2004 Century battery totally dead, fully charged 1 min. after jump

2004 Century was totally dead after church, no crank, no horn. Made sure it was in park. All I noticed with the key in ON position was the indicator LED by the A/C button dimly lit. Hooked jumpers onto it, let it sit like that less than a minute, tried starting it and it popped right off. Unhooked cables and drove it home, literally two blocks, shut it off and tried starting it again, and it cranked right over like nothing was ever wrong. What would have caused that? I suspected the battery at first since it's an '04 and original battery, but it starts fine ever since. Anything to do with that chip in the ign key?

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Look for a bad connection. A standard car battery will not go from completely dead to fully charged within 1 minute. How was it determined that it was completely dead and fully charged?

Good chance it was a dirty connection. Putting the cables on it may have been just enough to jiggle it for a better connection. Take the cables off and clean them.

If the battery is truly eight years old, it is not going to last much longer. I don't know what your driving conditions are, but I'd probably replace it now rather than have to go dead in the middle of a rain storm at night. It may last two more day, two more moths, two more years. Do you want to take the chance? Comes down to how much of a value you put on peace of mind. Even if you have AAA or other road service, do you want to wait for the to show up?

It so happened that while the problem was present I couldn't get to my voltmeter. So when I say it was "dead" and then "fully charged" I am just going by what it acted like. The car is driven by an 85 year old -- often only a couple of blocks, literlly -- and looks new under the hood, including the battery. But I will inspect the connections tomorrow. I hope I find that to be the culprit. As far as replacing the battery due to its age, I agree with that logic. We probably won't be as lucky as last time -- the original Delco battery in her previous car ('93 Gran Prix) lasted 11 years (I know, weird).

That infrequent use, very short trips are probably exactly what the problem is. Battery never gets fully charged, so it spends much of its life in a half-charged state. This is hard on the battery. Also battery terminal corrosion often is not visible, especially with side terminal batteries.

Were this mine to repair, I'd put in a new battery, make 100% sure the terminals were in perfect condition, make sure the battery (new one) was fully charged and perhaps even consider a trickle charger to keep it fully charged (they are not terribly expensive.)