Raymond44

Upon returning from a 10 day vacation, the (new) battery on my 2008 convertible was dead. I charged it overnight, but all I get is a clicking sound when I try to start. I tried to jump it with my other car but still getting a clicking sound. The check engine light is showing on the dash.
Any suggestions will be truly appreciated!

FortMorganAl

Battery has been abused to death. Disconnect battery and I bet it still won't take a charge because it is shorted.

JohnAE455

If you already didn't do this when you changed the battery try cleaning the cable ends and battery and make sure they are reasonably tight, don't overtighten. Since you charged it overnight and had the same problem and it won't start when jumped I suspect the battery terminals or cable ends are the cause. It should start when jumped even with a bad battery but won't if the connections are bad. To be sure you can take your battery to an auto parts store and have them check it out if cleaning the connections doesn't help. You could also check the car body connection for the negative cable. Good luck.

AORoads

in add. to above, ck to see (since it's a new batt.) that you have the proper cable nuts. they're easily lost when taken off completely (not necessary to do with batt. replace.) and if not on and tight, there's no completed circuit. finally, since you've been on here a year, you may want to read up on batt. "maintainers." if you ask me, it's very important to the life of your car batt.

Raymond44

Thank you guys for your quick suggestions. Just for clarification, my battery is 2 months old, Optima yellow top. The cables and connections are clean, snug, no missing nuts. Been driving the car with no problems until I left it for 10 days. Next time I know to plug in a battery tender.
I will have the battery checked to see if it's shorted, as suggested by Fort.

AORoads

Hope it all works out. Tell us, btw, if it is a failure of the battery. I doubt it but it could be.

boraxman

Sounds like you may have got a defective battery...get it checked out.

FortMorganAl

Oh, that's different. Even abused batteries shouldn't short in just 2 months. Maybe try the "reboot" that has absolutely no reason to work but people keep claiming it does. Disconnect and reconnect the battery. Maybe the low voltage confused one of the computers and it wouldn't turn off and wouldn't turn fully on either. Charger isn't capable of charging the battery at the same time it is running the computer.

Otherwise I'm back to bad battery even though it is only 2 months old.

Be sure to let us know what you find.

GARYFINN

Just because a battery is new doesn't necessarily make it good.One time I had to take 2 back to get a good one. CHECKOUT THE BATTERY.

rjmij

Bad Battery. Return it, that should not happen to a Optima Yellow Top.

Raymond44

FortMorganAl,

You were 100% correct...the 2 month old Optima Yellow Top is dead.
The auto store checked it and replaced my battery, and my Vette is alive again.

I must say, however, that the battery was never " abused".
The car was just parked in the garage for 10 days, and it died.
Next time I'll have a battery tender plugged in.
Thank you all for your responses.

TJay74

I can tell you from a Optima thread on Ls1.com, Optima considers that battery abused if you didnt have a charger on it. They have seem to become sticklers now a days on what you do with a battery when not in use.

I wont use them anymore, the last 2 I had died with in a year, both of my dads batteries in his boat died with in a year. I still to Sears AGM or Orielly's AGM now.

Ratchet Thunderbolt

Good call on getting the battery checked. Even new batteries can go bad.

HOXXOH

Other than a battery that had an early failure, most of the issues noted here, are from cars that don't get driven much or often. The DD guys usually have very few battery problems.

C7-Beast

My 08 does not given driven a ton. When I bought it new it had 2 miles on it. Almost 5 years later and I have 6K miles and on the original battery. I leave mine on a tender when not in use. If it dies now, I feel I'm luckier than a lot of folks here.

AORoads

Good grief, 2 mos. old battery dies. Glad it's resolved.

Yes, consider yourself darned lucky, imo.

Dave Carney

Got one month out of my Optima yellow top...never again.