Saving a dead battery?

[denny]

i had and still have a good working battery that sat for five years in a central ohio garage in a 98 toyota. did the usual you tube tricks thinking what the hell do i have to lose and i'm still running it now. that was 2015. never thought it would work. the owner parked it in 2010. it also had a full tank of gas and started right up and i ran that tank till empty. makes you think sometimes, i still drive the car daily.

 

[Bonnewagon]

This one seems to taking a charge. After a day or so I will take a hydrometer reading and see what condition each cell is in. Keeping fingers crossed.

 

[olds307 and 403]

I love stories like that! My best ever was a battery someone tossed in the parking lot where I worked. It was an old Sears Die Hard with a semi-transparent case. I could see that it was super low on fluid and probably replaced out of ignorance. I took it home, flushed it out, refilled with new acid, and got 5 years out of it. I am hoping this one will take a full charge but if not I'll do the acid thing.

Dad had a Diehard that was how many years old when he got his truck. He ran it low and froze it. Amazingly he coaxed it back and ran it till we sold the truck after he passed away years later. That is what Sears used to be. Unfortunately new Chinese batteries including former great batteries like Interstate aren't what they used to be. I starting adding Vinegar to batteries when they are low, instead of distilled water, so far so good. They don't last long, maybe 3 years being run down and charged everyday for our trolling motor in the Summer. We usually have -40C issues and it takes out marginal batteries, interesting that +40C does the same thing.