Ever had a battery just flat die on you ?

[TnAndy]

Battery in my tractor died today. Been starting just fine, no hint of being low voltage, nothing. Turned tractor off a minute, went to start and heard one little "pop" sound, and then nothing.....nothing electrical on the tractor would work.

I thought "Huh?". Got a test light, check the battery first....lit the light just fine. Moved on to the key switch, test light on the main input terminal lit just fine. Check to on of the other terminals, turn key on, light got real dim....I'm thinking "wow....major short/draw somewhere"....wonder how it happened and how I'm gonna find it.

First thought was maybe the starter or solenoid hung, and with the key in the on or start position, the current was going there. But before I got to checking too far, decided to replace the battery since I had a new one sitting on a trickle charger.

Guess what......THAT was it. The old battery was a REALLY old blue top Optima....probably 20 years old I'd bought for a bulldozer I sold years ago, and kept it on a trickle charger. The original Yanmar battery died a couple years ago, so I stuck that Optima in there and it had been doing fine up until today. Hard to believe a battery would just "pop" like that, yet still light a little test light. Don't believe I've ever had a battery go like that with no indication of weakness.....good one second, not the next.

You learn something every day I guess !

 

[Jstpssng]

Some of us probably would have discovered that after replacing the starter, solenoid, and various other sundry items.

 

[kcflhrc]

Happened to me at Kansas City International Airport on my motorcycle on a Patriot Guard Mission. Shut the bike off and it would never start again. Yep, bad battery. Just died. But man, 20 years? You were pushing your luck.

 

[seville009]

Had it happen in a car - drive somewhere, parked for about 15 minutes, tried to start it, and was completely dead.

Usually change my batteries every three years; forgot to on this battery - was maybe at 39 months. New battery and all was good.

Always check the simple stuff first.

 

[RickB]

I have indeed.

 

[defranks]

Sometimes a sudden battery failure is due to an internal short. It doesn't happen often with modern batteries, but it's not unheard of.

 

[TnAndy]

Happened to me at Kansas City International Airport on my motorcycle on a Patriot Guard Mission. Shut the bike off and it would never start again. Yep, bad battery. Just died. But man, 20 years? You were pushing your luck.

Well, yeah......but that is why I had a new one (11/2019) sitting in reserve.

I actually had TWO I bought last November, and already had to put one of them in the mini-ex couple months back. Now I have none in reserve, but I'll cure that Monday with a trip to town.

 

[TnAndy]

Some of us probably would have discovered that after replacing the starter, solenoid, and various other sundry items.

Yep.....that is where my mind was headed. But since I had that spare, and knew the age of the old battery, I thought "try the simple stuff first".

 

[4570Man]

I’ve had several batteries do that. In my experience people way over complicate electrical problems. The vast majority of them are bad connections or bad batteries.

 

[duffer]

I've had several in the last 10 years go bad, almost in an instant it feels.

Couple on the wife's car. Although I did hear it crank once or twice a hair slower than normal. Dead on the third try.

One on the tractor. No warning. Cranked right up that morning, dead as a rock after lunch. Put in a new one a year ago, no problems at all.