2006 Mazda3 battery

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Wife came home Sunday afternoon and unloaded car. This morning (Tuesday) she can't find her keys, I give her my set. She goes out to the car and comes back in. Says her keys are in the ignition (!) but the car won't start. She takes my van. I check and nothing powers up. Check battery with voltmeter, get 3.1 volts. I don't know if she left the ignition on or had it in Accessory position or what. Hook up portable battery(has led that says it is at 85%), won't start but cell phone charger indicator lights up. Hook up charger, not expecting it to hold a charge. After a couple of hours I can start it. Charged it the rest of the day. Tomorrow I will take it to AutoZone and have them test it. Any opinions about whether I can trust this battery if it still holds charge tomorrow? It is original battery and is over 3 yrs old and car has about 31,000 miles on it.
 
The OEM battery in my 2006 MazdaSpeed 6 lasted about two and a half years. I would've thought it would have lived longer.
 
In my experience, 3 years is about all you can expect from any OEM battery.I'm sure someone will post that they got 10+ years from theirs, but 3 to 3.5 is all I get.
 
Battery is toast and needs replacement. If the battery reads anything less than 10v (in your case 3V) and it's not because it had been sitting for a prolonged period of time, it means there is an internal problem.

Leaving the lights on or something like that would drain it to about 10v and no further. (usually) and thus would let you recharge and all would be well but in your case is would appear one or more of the plates has shorted.

I would buy an Interstate or Energizer brand battery. I have a long history of using Interstate batteries and they normally last over 10 years, even up here in our brutal climate. I have recently purchased an Energizer battery and so far so good, and I like the construction of it as well so I would put this on my list, although I don't have a long history with this brand but others here have suggested they are a good choice.


Sorry it's not a cheap fix...
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Originally Posted By: StevieC
Battery is toast and needs replacement. If the battery reads anything less than 10v (in your case 3V) and it's not because it had been sitting for a prolonged period of time, it means there is an internal problem.

Leaving the lights on or something like that would drain it to about 10v and no further. (usually) and thus would let you recharge and all would be well but in your case is would appear one or more of the plates has shorted.

I would buy an Interstate or Energizer brand battery. I have a long history of using Interstate batteries and they normally last over 10 years, even up here in our brutal climate. I have recently purchased an Energizer battery and so far so good, and I like the construction of it as well so I would put this on my list, although I don't have a long history with this brand but others here have suggested they are a good choice.


Sorry it's not a cheap fix...
frown.gif



Heat kills batteries not cold, which is one of the only advantages in the Canadian climate. You wouldn't have a battery last 10 years in Arizona!

Look at the location of the people who get 3-4 years out of their batteries and the location of those that get 10. I don't anticipate that either are lying.
 
Cold can be just as devastating to batteries as heat. When the temperature drops so does the performance of the battery putting great stress on the battery because it's weaker than it should be and the starter is trying to extort more amps in order to turn the engine over in the extreme cold when oil is more viscous.

Plus if the battery freezes most of the time it will not recover from this state and if it does it is severely weakened/damaged.

Heat is definitely worse on a battery, but cold can be just as bad given the right conditions which we seem to have up here.
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Thanks for the replies. I normally get at least 5 yrs out of a battery. The one in the Mazda is a Panasonic. Didn't know they even made car batteries. I am still going to get it tested while I shop for a battery. It now reads 12.3v or so. I have never seen one read 3 volts before, so I don't really expect it to live.
 
I didn't know they (Panasonic) made car batteries until recently when someone else posted about their car battery being made my Panasonic.

I guess they would, seeing as they are the worlds largest producer of batteries. (Another fact I didn't know until a couple years ago)

You would think it was Energizer or Duracell, but they aren't. They just put more money into marketing it would seem.

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Steve
 
My Subaru 2000 Forester had a Panasonic battery and I changed it out a 5+years as it was showing its age. I may change batteries out a little early as batteries are much cheaper than alternators.
 
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Originally Posted By: Eddie
My Subaru 2000 Forester had a Panasonic battery and I changed it out a 5+years as it was showing its age. I may change batteries out a little early as batteries are much cheaper than alternators.
And batteries are easier to change!
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The OE Motorcraft battery in my 'rents expedition lasted until this last winter. We had a few starting problems, getting stuck and needed jumped. Replaced it with a DIEHARD Platinum II battery, it cranks much faster and stronger now. But we got a good 6 years out of that battery.
 
Originally Posted By: StevieC

You would think it was Energizer or Duracell, but they aren't. They just put more money into marketing it would seem.


Neither Energizer nor Duracell makes SLA or lead-acid batteries. (They do, however, license their name so that others can put it on batteries made by Johnson Controls).

Conversely, I do not believe that Johnson Controls makes consumer-type batteries (9V, AA, AAA, etc). I do believe they make SLA batteries, or they did 20 years ago.
 
I never said that Duracell or Energizer actually made the battery, I was talking about the size of the company... See my post above...
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Originally Posted By: StevieC
I never said that Duracell or Energizer actually made the battery, I was talking about the size of the company... See my post above...
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My point was that Panasonic makes more types of batteries than Duracell or Energizer does. They make consumer batteries, they make SLA batteries, and they make car batteries.

I'd like to know how they compare to Johnson Controls, especially since Johnson Controls has been buying up battery companies (their most recent acquisitions were VARTA and Delphi's battery business).
 
Went to AZ and they tested my battery and said it was ok! Under load it showed 10.6 v. and said if it was under 10 they would recommend replacing it. Guess I'll wait and see....
 
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