Protege_Speed
02-22-2006, 10:57 AM
As the weather started to get colder, my car started to take longer to start. It would crank and crank and start eventually. I started to think that the battery was on its way out. I still had the stock battery since I puchased the car in 8/02. I have found numerous threads stating how awful the stock battery was so I decided to look into getting an Optima. Well this pass weekend, we experience extremely cold weather here in NJ and my car finally couldn't start yesterday morning. I had to jump start it to get it going. I bought a Optima Red Top 35/75 from Costco and installed it last night. I drove for about 20 minutes to see how it ran. No problems until this morning. I went to start my car before work and it would not start again. What could be the problem? I didn't try jump starting it because I was already late so I took the Tribute to work. I know it will start if I jump started it but could there be another problem somewhere else? Could the alternator not be charging the battery? I assume it is, otherwise, I would notice the battery starting to go dead as I drove it last night. I have seen that before when my alternator belt broke. My lights weren't dimming when I had my system pumping like it used to before. Does anyone have any ideas? Thanks.