I have never had a battery failure this complete and sudden before.
The Lovely Harvey and The Boy are at Special Olympics this weekend.
The four hour drive went uneventfully, they checked into the hotel, and when they went to go to the welcome dinner...
No nothin' on the Civic.
Not even enough juice to light the idiot lights.
One of the other parents had a booster/starter pack and as long as that was plugged in, she had power. Without it, dead.
When she jump started the car, it started up and stayed running even when disconnected.
Let it run for a bit, shut off, turn the key back on... dead.
Thanks to my constant nagging, Harvey has tools in the trunk and could remove the battery. That also means she has tools to install a battery! Quick trip to Wal Mart and a new battery is installed and the car is apparently all better!
HUZZAH!
Of note, the old battery was an 8 year old Optima yellow-top. The suddenness of the failure is still stunning to me.
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Even an Optima is living on borrowed, maybe even stolen time at 8 years.
ReplyDeleteMost batteries die slowly and even when near dead (as in not enough power to actuate the solenoid, have some juice left. This sounds like dead and zero volts. The only way that happens is if the bus wire from the plates to the terminal literally cracks and shifts, IE there ain't no path for them electrons.
ReplyDeleteI would call the Optima manufacturer and ask if this can be analyzed if indeed you measure zero at the terminals. Who knows, they may want to look at it.
Harvey already turned it in for the core charge, otherwise I'd be checking it out.
DeleteMarv reminds me that this is the same failure mode his Optima yellow-top had in his V-8 Fiero. Might be something about how they're made that causes a complete fail when they go.