Well I have been working on a 99 Civic coupe for a few months. I have converted it from my SCCA car just back to a daily driver. I have used a Optima Yellowtop battery on it for the past 6 months, so it's a relatively new battery. Well after not driving it for about 2 1/2 months, I go to jump it, after letting it run for about 5 minutes, I disconnect the jumper cables and the car dies. I don't get it at all. The car only has 42,000 original miles, so I highly doubt my alternator is dead, plus it worked great before?

Could the battery just be that dead?

Any ideas guys?

Thanks!

 

Replace the battery with a wet cell. The optimas aren't all they're cracked up to be. They're great where wet cell application doesn't make sense, but for day to day, wet cell is better and less $.

 

If it will not stay running it cannot be just the battery. The alternator can run the car without a battery even in the car. Check the voltage off the back of the alternator then off the battery while running to see if the charge is even going somewhere. Starting a car with a dead battery "can" kill the alternator. Never actually seen it happen but that is why new alternators require a fully charged battery to fufill the warranty.