Optima Battery, is it worth it? Options

[lagos]

im thinking of buying an Optima batterie and would like to know if you guys think they are worth getting.

i have 2 10in subs in the car and the lights dim when i put the clutch in, would an optima help fix that?

sometimes, on a warm day, my car will hesitate to start. it only happens when i shut the car off, and then try to turn it back on again. im thinking that it happens because my subs, indiglo, fake hids, are draining the batterie. would the optima help with this issue too ?

[celimanST]

They are great I had one in my bronco and I loved it.


William

[macavely]

very worth it

[lagos]

what one should i get, red, yellow?

[acidbyte7]

the red one is the normal one but the yellow one is deep cycle, deep cycle meaning that if you leave your car sitting for a few days or weeks it will have no problem starting right back up....also works very well in the winter

[acidbyte7]

by the way your conversion is sweet there are no misalighnments that i can see from the pics or anything....great job keep it up man

[ghostdog]

you might also want to consider re-grounding the cars electrical system. I've heard that greatly improves the dimming problem.

[lagos]

[ghostdog]

[Coomer]

Also, re-wiring your headlights using higher gauge wire and SPDT automotive relays can improve your lighting greatly in some cases.

[van95st]

an optima battery prolly wont help your dimming problem, your alternator just can't keep up, it will handle the constant drain and recharge from a high demand electrical system though. whereas a normal battery would prematurely fail. also as far as replacing your grounds that's pretty simple, i just used 2 gage amp wire cause that's what i ran to the ditribution block for my amps, ran that to the transmission and replaced the chasis ground with 8 gage that i had lying around. worked pretty well e-mail me if you want pics. pics of the yellow top are in my profile. hope this helps.

[celimanST]

Have guys seen the blue tops??? I know theres red and yellow but what is speacil about the blue tops?

William

[Digndoug]

if not the optima batt, just get a cap for your sysetm... that wil do the trick on any dimming lights, cause you still might need one even after replacing the batt....

[Klaus9000]

This is my first post here, glad to finally connect and register

My .02 on Optima batteries - As a offroad truck owner I have had 6 Optima batteries in my vehicles over the last several years. My two trucks currently have Optimas in them and my '96 Celica will have a red top in it as soon as I pick it up from the seller tonight.....

However, I want to caution you on a few things I have learned about them. I currently have two dead red tops sitting on my garage floor. They are dead and I mean dead. Will not take a charge at all and they are less then 2 years old. I have also had a yellow top die on my after 2 summers. I have done some research and talked to the dealer I get them from and a bunch of other Cruiser owners about similar problems with Optimas. This is what I have found:

They do not like to be run down to almost dead and then fast charged back up to a full charge. I use my winch alot in the summer at offroad events then jump in my truck and drive it down the road with the alternator pumping in 14amps etc. My dealer told me they need to be slowly recharged at 2amps or so.

They don't do very well in a vehicle that sits alot of the time and rarely gets driven. One of my trucks sits most of the winter and the red top slowly drains until it won't start. Charge it up and it's decent but never like it was when it was new. Could have something to do with fast charging after it dies.

Anyways, I could go on and on but just be careful how you use your battery. Don't run it down with your stereo and then jump on the freeway and do 80mph - you will wreck your $100+ battery.

Klaus
1996 Land Cruiser
1988 4Runner
1996 Celica GT

[Jeremy1210]

where do you get Optima batteries?

[Klaus9000]

They are made by interstate - check out there web site which has dealer locations on it.

[Drocay]

Most Car Audio shops around here carry optima batteries.

[boosted_K2]

klaus, is there a battery you WOULD recommend for cars that sit half the year?? thanks man!

[van95st]

if your car is sitting for half the year, why not just disconnect the terminals. Unless of course you need to keep it for alarm reasons. Otherwise just run it every coupla weeks, that's good sense for the engine too.

[Klaus9000]

Boosted - That's a good question. I have heard some RV batteries are better for cars that sit alot - but haven't tried one.

My yellow top optima(deep cycle) battery failed while sitting on the shelf in my garage over the winter - no idea why. I think the best solution is to plug one of those trickle chargers onto the battery when you know it is going to sit for a long period.

Goodluck