Bruce In Philly

2009 C2S 121K miles

This is really annoying..... this cold snap is deadly.... My two year old Duralast Gold (Autozone) battery is dying..... this is the 2nd Duralast to die within the warranty period for me... my wife's Lexus IS250 ate one last month... Autozone was great... took her battery in.. they attached some sort of device and it read a low voltage... they just handed me another. Now to my C2S battery.... New Year Eve it was very cold... I left the party, and the car had that scary slow "wum....wum.....zooom" start.... oh oh.... Home, I put it on the CTEK charger.... 6 hours later it still did not light the green light. I took it out and Autozone's device said it had a 100% charge. I guess the CTEK is more picky. Back in the car it went. I ran a refubish cycle on the CTEK and plug the CTEK in every night now. After a drive, it now takes about four hours on the CTEK but will now light the green. (I swear I heard the battery say "I feel happy".)

I guess I will have to wait until it is really dead to take it back. Where is that guy with the cart... 9 pence should do it.

Any estimates for how long it will take to be fully dead? If the ambient temps return above freezing, will the battery last another year? Did the refurb cycle bring it back to life?

Peace
Bruce in Philly

CAVU

Bruce,

Not sure which CTEK you are using and type of battery. On my CTEK Multi US 3300, the manual recommends using the "Snowflake" Mode 14.7V/3.3A charge setting for "battery at temperatures <41F. It is also recommended for many AGM batteries...."

Mike Murphy

ALEV8

jhbrennan

I also use the 34R on my 996 - I use a mounting plate from Yellow Dog to secure it. It is smaller and I wish it were 30 pounds lighter. The 34R weighs about 38 pounds while an comparable AGM battery weighs about 50 pounds

Petza914

Optima 34Rs in both my 997s too. I've been using Optima since the mid 90s and never had one die before it was 5 years old. There's better tech out there - make the leap.

Quadcammer

optima get horrible reviews. My interstate in my 993 has lasted 8 years.

Treat any battery well and it will last you a long time.

8202632

Petza914

Not based on my direct, personal experience. I have 5 in my cars (red top) and 2 in my boat (blue top). I also installed one in my old QX56 years ago that my Dad now owns, and no issue with that one either. In the Cayenne I had to use a different kind as Optima doesn't make one large enough, so it has a Napa Gold AGM in I think and H9 size.

Ben Z

I just replaced an Interstate Megatron Plus with the same type yesterday. Being just past the 30-month free-replacement period, I only got 50% credit toward a new one, but it was a lot cheaper than buying a new battery no matter what brand.

Two years ago shortly after the battery was new, my car sat six months in the shop awaiting a new engine. I'm skeptical they put it on a trickle charger, probably just let it die and left it dead, then gave it a fast charge the day I picked it up. Then earlier this year it went back for another couple months, and then just recently was in the paint shop six weeks. When I picked it up it had a "system fault" and a bunch of unrelated codes needed clearing. Drove it home, didn't really drive it much for three weeks, tried starting it and it was completely flat, no idea how many days it had sat like that. Put my charger on it overnight (it's a Sears microprocessor one, but almost 30 years old), looked like it was taking a charge when I went to bed but was only showing 10V under load in the AM. I think the battery was pretty well damaged (sulfated) already, and/or my charger failed to trickle down and that was the coup de grace.

My next step is researching a new charger/tender. I don't want to hardwire it because I need it for my other car as well. Plus I want one that plugs in the power outlet if possible, as the frunk light stays on unless I trip the latch, which is a PITA (as is messing with the battery cover panel each time). I'll be searching the forum, but any recommendations are welcome!

jhbrennan

Trunk light will go out after about 2 hours, sooner if you lock the car with the remote. Not enough time to cause any drain on the battery.

CAVU

Try this thread. Two different ways to hard wire. https://rennlist.com/forums/997-foru...rger-lead.html

You can buy pigtails separately and install them on multiple vehicles.

I've ruined a battery for my boat by storing it with a cheap trickle charger over the winter. Hard to beat CTEK and BatteryTender (I own both brands) with a preference to CTEK.

Petza914

I have both these same brands and they seem to work equally well. I have an Optima big charger for heavier duty work and a Shumacher too. For the maintenance chargers, I like the Battery Tenders because I can buy a multi-bank unit. I have 2 of their dual bank units - one that stays in the boat for maintaining both the Optima blue top Marine batteries and another by the lift giving me a feed for the car on the lift and the one under it.

ADias

Good experience with Optimas here too. Red tops do need to be always charged, so routine use of a Ctek maintainer is necessary.

911searcher

Expensive !

https://rennlist.com/forums/987-981-...fe-or-not.html