Hi all! Long time since I've been on here. Some of you may or may not remember back in February my car was hit and totalled (body damage only, 2010 Panel). Finally, after 5 months, I got the car back from the shop that had it. And yes, it sat in their back lot for 4 of those months without moving, and likely in some standing water in the rains we've been having. But... it's fixed, it passed our enhanced inspection (required for putting it back on the road) and made it home this past Monday. During the week, I kept a charger on the battery (Optima Red Top) as, of course, it hadn't been run or even started. I also took the opportunity to put in a set of those IPCW LED tailights as the replacement set the shop put in were used and abused. Those weren't too bad.. the reverse lights had to be hard wired though - plug was a joke. Anyway, had it out Friday for a short while with no issues. Took it yesterday to see a buddy about an hour and a half away on highways and I started to smell something weird. Couldn't quite put my finger on it as I was driving through country.. and I finally did - rotten egg. Oh, great.. the cats are going or have gone. The car still ran fine, no engine lights or messages. Ran it all day that way, came home, parked it, and went to start it this morning to put it on ramps to see exactly which cat system I had... and the battery was dead flat. Not a sausage..
So.. put my jump pack on it which read all of 3 volts, hooked it to the underhood jump points and it took about 3 tries before it actually jumped and started. Sort of. All sorts of warning lights, rough running and messages on the DIC (reduced engine power, check TC etc)... which I'm hoping is attributed to the dead battery (which is now back on the charger). Is it remotely possible that catalytic convertors can kill a battery that fast? I don't see how they could? Or is it more possible that, from sitting and being 'dead' for 5 months, the initial long charge cooked one of the cells in the battery? And what would kill the cats? Bad gas from sitting? Being partially submerged in water (not confirmed, but highly suspected knowing the location)? Now I'm on the search for an affordable cat system. I really can't drop another $1K on an OE set...

What does our collective brain trust think?
Thanks,
Rick

 

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Well... that was an easy (and relatively inexpensive) problem solver. I couldn't see the battery well..uh, well since it's cloudy here this morning after the rains. My Optima charger had stopped, saying the battery couldn't be charged. Huh... loosen everything, take the battery out and oh.. wow. Yeah, that would do it. I guess it didn't like sitting for all that time without even a trickle charge on it. I guess that's also what I was smelling all day - good thing I had the windows down. So now, I have a spare "garage battery" installed, car is running, cleared and checked any codes (so far there are none).. I reckon I dodged a bullet there....

 

Welcome back, my first thoughts were …..dead battery, and you confirmed that! Better to spend money on a new battery then new cats!


Hey, cats aren’t expensive!!

 

Ours would tend to disagree. They like the good stuff!

 

I'm pretty sure that would meet the legal definition of a dead battery...

 

To test, roll windows up, light a candle.

 

No!! Please don’t do that! Thanks!!