charging a dead battery (Now more interesting!)

[R.O.R-2.0]

It was in a cool dark garage. Shocked to find it still charging at 12 amps this afternoon and the battery its self hot and steaming. Topped it off with more distilled water. Charger still classifies it as being "low". I'm thinking I should add more acid to it.

the battery is probably done for then.. my blue top optima does the same thing.. charge it for a couple days and it gets warm, holds a bit of charge, then the second you take it off the battery charger, it starts dropping volts, quickly..

besides, you said it yourself, the battery was low, thats no good right there.. usually once a battery gets low, its never the same..

[bajacalal]

Is it possible that this thing was just mediocre (not filled up all the way) right from the time you bought it?

[Smokey Eddy]

No, I regularly would check it as I've always had charging problems. Slipping belt.

[ORCoaster]

Maybe I should read the fine print in some of the warranties.  Like it was mentioned there is generally a period of time that goes by with a free replacement.  But after that is pro rata for the value of the battery.  Perhaps this is a new way to reduce the initial cost of some of these beasts.  Marketing ploy.  Cheaper initial dollar outlay but no replacement period given.  In today's cut the cost of doing business i wouldn't put it past some manufacturers doing it this way. 

When I worked in the battery business about 30 years ago the owner would take back a dead battery on the last day of the warranty free of charge.  Not many took that route but he felt it was better for business to keep the customer satisfied then try and explain how the warranty really worked.  It probably never cost him much in the long run. 

[maxfax]

It seems to vary among manufacturers..   Oddly enough the cheaper the battery the better the chances it has one year free replacement...  Walmart, Autozone, etc all have the free year as does the Dekka and it's other brands..  Motorcraft which IMO is a pretty darned good battery (whoever makes it) Is pro rated after I think 6 months..   Never had to return one of those either...

[Smokey Eddy]

Update!
the battery is completely useless. it doesn't hold a charge longer than an hour or so. I bought a new one.
Hopefully i'll find the warranty where ever it is. it's still covered - otherwise im out $127. Oh well. Edit: I bought a new one today.
HOWEVER I have an interesting query now... today driving from Abbotsford to Vancouver (in dismal traffic - almost 2 hours of crawling) my rad fan was on pretty much the entire time and got to a point where the relay wasn't getting enough juice to stay closed. Didn't come close to overheating thankfully but this raised an interesting theory. At this time the battery light came on and the irritating whine i hear through my speakers went away. Immediately i thought  AW CRAP THAT V BELT BROKE!!! NNNNNNOOOOOOOOOO!!!!
but the water temp didn't rise at all... i quickly turn off all electronics now thinking that there is just something wrong with the alternator after being punished so brutally by driving with a useless dead battery that the alternator is struggling to try and charge. The whine i was hearing would change with the frequency of the rotation of the alternator - this lead me to believe there was no longer a current coming from the alternator.
I was driving to my brothers house for a BBQ, about another 20-30 minutes away. I continued on my merry way sweating buckets and creating ulcers.
To my astonishment, the car started up just find when i wanted to leave about 5 hours later. It is now night time.
Battery light comes on and off, and with this the headlights go off and then on - inversely to the battery light.
Im thinking now at this point that it's not alternator related anymore (somehow) and instead the dreaded "x" relay, which i've replaced last year, is acting up...
The battery light was on the whole way home, this time with no traffic so it was half the travel time thus being a 45 minute drive.
Headlights never dimmed and i started playing music (Its a 2800 watt system but i obviously wasn't blasting it)  when i was 10 minutes away. i no longer noticed a dim of the lights on bass notes nor does the interior light pulsate like it used to.

this then lead my investigation to the voltage regulator in the alternator which i also replaced almost exactly a year ago.

What do you guys think? I've tried to be as detailed as possible.
its midnight, pitch black out and im tired otherwise, i'd throw the multi-meter on it and see what's going on but that's for tomorrow morning. The multi-meter will also only indicate what voltage the alternator is putting out but im equally interested in how many amps the alternator is capable of producing in it's old age. I've always wanted to replace it but its a moderately costly part to replace and if it aint broke...

Other than the red light of death in the dashboard and the lack of daytime running lights what ever has happened seems to be an improvement. it fixed the irritating interference coming through the speakers and the pulsating brightness of all the lights (an unfixed voltage).

[R.O.R-2.0]

you got a bad ground somewhere buddy.. i would be looking at the negative cable.

my rabbit charge light never went out after i cooked the negative cable..

do you have double grounds? or any sort of supplementary grounds from the battery to the chassis? ground to the alt?

how do you have the stereo grounded? do you have the RCA cables and power wire running down the same side of the car?

[Smokey Eddy]

Okay, its charging at 14.21volts.
1 ground to tyranny-block bolt. One to the subframe of some sort, near the battery its self.
The alt should ground VIA its mounting bolt, block, ground cable. I used 2 ga welding wire.
There is also a ground, brown wire, coming from the dash to the neg terminal.

[8v-of-fury]

I want to redo all my under hood electrical before winter this year..

Do overkill wires everywhere, and use die-electric grease liberally.

Along with a second battery if I can

[Smokey Eddy]

I just checked every ground I could find for resistance getting back to the battery and they're all perfect...

[Smokey Eddy]

I'm having a difficult time understanding this one. So you say I've cooked the ground. I tested the ground for the fan relay (the one I jumped) and it seems fine...
Why also did the interference go away and my running lights stop working? I'm going to check all the fuses.

[Smokey Eddy]

Ok so I fried the 30 amp radiator fan fuse. That makes sense. Wow that fan is 30 amps... Jesus. Is it ill advised to wire the relay with my own wires to the battery and skip the fuse?

[theman53]

YES. Very ill. Do NOT run it without a fuse. You can run your own wiring but run a fuse.

[Smokey Eddy]

Anyone have any ideas about why the daytime running lights went out as well? The fuses are fine.

[8v-of-fury]

If you get one with a 1-year free replacement, you can return it at 364 days each year, indefinitely... 

Are you implying, to replace it whether or not it is defective? I think they test them to determine whether or not they will replace it for you.