2002 LeSabre battery won't hold a charge

It's easy to get to. It's under the back seat!

Here is a video on it.

several hours.

I would not be smoking when you do this.

Looks like a vapor barrier under seat. I wonder where the vents are. Nice place to watch for corrosion effects.

Greg

Thanks. What are these references that pop up to a 'redtop starting battery'? I see it for sale but no explanation.

Those are the sealed AGM batteries sold under the Optima brand. They are a good battery and work well in that situation. Being sealed and AGM they don't leak even if the case gets cracked.

I am in fact running an Optima (yellow top) in my Jeep but rumor has it that Optima quality isn't what it used to be, although of course the price hasn't changed (if anything it's gone up.)

There are other options out there in fact I have even seen some other brand AGM batteries at Sam's Club (under the "Duracell" brand) of all places, and for much less than a typical Optima goes for.

I do like the Optima and other sealed type batteries because they really do not leak; the one major job I had to do on my Jeep was a battery tray area cleanup/resto and replacement of all battery cables due to the previous battery marking its territory excessively. If there's one fundamental truth about wet type lead-acid batteries it is that they will all leak, causing that mess of corrosion on the hold downs, cable clamps, etc. unless you are meticulous about regular maintenance and cleaning - and even then there's no guarantee that it won't spring a big leak in between underhood checks and make a mess. If the Optima lasts

4-5 years or more for me I will consider it money well spent because then I can just replace it with another one with no other maintenance required.

One tip - if you start experimenting with batteries, e.g. replacing a wet LA battery with an Optima, you may run into the same issue that I did, which was that the Optima did not exactly fit my battery tray, or at least not in the same way that the original battery did. What I found happening was that every time I looked under the hood, the battery had shifted around and always ended up resting against the upper radiator hose, which is obviously undesirable. I got one of those silicone baking sheets and cut it to fit the battery tray and then reinstalled the battery and it's been rock solid stable ever since. I also used the same material to make liners for the little recesses in the dashboard of my old F-150 so that I could actually place items there (change, cell phone, etc.) and expect it to not fly out the passenger window the first time I went around a left hand curve. I don't know if it's the exact same material as those little anti-skid dash pad things but it works very well, and being a large sheet can be properly cut to size for a nice finished appearance.

I also had to "restore" my battery hold down as the rubber coating was peeling off and the underlying metal had tons of that white fluffy acid corrosion build up on it. I stripped it clean, ran it through my electrolytic derusting tank, and after priming and painting I coated it with a couple coats of spray on Plasti-Dip. Looks and works fine. I could probably have ordered a new one for about the same cost as the supplies, but I was in a hurry to get it back together and hadn't planned ahead.

(yeah, I know that was a bit of a digression, but still, we're all about sharing knowledge right?)

nate

Well mine has been in for almost a year already and is still working fine... time will tell.

"not leaking" is *huge* to me, and even more so to Jeep owners who aggressively off-road. Plus the yellow top supposedly handles occasional deep discharges better than a regular wet battery.

We will see if I'm still happy in another couple years... but in the past supposedly Optima owners have been getting 5-7 years out of them similar to conventional batteries. I'm also using one of those new CTEK battery chargers with the "recondition" mode to try to get a little more life out of all my batteries. Have been thinking of running the recond cycle on my BMW's battery but it is such a PITA to disconnect the battery in that car...

nate

Alternator.

-Shootin' from the Old School..