New Battery But No Power

Bad battery

It's bad. Get your money back.

Unless it was shipped dry and nobody filled it up. But you'd notice the lack of weight.

The thing about batteries is that if you leave them on the shelf to discharge long enough, they will never charge properly again.

--scott

Thanks for the info. I will return the battery. I forgot to mention that I had checked the battery with a volt-ohm meter after charging it overnight. I read 13.3 volts. I also had checked the battery's water levels and they were fine.

The car is being driven right now with a 4 year old battery, so I know that the charging/electrical system is fine.

Bad electrical connection.

The battery cables seem to be fine, and the problem does not exist with a different battery. Do you mean a short in the battery itself?

It could still be a wiring problem. When you put the old battery in, the cable may be twisted differently, allowing current to flow.

I had something similar on a Vega. Replaced the battery clamps and all was well.

Does the new battery do anything in the other car?

I don't know. I will give that a try.

Did you put the voltmeter on the battery while trying to start? Trace the lines with the voltmeter to see where the power is being lost and stop try,try, try until you are lucky enough to find the problem....

The 13.3 volt measurement was the reading from the battery with no load on it. The car is running fine now with the 4-year old battery that I "borrowed" from one of our other cars. I will try cleaning the battery cable connector bolts (side terminal battery) and give the new battery another try.. Also will check the voltage while trying to start the car.

Try even a small load... a few years back I had a battery that seemed fine; only a year old, lots of power to start, lots of reserve. One day, I stopped at the store to pick something up, then turned the key and cranked for a few seconds with no start. Turned the key again and *pfft*, that was it. No more starter, no lights, just barely dash lights. It also showed over 12V when sitting, but just open the door and 11v...10.5....10....9.5....9........... Turns out it blew one of the internal connectors between cells, so even though the acid bridged the break enough to make the voltmeter show 12v, it had basically zero amp capacity. You (or someone at the store) didn't accidentally short out the terminals, or drop the battery hard enough to break anything inside, did you?