New battery, peppier engine?

O

otis24

Joined
Oct 30, 2005
Messages
1,995
Location
South Dakota
My co-worker has a 5 or 6 year old Dodge Avenger. I have a 6 year old Dodge Grand Caravan. On Thursday, she had to jump start her car and the battery light stayed on. I had been thinking of replacing my battery due to age. On Friday, I went in for an oil change service. On the Multi-point inspection, the battery was marked “red”. I took it to Napa and had them check it; intending to replace it regardless. It had about half the cranking amps. My co-worker also replaced hers on Saturday. We both paid a little over $200 for new batteries.

She commented that her car seemed to have more power. I also noticed that my vehicle seems peppier. Is this possible from a simple battery change?
 
otis24 said:
My co-worker has a 5 or 6 year old Dodge Avenger. I have a 6 year old Dodge Grand Caravan. On Thursday, she had to jump start her car and the battery light stayed on. I had been thinking of replacing my battery due to age. On Friday, I went in for an oil change service. On the Multi-point inspection, the battery was marked “red”. I took it to Napa and had them check it; intending to replace it regardless. It had about half the cranking amps. My co-worker also replaced hers on Saturday. We both paid a little over $200 for new batteries.

She commented that her car seemed to have more power. I also noticed that my vehicle seems peppier. Is this possible from a simple battery change?
Click to expand...
There have been outrageous claims on here about other things as well....you are in good company.
 
Well, we both experienced something. And she isn’t a car person, so I am surprised that she would notice it.

When someone cannot explain “why” something occurs, it can seem “outrageous “. Until a few years ago, scientists couldn’t explain why bumble bees could fly. On paper, bumble bee flight was scientifically outrageous.

I can only surmise that a new battery would increase spark and thus better combustion; much like performance spark plugs. But that is just a guess.
 
There might have been a tire pressure check/adjust while your vehicle was in the service bay.
Getting the pressure restored to 36-ish all around can make a difference.
I'm convinced my rides purr better after a wash n'wax & vacuuming. I could be wrong.
 
otis24 said:
Well, we both experienced something. And she isn’t a car person, so I am surprised that she would notice it.

When someone cannot explain “why” something occurs, it can seem “outrageous “. Until a few years ago, scientists couldn’t explain why bumble bees could fly. On paper, bumble bee flight was scientifically outrageous.

I can only surmise that a new battery would increase spark and thus better combustion; much like performance spark plugs. But that is just a guess.
Click to expand...
Cool story but there’s a huge difference between trying to explain a mystery of nature and comparing that to a human engineered device. Like 98% of BITOG it was all in your head.
 
otis24 said:
Well, we both experienced something. And she isn’t a car person, so I am surprised that she would notice it.

When someone cannot explain “why” something occurs, it can seem “outrageous “. Until a few years ago, scientists couldn’t explain why bumble bees could fly. On paper, bumble bee flight was scientifically outrageous.

I can only surmise that a new battery would increase spark and thus better combustion; much like performance spark plugs. But that is just a guess.
Click to expand...
Science that claims bumble bees should not be able to fly is poor science. While science wasn't able to explain for a long time how bumble bees could fly, the fact that they did fly proved lack of scientific understanding. And now we know how they fly. Science has explained it.

Spark should come from the power generated by the alternator in a running engine. No idea if a weak battery taxes the alternator so much that spark suffers. It may depend on the output the alternator is capable of producing.
 
If anything it is the new oil. I notice that on a fresh oil change and my tuned car wants to rev quicker. Happens ever single time. Like I said in an earlier post, I am trashing it coming in for the oil change and am trashing it 20 minutes later to a faster reving car. 95% of the people here will say it’s BS. That’s fine, they can have their opinion, I have mine. It is a micro change but it is plain as day. You soon forget the dirty oil feel and never think about again till the next change.
 
Mainia said:
If anything it is the new oil. I notice that on a fresh oil change and my tuned car wants to rev quicker. Happens ever single time. Like I said in an earlier post, I am trashing it coming in for the oil change and am trashing it 20 minutes later to a faster reving car. 95% of the people here will say it’s BS. That’s fine, they can have their opinion, I have mine. It is a micro change but it is plain as day. You soon forget the dirty oil feel and never think about again till the next change.
Click to expand...
You are right-it is B.S.
 
Going to upset a lot of people but here goes:

Battery replacement (and not necessarily for new either) can and do cause a "peppier" engine response on some ECUs and TCUs in a roundabout way:

If the driving style of the owner is so consistent that it gets learned by the ECU/TCU (auto adapting) to the point that the selected mode of operation is often more like economy, then THAT is the driver's experience that will be felt .................

If you replace a battery by simply disconnecting the battery rather than keeping a 12V source connected to the car during the changing process, then some (definitely not all) computers get a reset and as a result, revert to factory defaults by design (in this particular case possibly resulting in a peppier user experience) ..................... that is until the computers again learn from the driving style of the user and adapt to it's old ways.

I would bet that given say 50 hot/cold cycles and say 500 miles, the vehicle will start to feel exactly like it used to before the battery change.

So scoff if you will - I have seen this happen
 
vavavroom said:
Science that claims bumble bees should not be able to fly is poor science. While science wasn't able to explain for a long time how bumble bees could fly, the fact that they did fly proved lack of scientific understanding. And now we know how they fly. Science has explained it.

Spark should come from the power generated by the alternator in a running engine. No idea if a weak battery taxes the alternator so much that spark suffers. It may depend on the output the alternator is capable of producing.
Click to expand...
Right...to say that bumblebees should not be able to fly means we are claiming to understand the phenomenon in the first place and it is counter to the laws of physics which is of course impossible. A more precise statement would've been we simply do not understand how bumblebees fly.
 
CR94 said:
True, but that effect is trivial.
Click to expand...
depends on the engine rpm and the alternator capacity... 120 amps @ 14.4v = 1.7 kW. at 60% efficiency that means nearly 3kW or 4 hp at the crank. If the engine only has 40 hp to give at a certain rpm that's 10% of the total.

126.gif


above is the output of a 1.8 16V MPi engine, 42 Hp at 2000 RPM. You'll feel 2-4 HP difference.
 
mightymousetech said:
It does make sense. The alternator is not working as hard trying to charge a failing battery.
Click to expand...
Sorry I have to disagree - of all the battery failure mechanisms out there a shorted or partially shorted battery (one or more cells) is just about zero ................ and to have 2 in such a small population is even less likely.

Most batteries fail by not accepting/releasing current ..................... iow when the alternator's regulator reach the normal governed system voltage (say around 14V), the battery simply acts as a high resistance path where no/little/less current can flow ..................

The result is that with a typical failure mechanism of a high internal resistance battery, the alternator actually does way LESS than normal.
 
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