Not sure if battery or....

[Drew Dowdell]

So, recently I have been needing to jump the Toronado if I let it sit more than a few days.   Last night, in anticipation of a road trip this morning, I put the battery on the charger for about 4 hours.  This morning, it fired right up, no trouble.  I head out on my road trip, 250 miles total. I had my headlights on for most of the trip due to rain.  During the trip I made at least 3 stops where the engine was shut off.  Each time, on restart, she fired up like she just rolled off the line at Linden NJ. 

I arrived at my destination around 1 pm.  At 4:30pm, I run out for a quick errand, no more than 5 miles each way No problems starting at either of my stops.  I pull into the driveway here to unload the car, intending to move it out of the driveway after the car was unloaded.  When I went to move it, the starter tried to crank, but died and the lights died.  My digital clock reset back to 12am. I was able to jump it fairly quickly (albert drove down in the Encore also). I made sure the posts were tights... they weren't finger loose, but I was able to snug Neg up a little bit with a wrench.

 I moved it to it's parking spot and shut it off... disgusted, I didn't bother to try and restart it. 

I don't know the exact age of the battery, but it's over 5 years. I replaced the battery not long after I bought the car in July of 2011. 

Thoughts?  Should I be battery shopping or should I look at something else? 

[Drew Dowdell]

One thing I forgot to add... about a month ago, I took the battery to Autozone for them to test it.  They said it was fine and just very very low. They recharged it and handed it back to me.  However, I feel a little suspicious... if it was as low as they said, they "recharged it" very quickly.  It was done in 30 minutes. 

Alternator was done in November

[KevinW]

The battery should have a year/month of manufacture somewhere; it could be over 6 years old.  The degree of sulphation would depend on how well the charge level has been maintained over the years.  Some battery testers report an internal resistance.  This gets higher as batteries age, and limits the amount of charge that can be absorbed over a short period of time (such as during a 5 mile trip).  While the capacity may be improved by leaving it connected to a constant current 1 A charger for a few nights, given the age, replacement should be considered.  AGM batteries have a lower self-discharge rate and are more suitable for special interest vehicles.

[Drew Dowdell]

AGM?

Update. I just started it 4 times in a row after going through and snugging up every connection I could find. I removed the wired from the alternator, resnugged them.

Let's see what happens.

[balthazar]

Batteries today don't last more than 5 years- 7 is a minor miracle anymore. I assume it's the more modern vehicles- they start & run fine then with no warning; the battery is a doorstop. There hasn't been any longevity improvement over the last -say- 50 years in lead-acid automotive batteries.

AGM = Absorbant Glass Mat, such as an Optima. I went with a 6V Optima for my '40 after reading relevant antique forums- some were saying they were getting 8 and 10 years out of the battery with the typical infrequent use antiques get (in some cases they were using a battery 'maintainer' tho).

I would definitely replace the battery; I would not suspect any other component off the bat: it's age is the prime indicator.

[Scout]

You just described many symptoms of a battery on its last legs. 

[G. David Felt]

Get a Gel Battery, they usually will last twice as long as normal batteries and after sitting for 90+ days still have 99% of charge.  I use them in my Suburban that sits for half the year. Awesome and always start.

[allonso71]

I have the Optima battery for four years now, and there's no problem so far.

[Drew Dowdell]

Well I stopped by @balthazar's place on my way from DC to Edison NJ for him to take a look.  I popped the hood, he shook his head and said, "The problem is that you have too many vacuum hoses".

Kidding aside. I continued on my trip another 12 miles after I left Balth's, parked the car at the hotel, made a quick run to Target (5 miles round trip), and this morning I barely got it started when I was leaving for work.   I tried to find an open place the sold AC Delco batteries, but their website must be pretty out of date as the first one I got to looks like it had been closed for years.  I gave up on AC Delco and went to PepBoys. 

I am now the owner of a Bosch AGM battery. $143 out the door. 

Thanks for the advice everyone.

[G. David Felt]

@Drew Dowdell Cool, let us know how it lasts.

FYI - Too funny on the Vacuum hose comment!