New battery = no power. What happened?

[Chuck 98 RT/10]

Ok, here’s the scenario…

98 RT/10 57K miles
Installed new Optima battery
Reset the computer. Tested it several times. Worked fine.
Lights, etc. work.
Get in Viper to crank it, turn key and get a staticy “pop” then nothing. No power, no lights, no radio, no alarm.
Get out of Viper to reset alarm and nothing.

Check voltage at the jumper terminals – voltage good.
Remove rear wheel and check voltage at battery terminals – voltage good.

I was very careful not to short anything out when I installed the battery. I also cleaned the connections very well. So why did everything appear to work fine up until I turned the key? And now nothing works. Fuse maybe? Which one?

 

[Viper99]

Happened to me with my '99 RT/10.
Went through 2 Optima batteries in the last 6 months. According to Optima and my mechanic there was a bad lot of these batteries recently and the company has had several verifiable problems. The latest one seems to be fine. With the first battery, every thing was fine for a few days and then the car was dead. The second one was installed, drove it home and went to start it the next day and got the same "static and pop" you described and the car went dead. Check with the company and see if they will verify what I was told. Good Luck.

 

[1TONY1]

Chuck, What do you mean when you say: reset the computer. Tested it several times.

I would disconnect then reconnect both battery terminals. Check and clean the other end of your battery ground cable at the frame. If it still does not start put your volt meter on the jump terminal at the motor and see what it does when the key is in the crank position. I am looking at the service manual and from just a battery change I don't see a good reason unless by chance it killed the starter relay. I can fax you the relay test if you need to go that far. ta

 

[Chuck 98 RT/10]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by 1TONY1:
Chuck, What do you mean when you say: reset the computer. Tested it several times.

<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

I stood at the front of the car and held both buttons on the key fob down until the car honked, about 10 seconds. Then I pressed the lock and unlock buttons several times to make sure the alarm would arm and disarm. On a 98 the horn honks when it's armed and the lights flash when it is disarmed. Now it doesn't do anything.

Thanks both Tonys. I'm going back to get my old battery in the morning. It still had plenty of juice. I'll see if it's the Optima battery.

 

[Fred(DrivingSchool)Kinder]

Do a search for OPTIMA on this site. Many long post. FYI the side terminal is a component that is attached to the top post. I had to cut the top post to allow frame clearance on my 96RT. Installed the battery and the car had no power. It had 12-13 volts but could not delivery current. I took the battery back to the parts store(owned by a good friend) and when it was checked for current on the side terminals it was almost zero. He pulled several from stock and checked the current, side and top terminals. They were okay but we noticed about 10% less current from the side terminal. We went back to looked at my battery and noticed it had a ring, like a tree ring, separating a center post and outer drum. The center post had current and the outer drum and side post were the same, almost zero.

The side terminal and top terminal is not one piece. So if the side terminal is not attached properly to the top post no or low current will result.

Check the side terminal for current. If out of spec., take the OPTIMA back and replace it with the stock battery.

 

[joe117]

If somehow there is a poor internal connection between the inside of the battery and the side terminal, a voltmeter could still show proper voltage at the side terminal. When you try to pull some current through this poor internal connection, the voltage might drop to almost nothing. A good test that might confirm this would be to measure the voltage at the terminals with the battery connected and nothing tuned on in the car. Then turn on the lights, heater blower and radio. measure the terminal voltage again. You might find that pulling the 30 amps or so from these items might cause the voltage to drop quite a bit. A poor internal connection might do this.
The starter might draw 100 amps from the battery and any resistance in the path would cause a big drop.

 

[Qualitywires.com]

sounds like you don't have enough amps. Bad battery? Try jumping it from your other viper and see it that works.

 

[Chuck 98 RT/10]

Tony-Viper99 hit the nail on the head. Bad Optima battery. I put my old battery back in and everything fired up fine.

Odd thing is that the voltage on the Optima read fine. Must be something internal that craps out. Maybe a resistor or fuse or something. They don't look like ordinary batteries. PepBoys wasn't too happy that I cut the terminal off and said they wouldn't be able to get a refund because of it, but agreed that it had nothing to do with the problem. I told them Optima would want to know if they have a bad batch of batteries but I think PepBoys just wanted me out of their store so they refunded my $$$ and sent me on my way.

So now, what battery to get? I ain't buying another Optima.

 

[joe117]

It sounds like the side terminal and battery internal connection is connected to the inside top part of the top post. When the post is cut off there is no connection to the side terminal or the stump of the top post connection.

 

[Snake Bitten]

Chuck... THIS ...is the battery I am putting in my RT after this winter.

 

[MES]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>
PepBoys wasn't too happy that I cut the terminal off and said they wouldn't be able to get a refund because of it
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

If you cut the top terminal off that's the problem. The top terminal has a center core that goes to the battery cells then the outer part of the top terminal delivers the current to the side posts. By cutting off the top you severed this connection between the inner core and the outer part that goes to the side posts.

 

[Chuck 98 RT/10]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by MES:

The top terminal has a center core that goes to the battery cells then the outer part of the top terminal delivers the current to the side posts.

<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

I don't think so. Voltage at the side terminals was checked and good.

 

[Chuck 98 RT/10]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Snake Bitten:
Chuck... THIS ...is the battery I am putting in my RT after this winter.

<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Thanks Gerald. I've used Sears and never had a problem, but my RT/10 sees some occassional "off road" action. I might go with Die Hard if I can't find a more suitable "track" battery.

 

[Fred(DrivingSchool)Kinder]

Cutting the top post can open the connection to the side terminals. And the side voltage without load will look okay.

 

[Mike Brunton]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Chuck 98 RT/10:
I don't think so. Voltage at the side terminals was checked and good.

<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Daniel is right - you can have a weak connection there which will show voltage on a meter (almost no load = almost no connection required) but will fail when any significant load is placed on it. Sounds like you broke it Chuck!

I'll be calling Pep Boys tomorrow to let them know to charge you after all!

P.S. How far are you from Daytona? I'm likely coming down in March for a bike show. Yeah who wants to meet me right? Well, remember the girl you're in love with I posted pics of? She's coming too!

 

[prodiver]

Have to agree with above post. DO NOT CUT THE TOP POSTS OF AN OPTIMA BATTERY. I learned the hard way. New battery car started right up. Got 100 miles from home and it quit. Drove me up the wall trying to figure out what was wrong. Optima will not waranty the battery if top posts are cut off.

 

[Viper Specialty]

Yep, you guys are correct. do NOT cut off the entire post. Up to 1/4 inch you will be fine, but no NOT hack off the whole post!

 

[Chuck 98 RT/10]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Mike Brunton:

P.S. How far are you from Daytona? I'm likely coming down in March for a bike show. Yeah who wants to meet me right? Well, remember the girl you're in love with I posted pics of? She's coming too!

<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

2 1/2 hours from Daytona. March is Gatornationals and 12 hours of Sebring. Bring her...er, I mean come on down!!!