Thread: Is my battery dead.

Quick question for the knowlegable people out there.

Is my battery dead?

I was doing some work on the disco today making up battery cables and accidently linked terminals on one of my batteries with some misplaced vice grips and melted a bit of the negative terminal.

The battery was disconected from the car, so no damage to the disco but when I tried to start the car all the lights came on as normal until I turned the ignition. It made one click and then everything was out.

I swapped batteries over and everything thankfully started up again.

Any thoughts on the battery, I am hoping I did not just kill a brand new Optima.

And lets just say that is a lesson learnt for me.

Originally Posted by CJT

Quick question for the knowlegable people out there.

Is my battery dead?

I was doing some work on the disco today making up battery cables and accidently linked terminals on one of my batteries with some misplaced vice grips and melted a bit of the negative terminal.

The battery was disconected from the car, so no damage to the disco but when I tried to start the car all the lights came on as normal until I turned the ignition. It made one click and then everything was out.

I swapped batteries over and everything thankfully started up again.

Any thoughts on the battery, I am hoping I did not just kill a brand new Optima.

And lets just say that is a lesson learnt for me.

Sounds like a loose terminal if the battery was charged.
Is it possible the post lost contact with the plates under the cover
Next step would be to get it tested and go from there, might have just discharged itself.

As a side note a mate of mine "melted" his steel watch band in a simmilar way.
3rd degree burns to his wrist, took a long time to heal too.