well first, just letting your car idle will not charge your battery. you need to put it on a good battery charger overnight if you want it to be charged at all. Alternators aren't made to recharge a whole battery after it's drained. Also it's not uncommon for the battery to drain over a week's time especially in the cold. Everything here sounds pretty common, you just need to charge it really well then get a nice trickle charger to keep it charged while it sits.

 

has anyone had a problem with a new optima yellow top going bad?

 

I've used Yellows, Reds, and Blues; never an issue with any of them. The 51R redtops had some issues a while back, I remember from Honda-Tech and other sites (only redtop that will fit in an Integra/CRX, IIRC). That's either been fixed or they've stopped selling that size...

If it is bad, you can usually get them warrantied out at any Optima dealer. Best to just go to where you bought it from, though.

 

yea, because i had my car totally un hooked from the battery, had the trickle charger on the batt. Once that was charged fully, i removed the charger and let the battery sit by its self for 2 days unhooked from the car. I then hooked it up to the car and 10 seconds later, it wouldn't start the car. had to jump it.

 

I have a feeling that the UTEC draws power when the car is off.....

I had problems with the OEM battery dieing if I let the car sit for a week. I switched the battery to an Odyssey and am still having the same issue if the car sits for 5 or more days.

I do have a sub amp in my car, but I have no subs hook up to the amp. Hence, the amp has no load on the outputs and it "shouldn't" be drawing any power. Besides that, the remote turn on wire turns off when the car is "off."

I think I need to check to see what is drawing current when the car is off.

 

Your battery is bad. IF you did EXACTLY what you said above, I guarantee you it's your battery. Here's something you can try on your own. Go to any auto parts store, buy any battery off the shelf, even a motorcycle battery, which is what I did, take it home, and it will start your car. Keep in mind that the battery you bought probably had not been charged in weeks or longer.

BTW, just because your gage reads 14 Volts does not mean anything. Those are not lab gages, they're for reference only. Go to Sears or a reputable parts store and ask them to check out your charging/electrical system. That will eliminate your alternator, and possibly identify a drain if one exists. Usually, it's free and only takes minutes, especially if they think you may buy a battery from them.

You can also determine by yourself if you have a drain when the ignition is off. Just get an ammeter and hook it up in series with one of your battery cables and the battery pole, after disconnecting it from the battery. You should read milliamps, just what's necessary to keep you radio and ECU from losing data, that's all. Anything more and you have problems. However, based on your statement above, it's your battery, period.

 

^ Thanks for the info. the car is now at my friends shop and were figuring out whats wrong with it. We also believe its the battery we are waiting to see what happens after we wait awhile.

 

It WAS a bad Battery! ******* OPTIMA BS!

 

I had the exact same problem 5 days or more and thought it was my utec. It turned out to be the stereo. Look there first if it has a seperate fuse to the battery disconnect it and see what happens.

 

It is hard to believe that a huge battery like the Optima has worse service than a tiny motorcycle battery!

 

I couldn't believe my $200 optima yellow top could be bad, but it was. And my friend that owns a shop says that lots of optimas fail, which i thought was crazy.

 

Well, maybe this is one of those cases where you don't always get what you pay for. My $90 Hercules motorcycle battery has kept the Z starting for over 3 years. My guess is that it is unusual for an Optima to go stone cold dead like that, but apparently, it happens. You should have got most of the purchase price back if it was fairly new though.

 

Not to rag on the Optimas, but I had a blue top for my boat that was great for the first year, then it craped out the next spring. Luckily I got it replaced for free so Im still using one. We'll see what happens this summer. FYI..my batt will be dead within 5 days in cold weather as well.