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I got my new Optima yellow top battery (series 35D) last week, and things are not going well. I can't even FAS for 5 minutes (headlights OFF) before the thing drops below 11.5V and won't restart the car.

Since this is about the same amount of FASing I was most recently able to get out of the battery I just replaced, I'm trying to decide if the problem is the battery ... or the charging system. When the engine is running, the SG generally indicates 13.8-14.0V, although I occasionally will observe it hovering in the 13.4-13.7 range. Is this on the low side, and is my alternator marginal? Should I be above 14V? I'd be interested to hear what other Subie owners are seeing for voltage on their ScanGauges.

I'm no expert, but it seems that voltage in the high 13s should still be enough to maintain a decent charge on any 12V battery, so I'm suspecting that something is wrong with mine. One clue: it arrived DEAD (10.5V) and I had to pre-charge it myself, something I've never had to do before. Wayne mentioned in one thread that there had been some bad Series 35D Yellow Top Optimas produced, so maybe this is the problem? Of course I will be calling Optima to ask them, but I'm also interested in the views of those here as to whether this sounds more like a battery or alternator/regulator problem. Opinions?

Could be a bad battery off the shelf, bad chemistry, or the battery needs to be well-charged before use. You could also be having alternator issues, or a wiring problem. Usually, there would be other symptoms if that was the case.

Hope this helps! :)

Definitely have the battery checked - that does sound a bit iffy especially at 10.5v *new*.
It wouldn't hurt to double check all of the Scoobies grounds for good contacts as well as make sure they are in good condition .

I used to use Optimas in all my vehicles but over the last 5 years or so the quality has dropped dramatically. When I sold my old truck a year ago it had a 10 year old optima red top in it that still worked great. The red top that was in my Tahoe for 2 years was dead. After Optima was bought out everything changed. Personally I would look elsewhere for deep cycle batteries.

YMMV

Hawker Industries .

Optima confirmed for me today that their batteries always ship fully charged, that my charging voltage is in the normal range, and the symptoms indicate the battery was bad. Batteries Plus has ordered me a replacement and I should have it next week. Thanks for the feedback.

I didn't use my Mazda MX6 with an Optima Battery for a month and then it wouldn't start. And then Murray's incorrectly entered my warranty info so I lost my warranty because I lost my receipt. Maybe Optimas suck nowadays.

I have heard about many problems with the yellow tops that fit into my del sol, and crx. But I have not heard of problems with their larger batteries.

I've been really interested in the Diehard security battery, due to the reserve its supposed to have to ensure your car always has enough cranking power. Just tried to start up the crx yesterday, and its battery was dead, so this would be great for me since I only drive it about once a month.

Sorry I haven't posted anything on this, but I've had my replacement Optima Yellow Top for 2 months now and I can assure you it does NOT suck. It's the most aweseome battery I've ever had. I can FAS as long as I want with the headlights, driving lights, rear defogger and fan blasting, and never worry about running it down.

About a month ago I accidentally left my parking lights on (one oddity of Subarus is that their special parking light switch that allows them to stay on without illuminating the dash lights or warning you in any way that they're still on when you turn off the car). All day. Went out to my car at the end of the work day and it still started. It cranked a little slowly, but the Optima still had enough juice to start it. Incredible.

When I replace this car I'm taking the battery with me.

That is one of my biggest peeves about the hondas I have owned, none of them would alert me that the lights were on when I turned off the engine. Just a simple 5 dollar buzzer and fuse or something, would have saved me a fair amount of grief.

That always peeved me about Hondas too. Civics didn't have headlight warnings as standard until '96 at the earliest.

The Subaru situation is a little different. You never have to worry about leaving your headlights on: when you turn the key off, all the lights (head, parking, tail) turn off. This peeves me when trying to FAS, since I'm driving with my lights on this time of year.

Subaru has had this "feature" on all their cars since at least the 1980s, and they've always provided a "parking light override" switch on the steering column that turns on the parking lights even with the key off. I use this switch to keep my parking lights on so I can still stealth-FAS. But when I get out of the car there's no audible warning and the dash lights still go out, so unless I look back at my car I have no idea I've left the parking lights on. So far I've done this at work 3-4 times this fall. Drives me nuts.