Bruce In Philly

Wife's IS250 was experiencing slow cranking so I charged it with my CTEK on "recondition".... didn't do any good. Popped the caps and the water was low, particularly in one cell. Topped off with distilled water, now on the CTEK again on "recondition" mode.

Battery is a Duralast Gold only 1 to 1.5 years old. Battery dying? Why does this happen? When was the last time you topped off a battery? The last time I topped off a battery was when I was a teenager in the '70s.

Peace
Bruce in Philly

Feld

I do this once a year with all wet batteries, they usually need a little to top off. My 911 was four years old when I purchased it with original OEM battery and all cells were low and the battery was showing signs of weakness, topped off and reconditioned with charger no issues at all holds charge for weeks. This is something I learned with maintaining large 8-D boat batteries and is well worth the effort.

Racetwin2

Normally a 1,5 year old battery shouldn’t need top up but maybe it was filled low or something else?

The CTEK I guess is s trickle charger so it cannot run a full battery charge. I think minimum voltage is 10 volts or so for it to even start.

So battery can’t be dead if it’s now charging. Might be good to run the trickle charger from time to time since it has a built in “delfulfation” mode or whatever it’s called. Keeps the battery in good shape. Most CTEK chargers have this function and it does it automatically.

Petza914

I haven't had anything other than a sealed AGM battery in probably 10 years so haven't topped up any traditionally wet cell batteries. I use Optima blue tops in the boat and red tops in my cars, (except for the Cayenne since they don't make the right size, so that one has a Napa Gold AGM). Frequent recharging using a traditional trickle charger that doesn't have a float or maintenance mode can evaporate the water from the cells, but your CTek is not that kind and the right type (car icon for wet cell and snowflake for AGM).
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LexVan

Ideally, you want deionized water (hard to find), not distilled. But that's better than nothing. Always wear eye protection and rubber gloves when doing that maintenance job. FYI.

BillNye

Leave it broken and take it back to autozone. Gold has a several year free replacement warranty.

mk85911

I check the fluid level in my batteries every year or so, and I frequently notice one cell lower than the others. IIRC, it is usually the cell closest to the positive terminal. Anyway, each cell contributes about two volts to the battery's twelve volts.

Bruce In Philly

Mr Nye, you are correct.... back to Autozone tonight.

Battery is dead this AM... Won't move past three lights on the CTEK (manual states OK to start when 4th light is lit). Was on the charger for about 9 hours.... still on but I am not hopeful for when I return this eve.

Odd, it would get to 4 lights and start fine once... then slow crank. I added water and that seemed to make it worse. Either way, it is dead. I gotta wonder if I checked the water say 4 months ago, would it still be alive.

Peace
Bruce in Philly

BillNye

I worked at an AZ back when I was an undergrad, sold a lot of batteries during that time. 9 times out of 10, once a battery starts showing symptoms and won't hold a charge it's only a matter of time before it's done. Numerous times I'd test a battery for somebody, tell them it's bad, then they'd take it home to try charging it, only to be back a few days later buying a new battery.

Heads up, if it's *really* dead when you take it back, they wont be able to test it until it's charged. They have to try charging it first before they'll replace it. The chargers they have are quite nice, and are smart enough to know if it's bad before doing a full charging cycle. I'm pretty confident it will test bad, but it might not be as simple as just taking them the battery. So, when they say they need to charge it first, it's not because the guy wants to hassle you or thinks you're an idiot, it's just policy. You'd be surprised how many people try to get a good battery replaced because they did something stupid like leaving their lights on.

Also, be thankful you got any symptoms at all. I've had two OE VW batteries fail with zero warning whatsoever. Car started fine, drove 15min to the store and did some shopping, restarted car and noticed the starter drag just a tiny but more than usual. Drove 5min to another store and was there for all of 15min, came back out and the battery was completely flat. Could never get it to hold a charge again.

jhbrennan

Good advice - be ready for a no start when battery starts to fail. That's usually what happens with the OEM batteries in the 996/997's.

Bruce In Philly

Autozone put some medieval contraption on the thing.... 10 volts..... new battery. No muss, no fuss. I had the thing on a CTEK charger for about 15 hours and would only light three lights on the charger. Battery was almost exactly 2 years old.... under warranty.... in their computer.... NP.

I love Autozone for many reasons... but should that Duralast Gold have died so soon?

Peace
Bruce in Philly

eagle1960

Short answer is no. There are going to be some duds out there. Case In point, about 3 years ago I bought an AutoZone battery for the wife's ML. This one is located under the front passenger seat and is a bear to get to. Brought it home late in the evening the night before we were leaving for a 900 mile trip. After lots of cursing and skinned body parts, the car wouldn't even turn over. Volt meter showed 8 volts new off the shelf.

CAVU

No it should not have. It was your turn to be at the wrong end of the reliability bell curve. It happens. Like you, I've seen a few wet cell batteries in my time and when I see one or two cells cooking off water faster than the others, I start looking at the age of the battery.

Today, all of my cars have their batteries somewhere other than in the engine compartment. My rule of thumb of replacing wet cells at 4 years is out the window now. Heat is such a killer on batteries. AGM is a new learning process too. 2 of 4 of my vehicles have AGMs in them.

CAVU

These days, I now take a volt meter with me to buy the battery. I check the date and then the voltage. They questioned my logic until I told them that they should do this for every customer to build "customer care" points AND shared with them that lugging heavy batteries in and out of their store unnecessarily makes me an unhappy Advance Auto customer. They understood completely.

BillNye

This. That's why they warrant them.
That's basically my rule too. Expect to replace it anytime after 3yrs. I dont have enough experience w/ AGMs to know. I sold the vehicle with the only one I had about 2-3yrs after replacing the battery. It was side post though, so all bets are off.