Battery Q before trip - opinions wanted

have it tested.

honestly, i would just put a new battery in, but i like needlessly spending money.

Yep, replace that battery. If your charger has a reconditioning setting that can help, for a short while, but a new battery pretty much eliminates most concerns.

Uhm grow a pair. Battery is how old. More than 4 years?

You didn't mention any real issues. Does it hard start. Drag . Did it need a jump? Are there other issues. If not it's fine

Did I mention my wife will also be on this trip, glaring at me while we are stranded in the middle of nowhere Utah, and my ever shrinking pair, whilst trying to find a battery?
Don't know age of battery, cause too my Duh to look at that while hooking it to charger. Will check that in a bit.

Not Hubert J - since you like spending money, can I split it with you?
If I can get into sams club later w/a friend (owner since new of a 67 Mustang), will likely grab one of theirs

I carry a "brick". Harbor Freight Jump starter battery when I travel. This insures I have enough power to spin over whatever I need. It will charge cellphones too. Cheap insurance

Aaa is nice to have too.

Joking aside other than putting on the charger do you have any electrical symptoms? Gtos and other new age cars draw a decent bit while sitting. Newer cars are worse

If you go to get one. And you have a sam's or Costco option. Get their agm battery if you have to

But a caution. New battery might not help if there is something wrong. At this point you haven't mentioned a problem but. Check your charging system. There should be a thread on this already but grab a multimeter if you have one

Brick - good point Think will pick one of those up. Have had AAA since 1984, but they could be a Long way away, some of the places we'll be.
Neglected to mention charging system read 14.2V last night w/lights on, no codes. Could not find age of battery on this one.
Sams had one for 110 (less money Not HubertJ would owe me for the split) but are Out, have AGM for 200 - less than O'Reily's price for cheap one. my Real parts store not open today, dang it
Today, was at 71%.
Low enuf to make me uncomfy

Thanks Y'all

Batteries and Bulb...there is always Wally World.

Grow a pair and send the wife to find a service station that can send someone to help! J/K, I need to remember that some people still like their wives.

Buy a new one and bring along the old one with the tools needed for the swap. When you get back from your trip turn the old one in for the core charge. And I mean battery, not wife.

Here I thought this place was slackin'

purple haze said:

Car only driven about once a week for 3 months. Battery charger Thurs said 69% when I put it on.
Drove the car a few miles that night, parked it til drove out to the store today, and put it back on the charger. Charger said 79% - w/in 20 min was back to full charge (99%).

What would you do, if you were about to take off on a 4,000 mile trip, a lot of it thru sparsely populated west?

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purple haze said:

Car only driven about once a week for 3 months. Battery charger Thurs said 69% when I put it on.
Drove the car a few miles that night, parked it til drove out to the store today, and put it back on the charger. Charger said 79% - w/in 20 min was back to full charge (99%).

What would you do, if you were about to take off on a 4,000 mile trip, a lot of it thru sparsely populated west?

Click to expand...

Remove the battery, check the electrolyte levels, charge it , then take it NAPA or Vatozone for testing. While you are there pick up a tool for cleaning the battery posts and cable clamps.

The battery tester will show how many cranking amps it’s able to supply under load. Just checking the battery with your voltmeter won’t determine if it will hold a charge, or if a cell is bad.

GTO owners need to be very careful about not letting the battery voltage run down if the car isn’t being driven weekly. The non-volatile memory in the ECM seems to be sensitive to under voltage conditions. The expense and hassle of replacing a bad ECM in these cars is crazy.

Guess I’ll ask, why are you driving the goat 4,000 miles anyway?
That alone could be considered balsy

I drove mine some 2500 plus round trips easily. Assuming the bushed and brakes aren't nerfed.

Car like the mikes. Unless your worried about resale value.

GTOZZ said:

Remove the battery, check the electrolyte levels, charge it , then take it NAPA or Vatozone for testing. While you are there pick up a tool for cleaning the battery posts and cable clamps.

The battery tester will show how many cranking amps it’s able to supply under load. Just checking the battery with your voltmeter won’t determine if it will hold a charge, or if a cell is bad.

GTO owners need to be very careful about not letting the battery voltage run down if the car isn’t being driven weekly. The non-volatile memory in the ECM seems to be sensitive to under voltage conditions. The expense and hassle of replacing a bad ECM in these cars is crazy.

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Is that true? I hadn't really given that possibility any thought.

crazzymann said:

Is that true? I hadn't really given that possibility any thought.

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it isn't. most of the gto's out there would have bad ECM's if it were.

car electronics fry from reverse polarity, over voltage, etc. not from a run down battery. the ecm simply won't be on anymore when the voltage is low enough. you'll lose what's in volatile memory, not non volatile. and that's basically no more that a reset will do.

and a lot of modern batteries don't even let you check the electrolyte level.

now, can you get malfunctions and faults from low voltage? sure. some codes will probably pop up, too, making you think everything is taking a 💩. actual damage from a run down battery? doubtful.

now that i think of it, though, reflashing your ecm with low system voltage could make for a real bad day.

hopefully no one tries doing a reflash with a nearly dead battery.