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Old November 7th 15, 03:56 PM posted to rec.autos.makers.mazda.miata
Leon van Dommelen[_2_]
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Default Miata Battery and Battery Tender Question

On Thu, 05 Nov 2015 18:34:57 -0800, moeshefrankenstein_1 wrote:

> Hi Folks. I have not been in here for a long time, but HELP>>LOL. Since
> the OEM battery, in my 2000 Miata, with less than 44,000 original miles,
> I have been using the Duralast battery from AutoZone. And since I drive
> it so very little (Obviously with those miles), I keep a Battery Tender
> Jr. on it. Well now that it is cold here, with fall setting in, it
> appeared that this 4.5 yr. old battery was giving up the ghost, with the
> tender going into flashing Red, then green and back and forth. I thought
> maybe it was because I had moved the tender to the floor from the lip of
> the trunk in Summer and that maybe the floor now (Concrete) was way too
> cold for it, so moved it back, and I thought that solved it, going back
> to solid green, but a couple of days later SAME thing, hence decided
> today new battery time. Now the guy there, tested and said the battery
> tested good, what did I want to do. Well since I planned to replace it
> at 5 yrs. anyway, I still bought it and put it in, figuring it was
> probably just low enough to make the tender do that thing.
>
> Well got home hooking the tender back up and the same thing, so now
> appeared that this 4 yr, old tender went bad.


I had one on my 1996 and after some years, it started cutting out the
engine while I was driving. So I threw it away and did not get another.
Instead I put in a lights-on buzzer.

> Went down and got another
> Tender Jr. and by all appearances looks exactly the same, but is
> feather weight compared to my 4 year old one. Long winded, sorry, but
> now some ???s: 1) In the future how can I protect my wallet by knowing
> which one really needs replacing??


See whether the battery starts the car with the tender disconnected?

> and 2) Even though this battery is
> brand new and fully charged, this new tender was also red, probably
> would have gone green in maybe 15>30 minutes or so, but impatience me
> fired up the car, and it went green pretty quick and has stayed green
> just fine. But I did decide to re-route the extension cord, unplugging
> it, and upon re-plugging it, it went RED again. Fired up the car briefly
> again, being IMPATIENT. Now is it a bad idea to have the Tender on and
> connected at the same time the car is running??? I have gone over its'
> instructions with a fine tooth comb and it does not say??? Does this
> brand new Tender Jr. model just function slightly differently, taking a
> bit longer to go from Red to green.
>
> TIA for ANY info :-) And by the way, since about noon has been fine and
> solid green since the last engine turn on.


Leon

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