battery post mystery

[Raider L]

See, @DoubleDingo has had the problem I started this post with. It's the strangest thing to take the terminal off, clean the terminal and the post, put it back together and it works without a hitch for who knows how long. It might be months and then, like Double said you go back out to the truck after driving somewhere and "click"! It's total random. That's why I started using that red spray stuff to at least try to slow it to maybe once a year or longer. The spray did slow it down but to what frequency I couldn't tell you because I'm NOT looking for my starting to fail at some time I don't need it to, and there I am standing in the parking lot, hood up, with people stopping and asking me if I need any help. At least it's embarrassing. Hey man, my truck is not broke down!! I don't drive a broke down truck!! I drive a truck that runs just fine!

Thank ya'll for all the great feedback on this subject that could probably go on forever because there is always questions about batteries and starting. None of us want to ever here that dreaded noise, "cliiiiick, click click!" And then some weird noise the solenoid makes when it's like half way working, then silence! It means you have to get out in the rain, heat, freezing a** cold, or in @AuroraGirl's case six feet of snow and 30 below zero with a forty knot wind, and God only knows what is happening and you're going to have to trouble shoot some starting problem or electrical crap of unknown origin!

 

[SirRobyn0]

See, @DoubleDingo has had the problem I started this post with. It's the strangest thing to take the terminal off, clean the terminal and the post, put it back together and it works without a hitch for who knows how long. It might be months and then, like Double said you go back out to the truck after driving somewhere and "click"! It's total random. That's why I started using that red spray stuff to at least try to slow it to maybe once a year or longer. The spray did slow it down but to what frequency I couldn't tell you because I'm NOT looking for my starting to fail at some time I don't need it to, and there I am standing in the parking lot, hood up, with people stopping and asking me if I need any help. At least it's embarrassing. Hey man, my truck is not broke down!! I don't drive a broke down truck!! I drive a truck that runs just fine!

Thank ya'll for all the great feedback on this subject that could probably go on forever because there is always questions about batteries and starting. None of us want to ever here that dreaded noise, "cliiiiick, click click!" And then some weird noise the solenoid makes when it's like half way working, then silence! It means you have to get out in the rain, heat, freezing a** cold, or in @AuroraGirl's case six feet of snow and 30 below zero with a forty knot wind, and God only knows what is happening and you're going to have to trouble shoot some starting problem or electrical crap of unknown origin!

I hope we have all given you some ideas on what to look for on your problem, and bunch of other other interesting stuff not specifically related to your problem has been discussed as well, and I've enjoyed it.

 

[80BrownK10]

I know I'm a little late on this thread. I worked in auto parts for a short time. I think the ones your talking about that are small. Are they more rectangle and tall looking? Those are for at that time Hondas from like the 80s and 90s. I don't believe Honda since then uses that battery. I know my 2 Toyota SUVs from 01 and 04 both use a 24 group size battery. I have one in my tractor as well but that's kind of like your application, I picked the biggest physical size battery I could fit in the spot.

@AuroraGirl,

All batteries are to heavy for me now. My son was on his phone doing business and I wanted to get the job done right then because it was already eight o'clock and my pain meds had already wore off. So I parked his car, to go get the battery, close enough to my truck so it was a very short distance to the open engine compartment. I used my only good arm and got it in quick. Ha, ha. I don't put anything off. If I was in good enough shape I'd be outside at midnight working.

Yeah, I was reading about those CS alternators tonight. The new alt., another 10 SI, I bought a few months ago started acting up so I pulled it and put my rebuilt one back in the truck. It's the factory alt. that's been rebuilt about two dozen times (joke), but the last time I rebuilt it, after buying that first new alternator I ever bought for this truck I've had since '81, I went the whole nine yards and bought a new core, the armature? the thing with all the windings and the curved steel finger looking things, new housing bearings, new rectifier bridge, new diode trio, and the best voltage regulator I could find that's a 14.2 volt one. I cleaned the housing halves to look new and put it in the truck when the new, new one started acting like the voltage regulator was doing something weird. I didn't want that stupid thing to fail so I yanked it out.

But that wasn't the reason why my battery appeared dead last night. It was the dang cable again, like @Turbo4whl suggested. You know I never thought about the corrosion being down inside the cable insulation. I'll get a new cable and I'll cut that old one down the middle and see where the problem is.

The number on the new battery isn't any series that goes to the truck. I really don't have any idea what it goes to. It was a 24-2 or something like that? I picked it for size, amp. output, and post location. Those little batteries I said I was looking at last night just looked like some small vehicle battery. Do you think they might go to a small car? They must have been about 7" square and put out about 500 CCA. Know any car that would take a battery that little? Yeah, now that you mention it those golf cart batteries are huge, and like four of them, or more, all wired together. Yeah, they're long to.

 

[80BrownK10]

you could do voltage drop tests to see if you have a issue with a meter to save cutting

also you bought a group size 24 battery? as long as the miniimum requirements for the old girl are met by it that will work but it probably is smaller than your tray I would reckon lol. The group size 24 is common in small engine cars, like a 2003 toyota corolla i will just go out on a limb and assume with the inline 4 it has a 24 group size. 2004 nissan maxima might too i cant remember. i think saturn S series used it too? been a while.

I would say keep your SI alternator if you rebuilt it but if you ever wanted to upgrade I would skip straight to AD alternator before a CS. Similar price, better most ways.

Like I posted to Raider. My Toyotas have a group 24. One of those Toyotas is a Sequoia. Toyotas biggest vehicle and at the time the largest engine they made. It has the 4.7L V8. No issue cranking it with that battery even in as cold a temps as we get here in SC with a 5 year old battery.

The other SUV is a Highlander that has a 24 in it. Its only a 3.0L V6 and is the same engine and power train out of the Camry or the same era. This was the first year for the Highlander and they hadn't developed an engine for it yet and just borrowed from their proven platform.

 

[AuroraGirl]

Do NOT dump and refill. Any references I made to that was in jest. In the old days sometimes guys would try to take a battery with a dead cell and "try" to clean it out so it would work again. If it worked it at all it was not like a new battery but more like a functional used battery. You'd be far better off checking it out and if needed charging it up as you would with any other battery and putting it back into service. A three year old battery in good health would be very likely come back no problem with just a check and if needed a charge.

Also if you buy a battery charger with a "recondition" feature, which will overcharge, and do cycles and such automatically which will, to the extent possible by heat and a battery charger setting, help get a tiny bit of life out of a battery which has gotten a little down on capacity or cranking amps. I saw it first hand with my battery charger on my gma/gpas old dodge journey(what a turd)

Battery got low, to the point it stayed that way a little too long before I got around to charging and it was only a year or 2 old. But beings chrysler has an affinity for mounting batteries in the wheel well, I wasnt about to change that AGAIN. However, freshly "charged" it would barely start in like 32 degrees or would crank but the power would fall off fast after a normal amount of cranking , basically, if it missed starting by one small rotation you werent going to be starting it without a jump.

I put the "recondition" feature to test, and the battery was brought back to actual acceptable use levels where -10, -20 would still start, but you could tell it was slightly low on capacity, because leaving the lights on for 10 minutes could almost knock it back down to no start ville. But it did significantly improve that battery and im sure its still in use now much later and way past its due with my cousin.. who has no right to be driving anything but regardless lol.

For raider I definitely wouldnt be flushing a battery because you would 1) have acid to dispose of 2) have to buy acid which means you would have a box on your shelf that you wont use the whole thing for 3) Its acid, stuff burns ( i would know lol) and like robyn said its really not a 100% back to life its back to service kind of thing. I will do it on the lawn mower battery because I just forgot to use the thing and its been sitting dead for a while and its new past that, so not like a high stakes situation nor a large battery either. but only because it has caps


Oddly, when i checked the cells on my f150 battery which I got for free(thanks ex whos 94 taurus battery with a valid autozone warranty I was able to exchange and the battery is the same group size the f150 needs) and one cell was slightly low the others were full and it makes me wonder if it was low to begin or if somehow it is evaporating more from one cell. Odd. i didnt even look at the levels new so I cant compare.

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and if this wiring looks shifty then you are most definitely correct. one thing that cant make a battery cable for **** is ford because my god these things are way too rigged to work at this point. I need to replace them. I have a few old side post cables laying about I think I will make a negative but I will buy fords positive cable because they revised their **** and it has an inline fusible link and a few eyelets and branches off weird... go forder...

 

[AuroraGirl]

I know I'm a little late on this thread. I worked in auto parts for a short time. I think the ones your talking about that are small. Are they more rectangle and tall looking? Those are for at that time Hondas from like the 80s and 90s. I don't believe Honda since then uses that battery. I know my 2 Toyota SUVs from 01 and 04 both use a 24 group size battery. I have one in my tractor as well but that's kind of like your application, I picked the biggest physical size battery I could fit in the spot.

yes those a lot of small cars seem to have them.

on a related note, this is a 51 size battery which my John deeres had a OEM battery very very very very similar in size, which we have since used to replace the friggin expensive John deere battery since it replaced it just fine, but this is on my skidsteer

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(zip ties are a joke here lol)

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this was fun a couple years ago. I had a battery behind the seat there where that new one is. And it was that john deere battery I spoke of LOL
The charging system is fine, I think the vibrations and moving onto the skidsteer caused some internal stuff because it was quite boiling and thank god it self-destructed right in my shed while i was off it(it didnt spit or anything but I just got back from the back of my property where this would be a lawn ornament if it was stuck there). Killed a new set of points, condensor, original coil, new plug wires, and I tossed 2 plugs on to be thourough. Was not fun. I do know that I used the incorrect spark plug wires so the resistance maybe was too much for the coil and that caused soemthing but hard to say.

 

[80BrownK10]

@AuroraGirl,

I think you may be right on that group number. You know more about that stuff than I do. I went out and looked at the battery that came out of my old Honda and it's a 51-R. The battery I just bought fit the truck exactly. It was like I had to try to get my old man's mind to imagine the size of my battery and standing there in the store try to imagine the battery I was looking at being the same size of the one in the truck. I didn't take it with me to Advance Auto because I had to go to the pharmacy to get some meds and go to a couple of other places, and it was when I got in the truck to go was when it wouldn't start so I just grabbed my son's car and left. I decided to go ahead and go to Advance to buy the new battery on the fly. I had already looked at a new battery over there some time ago when I found out Advance carried Die Hard battery's.

I've been using Die Hard's since 1972! And they have never let me down. They have always lasted longer than they're guaranteed for and I've only had one go bad before the end of the guarantee period in all that time. The Die Hard that was in my truck was really okay and I didn't need a new battery. I tested the one that was in my truck when I got back to the house with the new one by taking that positive terminal off, cleaning it, and putting it back on. Everything came right back, lights, starting, everything. But it was about to come to the end of it's guarantee period, by a couple of days, and I didn't want to take a chance of getting stranded somewhere with a dead battery.

You know these days things aren't made as good as they used to be. I had to take that into account. In case that problem happened again and that time it damaged the battery that was old to begin with, and I'd end up having to get a new battery anyway. And I was already looking at buying a new battery so I pulled the trigger. Now I'll deal with the cable's and I'll have new stuff to power everything.

There is only like 3 or 4 makers of batteries that supply the US market. Die Hard is just a name, they do not manufacture batteries. I think the batteries at advance are a good chance made by Johnson controls . I can't remember. I use to by all my batteries there cause with the online discount they had the best deal but about 8 years ago they jacked their prices up more than the others and cut the deals. I buy them all Walmart now. They have the best prices I have found around here and I have had very good luck over the years from them as well. To be honest any batter should be able to make it out of that free warranty period. They should be able to make it 5 to 10 years with most giving out at that 5 to 7 year mark. I'm not brand loyal, there batteries. What I will do is get the heaviest battery I can for an application that you can swap the size out and it doesn't matter. Lead equals power.

 

[AuroraGirl]

There is only like 3 or 4 makers of batteries that supply the US market. Die Hard is just a name, they do not manufacture batteries. I think the batteries at advance are a good chance made by Johnson controls . I can't remember. I use to by all my batteries there cause with the online discount they had the best deal but about 8 years ago they jacked their prices up more than the others and cut the deals. I buy them all Walmart now. They have the best prices I have found around here and I have had very good luck over the years from them as well. To be honest any batter should be able to make it out of that free warranty period. They should be able to make it 5 to 10 years with most giving out at that 5 to 7 year mark. I'm not brand loyal, there batteries. What I will do is get the heaviest battery I can for an application that you can swap the size out and it doesn't matter. Lead equals power.

A couple years ago when they no longer had their contract with... I forget who.. they went and had Interstate which was actually a big deal like cool thats actually pretty convenient and the bulk pricing meant it was rather a good option. but as soon as sears went up in smoke they pounced on diehard and dumped interstate and that is where it sits now. I think it is johnson controls, they have the same appearance. east penn makes farm and fleet batteries at this time(if anyone was curious), I would guess napa are probably also east penn. If I recall correctly, everstart and interstate are made by exide. I just googled, it appears interstate is being made in large part by johnson controls and east penn and exide. I didnt investigate further but I guess that means huh. If that is true, my guess is the case design and possibly label may differ or they are doing regions of the country OR they are doing lines of the batteries. JOhnson controls is here in wisconsin, east penn is in pennsylvania. idk where exide is but It would make sense if region then to me.

Also optima is johnson controls. Duralast is johnson controls last I checked. I believe oreillies brand is either exide or east penn.

AC Delco is either a 4th party or johnson controls from my quick google search.

Important thing to note is that even tho they may have similar sources, they can still very much differ in quality, density, longevity, etc and that probably has to do with either a different quality standard or just made to specs. these big companies and their large agreements could be 300 pages of specs on batteries down to one page for name rights you never know

 

[SirRobyn0]

There is only like 3 or 4 makers of batteries that supply the US market. Die Hard is just a name, they do not manufacture batteries. I think the batteries at advance are a good chance made by Johnson controls . I can't remember. I use to by all my batteries there cause with the online discount they had the best deal but about 8 years ago they jacked their prices up more than the others and cut the deals. I buy them all Walmart now. They have the best prices I have found around here and I have had very good luck over the years from them as well. To be honest any batter should be able to make it out of that free warranty period. They should be able to make it 5 to 10 years with most giving out at that 5 to 7 year mark. I'm not brand loyal, there batteries. What I will do is get the heaviest battery I can for an application that you can swap the size out and it doesn't matter. Lead equals power.

Yes that's right there are only a few manufactures of batteries but a bunch of brand names. However keep in mind that just because Manufacture A for example Johnson Controls, makes a bunch of different brand names, that doesn't mean they are manufactured to the same specifications.

If we look at the oil filter industry for example Wix makes, wix branded filters, they make Napa gold which is suppose to be the same as wix branded filters, but the Napa pro-select is wix manufactured, but not the same as a Wix or gold. They also make microgard filters which are manufactured to a third spec. The battery industry may very well be doing the same thing, though I do not know that for a fact. Basically I'm just throwing that out there as food for thought.

 

[AuroraGirl]

Yes that's right there are only a few manufactures of batteries but a bunch of brand names. However keep in mind that just because Manufacture A for example Johnson Controls, makes a bunch of different brand names, that doesn't mean they are manufactured to the same specifications.

If we look at the oil filter industry for example Wix makes, wix branded filters, they make Napa gold which is suppose to be the same as wix branded filters, but the Napa pro-select is wix manufactured, but not the same as a Wix or gold. They also make microgard filters which are manufactured to a third spec. The battery industry may very well be doing the same thing, though I do not know that for a fact. Basically I'm just throwing that out there as food for thought.

we must have had the same cereal today! Lol. At least the same train of thoughts lol

 

[AuroraGirl]

Yes that's right there are only a few manufactures of batteries but a bunch of brand names. However keep in mind that just because Manufacture A for example Johnson Controls, makes a bunch of different brand names, that doesn't mean they are manufactured to the same specifications.

If we look at the oil filter industry for example Wix makes, wix branded filters, they make Napa gold which is suppose to be the same as wix branded filters, but the Napa pro-select is wix manufactured, but not the same as a Wix or gold. They also make microgard filters which are manufactured to a third spec. The battery industry may very well be doing the same thing, though I do not know that for a fact. Basically I'm just throwing that out there as food for thought.

Wix also makes parts master filters

 

[SirRobyn0]

Wix also makes parts master filters

Who carries parts master, is that the Auto Value house line?

 

[AuroraGirl]

Who carries parts master, is that the Auto Value house line?

Yes. I think ive seen them at a carquest but a lot of the carquests became auto value around here, so that may be why.

 

[SirRobyn0]

Yes. I think ive seen them at a carquest but a lot of the carquests became auto value around here, so that may be why.

I think Carquest was broken up, because around here they are part of Advance Auto. I have no idea what battery line they carry, use to be thier own Carquest line, but I doubt that's the case now. The Advance auto website treats them like a redheaded step child almost like they are not there at all.

 

[DoubleDingo]

I think Carquest was broken up, because around here they are part of Advance Auto. I have no idea what battery line they carry, use to be thier own Carquest line, but I doubt that's the case now. The Advance auto website treats them like a redheaded step child almost like they are not there at all.

The CarQuest's here are Advance Auto as well, but still carry some old CarQuest stock. Diehard batteries are now on the shelf at the store I use. And they don't have 60 month batteries anymore, just 48 month. Lame