Optima battery or alternator pulley failing or both?

jeepdan · **Posted:** Tue Dec 28, 2010 5:56 pm

OK, the Optima battery is 23 months old and the alternator pulley is 9 months old with 13,000 miles on it. I have been having the same dimming of lights as others have reported recently when letting out of the throttle and coasting, I don't have to apply the brakes to get this to happen. Last night I could see the headlights pulse with the engine. I think that I'm starting to hear a tick from the engine compartment like before I replaced the pulley, but I'm not sure it's very faint. :banghead:

ATXKJ · **Posted:** Tue Dec 28, 2010 8:56 pm

tjkj maintains the new Optimas are only good for a couple of years
(I hope he's wrong - mine has ~ 15 months)

see if you can get a stress test on the battery.

JL Rockies · **Posted:** Tue Dec 28, 2010 10:49 pm

My 4 year old Jeep has gone through 2 Optima batteries... one Red and one Yellow.

jeepdan · **Posted:** Wed Dec 29, 2010 2:20 pm

This morning the symptoms were even more pronounced driving home from the grave yard shift. It is the fog lights that are giving a pulsing flicker, then the voltage dropped so low at a stop sign that the heater fan relay dropped out when the lights dimmed out. I hope that the battery lasts until payday, I have a charger on it until I leave for work tonight. I would like to stay with a gel cell thinking that under hood corrosion might be kept to a minimum. Keep you posted

Hydraulic Jack · **Posted:** Wed Dec 29, 2010 2:23 pm

Sears Platinum battery is what I just replaced my yellow top that was only a year old with....Made by Odyssey battery........HJ

warp2diesel · **Posted:** Wed Dec 29, 2010 2:30 pm

Hydraulic Jack wrote:

Sears Platinum battery is what I just replaced my yellow top that was only a year old with....Made by Odyssey battery........HJ

I heard that the original Optima people broke off from Optima when Johnson Controls took over.
The original Optima people formed Odyssey that is now sold by Sears, correct me if I am wrong.
The dealer keeps replacing my Red tops because after a year a cell goes bad and they are shot.
Charge it up to a full charge, test the voltage and record it. Then wait a couple hours and test again, if it drops, the Optima is junk. My newest one says Made in Mexico, may make it better or worse, who knows.
This one goes, I will go for the Odyssey.
Now I need to check the one in my wife's TDI. You don't want to piss off a Klingon.

jeepdan · **Posted:** Wed Dec 29, 2010 2:43 pm

I will do the voltage test today and post results. I Checked out the Odyssey battery web site, the benefits look convincing, but only a three year warranty on a $300.00 battery ouch!

AZ CRD · **Posted:** Wed Dec 29, 2010 3:40 pm

jeepdan wrote:

I will do the voltage test today and post results. I Checked out the Odyssey battery web site, the benefits look convincing, but only a three year warranty on a $300.00 battery ouch!

I think my Sears Platinum is eight years--four year replacement, 100 month pro-rated. It was $189.

jeepdan · **Posted:** Wed Dec 29, 2010 6:09 pm

Update, charged battery 4.5 hours in the jeep at a 2amp. charge rate.
results= 12.4 volts, No change, lights and fan still dim out when letting off throttle during test drive.
Drove 5 miles to auto store to test for bad cell, test showed battery good but needing charged, 48% capacity.
Took battery out off jeep and put on charger in store for 45 minutes, after charging in warm store it tested 93% capacity.
During drive home with fan on high and all lights on voltage still dropping slightly when letting off throttle.
What now?

racertracer · **Posted:** Wed Dec 29, 2010 8:15 pm

Has the alternator been tested?

jeepdan · **Posted:** Wed Dec 29, 2010 8:51 pm

No, not yet. Obviously that would be the next step, but I'm trying figure out whether the alternator could be failing electrically, or the pulley is slipping enough to cause problems. The lights jump back to life as soon as a little throttle is applied.

tjkj2002 · **Posted:** Wed Dec 29, 2010 9:07 pm

jeepdan wrote:

I will do the voltage test today and post results. I Checked out the Odyssey battery web site, the benefits look convincing, but only a three year warranty on a $300.00 battery ouch!

They run a 4 year free replacement for the battery you need,twice as long as any other out there.

jeepdan · **Posted:** Wed Dec 29, 2010 9:27 pm

That sounds better considering the price. If my Optima is failing, I wish it would just die so that I can get a new replacement free under it's warranty. What am I saying, it's too cold outside to get stranded!

racertracer · **Posted:** Thu Dec 30, 2010 2:52 pm

I was lucky, I purchased mine during a one day Sears 25% off online battery sale. I was notified of the sale via email, the store knew nothing about it and would not honor the online sale price.

I purchased it online and had it drop shipped to the store where it was placed on hold for me to pick up later.

The old optima was only putting out 60% of it's original CCA and had a bad cell, so I took advantage of the opportunity.

I didn't discard it becasue even though it was determined to be bad, it still had a few good cranks left and offered it to a friend who installed it in a 99 RAV4 to see how long it would last.

The Rav4 doesn't require as much CCA as the CRD so we thought it would be OK.

To my knowledge it is still cranking .... right through the blizzard we just had.

rockwerks · **Posted:** Thu Dec 30, 2010 4:16 pm

jeepdan wrote:

No, not yet. Obviously that would be the next step, but I'm trying figure out whether the alternator could be failing electrically, or the pulley is slipping enough to cause problems. The lights jump back to life as soon as a little throttle is applied.

If the alt. pulley was slipping you would hear a belt squeal.

tjkj2002 · **Posted:** Thu Dec 30, 2010 7:55 pm

racertracer wrote:

I was lucky, I purchased mine during a one day Sears 25% off online battery sale. I was notified of the sale via email, the store knew nothing about it and would not honor the online sale price.

I purchased it online and had it drop shipped to the store where it was placed on hold for me to pick up later.

The old optima was only putting out 60% of it's original CCA and had a bad cell, so I took advantage of the opportunity.

I didn't discard it becasue even though it was determined to be bad, it still had a few good cranks left and offered it to a friend who installed it in a 99 RAV4 to see how long it would last.

The Rav4 doesn't require as much CCA as the CRD so we thought it would be OK.

To my knowledge it is still cranking .... right through the blizzard we just had.

If the battery actually had a dead cell it would be putting out less then 10 volts,not enough to start the smallest automotive engine with a 12 volt system.Depending on which cell went bad it often has less the 6 volts.

racertracer · **Posted:** Thu Dec 30, 2010 8:12 pm

Whatever....475cca, anyway it starts. It may be possessed, who knows.

jeepdan · **Posted:** Thu Dec 30, 2010 8:24 pm

If the alt. pulley was slipping you would hear a belt squeal.[/quote]
Sorry, I meant that the pulley clutch might be going bad causing it become disengaged when letting off of the throttle and coasting. It is either that or alternator isn't quick at maintaining constant voltage regulation. Like I said before, coasting at engine idle the voltage will dip low and come right back up with out increasing RPM.

alrhall · **Posted:** Sat Jan 01, 2011 5:50 am

My Optima bat died too. Wouldn't hold a charge. I think it was original. Jeep dealer had a "new" one $250. It looked as old as my CRD, covered with dust and one terminal post had a big ding in it. I tried the local parts stores but the optimas they sell have a different terminal arrangement. The “-“ post is too far from the edge for my ground lug. Standard size 34, 800 CCA flooded cell batteries that I could find were too tall. BJs had Exide Orbital AMG batteries. I bought the 34M-36 Marine AMG Starting battery 950 MCA, 800 CCA. It fits fine and at $149 it was a bargain. It’s been a couple weeks and its working fine.

Two months now still satisfied.

alrhall · **Posted:** Wed Aug 24, 2011 10:10 pm

Exide Orbital Worked Fine. 8 months so far. Traded my CRD yesterday. I should have kept the battery. the 2008 GC CRD I bought has a conventional Chrysler bat with lower CCAs.

PS Anybody want to buy a set of Blue Samco Hoses. I never got arround to installing them?

Optima battery or alternator pulley failing or both?

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