Battery No Longer Powerful

We can't tell if the charging system is working properly or there is a problem with the battery. Or both. Often, a bad charging system will kill a battery. And a bad battery and damage the charging system.

You need to take the car to a shop to have the charging system and battery tested.

If you have the Optima battery that looks like six-pack of soda (or beer B-) ) with a yellow top, the warranty is over.

Jeff

Some car parts stores, like AutoZone, will test your battery and charging system for free, but you can do some testing yourself with a cheap digital multimeter, and even the ones Harbor Freight offers for < $10 ($3 with coupon) are very accurate. OTOH don't use a cheap analog meter because they can be really awful. A charging system in good shape will put out about 13-15V with the engine running at a fast idle.

It seems Optimas don't last any longer than regular batteries, and if you don't take a long, uninterrupted drive every couple of days, you can usually make any car battery last 1-2 years longer by hooking it to an external charger every week.

Although it's fashionable in some circles to hate the organization, Consumer Reports did what seemed like a good job of rating car batteries.