Optima Yellow Top, car struggling to crank in morning
Discussion
Hi
I've got an Optima Yellow Top battery in my daily driver Civic Type-R. I don't think it's particularly old, probably less than 2 years.
Recently it's really been struggling to crank the car in the morning, to the point where I don't think it's going to be able to start it.
I used to have a big parasitic drain on the car that was eventually diagnosed and eliminated (an always live alarm module had water ingress, partially damaging the PCB). In the course of experiencing this parasitic drain the car would completely drain a fully charged battery overnight. A couple of times it read around 3.5v. I managed to rescue it more than once using a CTEK charger. This full drain & rescue probably happened about 4 times before I got to the bottom of the problem.
I'm wondering now whether that experience has ultimately damaged the battery to the point where it's now dying, but I've also read that Yellow Tops are inappropriate for main car batteries because they are deep discharge, rather than all rounders (something about CCA)? So I'm also wondering whether I've got fundamentally the wrong battery for this now colder weather.
I should note that it's been fine left standing for a weekend for the 4 or so months after the parasitic drain was fixed, it's only just recently starting doing this.
I've got an Optima Yellow Top battery in my daily driver Civic Type-R. I don't think it's particularly old, probably less than 2 years.
Recently it's really been struggling to crank the car in the morning, to the point where I don't think it's going to be able to start it.
I used to have a big parasitic drain on the car that was eventually diagnosed and eliminated (an always live alarm module had water ingress, partially damaging the PCB). In the course of experiencing this parasitic drain the car would completely drain a fully charged battery overnight. A couple of times it read around 3.5v. I managed to rescue it more than once using a CTEK charger. This full drain & rescue probably happened about 4 times before I got to the bottom of the problem.
I'm wondering now whether that experience has ultimately damaged the battery to the point where it's now dying, but I've also read that Yellow Tops are inappropriate for main car batteries because they are deep discharge, rather than all rounders (something about CCA)? So I'm also wondering whether I've got fundamentally the wrong battery for this now colder weather.
I should note that it's been fine left standing for a weekend for the 4 or so months after the parasitic drain was fixed, it's only just recently starting doing this.
Useful info! 
The Optima I have has a CCA of 460, but only a total amperage of 38 Ah. I've bought a Yuasa YBX5053/HSB053 which has a CCA of 430, but a capacity of 48 Ah.
No idea if it'll improve things given that the CCA is lower, but at least I'll have a spare if it won't start in the morning.
The Optima I have has a CCA of 460, but only a total amperage of 38 Ah. I've bought a Yuasa YBX5053/HSB053 which has a CCA of 430, but a capacity of 48 Ah.
No idea if it'll improve things given that the CCA is lower, but at least I'll have a spare if it won't start in the morning.
For what it's worth, I ended up buying one of these (cheaper elsewhere mind) and it fixed my problems. Car was left for about 4 days over Christmas and started first time without any difference in cranking.
Now to see if I can recover (desulphate?) this Yellow Top with my CTEK...
Now to see if I can recover (desulphate?) this Yellow Top with my CTEK...
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