Battery dead for 5 years...

[tRustyK5]

My wife Mustang has been in storage for 5 years and this weekend we had to move it to another storage place. Last weekend i grabbed the Die-Hard that was in it and brought it home to see if I could bring it back from the dead. I put it on the trickle charger (2 amp) for about 48 hours...

After that I checked it and it was showing over 13 volts, so I thought I'd give it a whirl. I thought at best it might hold the charge for a really short time and then go dead again. Instead it cranked the motor over very nicely, but the car wouldn't start.

Fast forward to this weekend, we got to the car and I tried it again and the battery show's no sign of letting up or losing any of the charge. Car still wouldn't start...but that damn Die-hard impressed me.

It wasn't new when the car was parked either, we bought that battery in '93

Rene

 

[K10ANDYKHAMNIC]

Cool man ! my vato zone batteries i bought for my CUCV are piles of crap .

 

[NoReGrEtS]

thats a good battery. too bad you cant blame the battery for the car not starting

 

[tRustyK5]

Yeah...I don't hear the fuel pump when I turn the key on so I'll have to look at that before anything else.

Rene

 

[pauly383]

Wow , that long in running condition . I can't do that . I start the truck over the weekend if I don't drive it all .

Hell before i yanked the motor out of the Chevelle , I would start it up every few days

 

[1-bad-burb]

hense the name DIE-HARD lol, being in the electric R/C field, that is very impresive for ANY battery, after sitting for 5 years any battery should be toast, its almost dangerous to try and charge one that old because they tend to heat up from the cells sitting so long, major fire hazzard, even with my little 7.2 volt R/C batterys.

 

[tRustyK5]

I did keep an eye on it to make sure it wasn't getting too hot...it never felt warmer than 20F over ambient though. I never thought it'd even take a charge, never mind hold a charge.

Die-hard is damn right...I should call Sears.

Rene

 

[Pookster]

You think thats long, My dad had an old 73 mercury (the big boats!). we had gotten a brand new interstate battery for it, but before we donated the car, we took out the battery, which was drained (the radio was left on).

Fast forward about.. 12 years on a shelf. I started getting into cars, decided to try and charge the battery. Guess what? it took a full charge, like brand new!

I've seen many a dead battery- I've had several!. The key seems to be, whether the battery is disconnected or not. if its not disconnected, the parasitic losses iwll completely kill the battery. If it is, the battery will loose charge for sure, but it seems reversable, and rather safe.

 

[tRustyK5]

This battery was connected and in the car for the last 5 years...

Rene

 

[SICNICK]

Cool man ! my vato zone batteries i bought for my CUCV are piles of crap .

Funny my vatozone batteries kick ass! you running the duralast golds?

 

[K10ANDYKHAMNIC]

yep , I think it may be my starter tho . I am not sure if it is 12 or 24v or just toast .

 

[HarryH3]

Funny my vatozone batteries kick ass! you running the duralast golds?

Same here! The Duralast Gold in my S-10 is just shy of 8 years old.
For some reason, a Die-Hard never lasted longer than 15 months in it.

 

[diesel4me]

Some batteries are haunted!...

Most of my batteries go dead from lack of use more than anything..I find charging them with a charger often doesn't do them much good either ,they seem to need to be charged by an alternator rather than a charger..alternators put out purer DC than a battery charger,and batteries seem to take a better charge that way....

I took the stock Mopar battery out of my mom's 93 caravan in 2003,when it finally almost did not start one cold day,and she bought a new "Duralast" at Autozone...I think corroded battery terminals were the real reason it nearly didn't crank it over fast enough..

I put it on a slow charge for 2 days,then tossed it in my 79 C10--its battery was junk,so I figured I'd try it..to my suprise,I got another year out of it before it was beyond hope!..I was amazed a stock "Mopar" battery,usually the cheapest crap possible they put in a new car, that your lucky to get ONE year out of, would last that long!!....her Caravan only had 64,000 miles on it too,so that battery SAT most of its life too!..

I've had a few "Die Hards" last a long time,but just as many that wouldn't hold a charge,or died easily if your truck didn't fire up instantly..there is only a few major battery manufacturers that make ALL batteries,and just put different cases or stickers on them..not sure,but I think Johnson Controls makes the "Die Hard"..they also made the "Ever Start" Wal-Mart sells,AFAIK..
Exide and Interstate are the other two "biggies" in the battery building bussiness...

 

[Blue85]

alternators put out purer DC than a battery charger,and batteries seem to take a better charge that way....


Exide and Interstate are the other two "biggies" in the battery building bussiness...

An alternator puts out purer DC than a battery charger? Because it's 3-phase full wave? They actually sell devices that put out high-freqency spikes to fight sulfation and extend the life of the battery.

Also, Did you forget about AC Delco / Delphi batteries? Of course, that has been sold, now.