So I was driving the Jeep around town doing some errands and at the second stop the Jeep wouldn't start. It wouldn't even tick over. When the key was turned I'd get a click and then no power. Now for a few years, okay several... I had a problem with the battery only reading around 11.3-4v. I thought it might be my gauge since they are notoriously cheap. Well, it turns out it actually works. So for the past 4 years I've been driving around with a battery that reads 11.3-4v. I never noticed it since the Jeep starts up fine. I think it probably has more to do with the 800CCA then then weak voltage.
Well the battery gave up the ghost. If I put it under a load the battery drops to about 7.5v and will sit there till it cools off. Then it jumps back to 11.3-4v after a minute. So after spending about 10 minutes thinking about it, I tried flagging down the local police and see if they could give me a jump start. Though now that I've tested it under a few different situations, I'm not sure if that would have helped any. The officer apologized and couldn't do it anyway. I know their charging system's are taxed as it is and he didn't have a battery booster.
So after about 15 minutes I started to roll the Jeep out of the parking spot. Problem was this was an underground lot that was very flat. Not to mention at a popular department store so where were people going in and out all the time. Took me a few minutes to get it backed out then turned so it was pointed out the exit. I was pooped though. It's a PITA pushing a Jeep across a lot with cars and people staring.
As I was resting a passerby started to push and said 'where to?' I told him if I can get it rolling, I can start it. We pushed it maybe 20 ft where there's a slight slope and I jumped in and popped the clutch. I've done this several times before and the Jeep is the easiest thing to push-start. I thanked him and we parted ways.
The Jeep drive fine all the way home. Got home and tried to start it, no go. I knew for sure jumping it wouldn't have helped. The alternator should have charged it but it hadden't. I put a digital charger on it overnight and it made no difference. I even tried putting a load on it with my winch since that would eliminate the Jeep as a while from being the problem. Same thing. It stopped as soon as the solenoid clicked. (Some suggested it might be teh starter but that can't be since it stopped dead when I used the winch.)
So, my Optima was from January 1998 and died in April 2016. That's a pretty good run. So now I'm on the look out for a new battery. Turns out Sears discontinued the Platinum series that was made by Odyssey Batteries. What a bummer. The next highest line is the Die-Hard Gold which is made by Deka. Some people are really liking these. Though it can't compare to the Odyssey.
I liiked at Interstate since they have a AGM battery as well as Braile, Deka, Excide, X2 and a few others. I was shying away from optima since they had the bad run when they switched to the Mexico factory but I haven't heard of any issues from them since then. Also, I didn't want to get a battery where I had to rewire all of my acessories because there weren't any secondary posts. When I bought my Optima 800U they were selling for $99. $119 when not on sale. Because I've drained my battery half a dozen times I decided I wanted a deep-cycle. So I ended up ordering a Blue-Top. I think I got a pretty good deal on it and since I can't drive anywhere it's getting delivered by Amazon in 2 days.
So yeah, not much other then maintenance work. Oh and I think I've stopped the leaks but my dash is all buy gone so I've going to have to take it all apart again then seal it up with the dash in place.