I returned from our Fairfield, CA run yesterday to find battery acid leaking from my 5 month old red top optima battery. I observed a white substance on the battery box a few weeks back I it did not appear to be battery acid and it had just recently rained. I pulled it out last night and found a crack in the casing at the base of one of the cells (cell near the negative post on the battery).
I contacted Optima this morning and I was instructed to take it to a local Auto Zone in town to have them confirm the leak and then Optima would ship me a new battery.
I get to Auto Zone (and they were very nice to me) and they contacted Optima. This time the same customer service rep that I spoke now states the battery is not going to be covered under warranty because the case of the battery is cracked. That's EXACTLY what I told her on the phone not 20 minutes earlier.
I've written a very strong email to their company and I would strongly suggest that you stay away from this company's batteries if this is how they handle defects of their product.
I've had the OEM battery on a battery maintainer so it went back into my SSR last night and will likely stay there until it dies.
Some much for Optima batteries being "tuff" batteries.
I hope everyone else's Monday morning started of better than mine.
