fully-charged lead-acid battery should have an open-circuit voltage of 12.6V. Since this battery was still connected to the car and there was likely a minimal drain (whatever is powered when the car is turned off, perhaps the clock, maybe a couple circuits, etc.), 12.3V doesn't seem terribly low.

I'll concur with the conclusion that the battery is in pretty good working order for being 5 years old.


No I did in fact mean 12.7= surface charge, when he just shut it off. The clock/computer drain isn't going to use .4 volts. Maybe headlights on would. Try it on your own, known good car: battery hooked up, lights on, and unhooked.

Optima says 12.3 volts is too low but of course they may want to sell a new battery. An amp test is a pretty good idea.
 
It takes about 20 minutes of sitting in my car with the radio on before the battery drops to 12.3V...and then it bounces back up to a higher voltage after I shut it off.

12.3V is too low. Either there is a higher than normal parasitic load on the battery, which should be fixed, or the battery is bad.
 
on the camaro, disconnect the battery and check the connections under that red junction box. open it up and check the contacts of all those leads. you can take fine sandpaper and clean it up. also check the alternator lead and battery contacts
 
Whats the MAX amount of years would you go on the original battery (even if it measures 12.6 V) ?
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Does the voltage drop any lower than 12.3V? Load it to half the CCA rating for 15 seconds. If it doesn't drop below 9.8 volts in that time, should be fine.
 
12.3 is about 1/2 charged..........................12.0 is 0% charged and 12.6 is 100% charged. so between 12.0 and 12.6 is 0% and 100% charged.
 
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Optima's website does indeed suggest a battery charge if the voltage falls below 12.6V.
This is high to me, but it's their product.
Apparently, they do have a slightly higher voltage than normal batteries by design.
 
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