Correct. I have a 130A Matco analog tester (rebranded). I might add that starting a vehicle alone is not "testing". Ive neen rv boondocking for almost two decades. A battery at 12.0 volts is 50% discharged but still may do the job. Just not for long.
Preemptively Replace Battery...OR not?
- Thread starter HowAboutThis
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I’m buying a Group 35 Platinum today at Farm & Fleet for the Mazda. It’s a 2018, original battery. Wouldn’t remote start at -6. Slow crank but started with the start button. Not in a contest to see how long it lasts.
Which is what I pretty much ignored for a week up until the day it was -16F and I had to perform a field replacement out in the open
Would also depend on how hard the battery is to replace.
I don't wait. If a battery gives me 5 years, I replace it on a nice warm day at my convenience. I am not waiting until it's in the single digits with a vicious windchill on top of that. My experience has been a battery is perfect one day and dead the next. I don't want to have to go rescue my wife or daughter someplace where they're stranded because I'm trying to save a few dollars. Better safe than sorry at least on the things easily within my control like a battery replacement.
My experience is “modern” batteries don’t give a warning. Something is different with the internal design even when used on older cars.
Three years ago I drove a 2002 Buick Rendezvous to the poll to vote, temps in the 50’s. Came out 15 minutes later and NOTHING. No click, no lights, it was as if the battery (NAPA brand ~7 years old) had been stolen. Luckily it took a jump but when I got home and tried to start it again nothing, like it wasn’t there. Walked to NAPA, replaced battery and back to zoom.
Three years ago I drove a 2002 Buick Rendezvous to the poll to vote, temps in the 50’s. Came out 15 minutes later and NOTHING. No click, no lights, it was as if the battery (NAPA brand ~7 years old) had been stolen. Luckily it took a jump but when I got home and tried to start it again nothing, like it wasn’t there. Walked to NAPA, replaced battery and back to zoom.
I lived near Canada for quite a while. I had Honda batteries 10 years old starting at -20 to -35 actual temps. If they load tested ok I'd keep them until 10. I believe they used to be Panasonic and they were the best batteries I'd ever owned.
My 18 Nissan battery was a Panasonic and I dumped it @5 yrs due to general rule of thumb and it was the wife’s car. Had I have known I’d have never been able to replace it and the effects of a good maintainer, I’d probably still have it.
I had a NAPA Battery go past 10 years. Started acting weak, and I replaced it.
f355spider
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I think an inexpensive battery tester can be very helpful at detecting a battery on the way out. Weeks or months before it will not crank. It is rare to just die. Usually you can't really detect that the battery is down 40% or more on cold cranking amps...it turns over fine....then it just reaches the point where instead you get a click.
Case in point I tested the battery in my Tundra each time I changed the oil...about four times a year at 6k oci. Always tested strong then one day I tested and it showed "replace" on the tester and low CCA. Yet it cranked just as fast as always. I replaced the battery that day...ran to Costco. The battery I replaced was original to my truck and 14 years old. On your strategy I would be almost on my fourth battery. Instead I'm on my second.
I have also had two batteries fail in less than two years on one of my BMWs. Without my tester I could have ended up stranded if I assumed they will last five years minimum.
Minnesota winters, most of the time I know when it is time, but the last 8 years the batteries have gotten far worse and they surprisingly failed, on me a couple of times.
That's a good point. I have a battery tester so I should make it part of the oil change process to test just for peace of mind. On the other hand, I also look at the cost per year if I change batteries on a 5 year cycle. Current battery prices are about $200. If I have it for 5 years, it's only $40.00 per year. Same as a single fuel fill up or an oil change. Changing it out at 5 years, especially the wife or daughter's cars also gives me peace!
I did just buy an AstroAI jump pack that a few people here spoke highly of. My friend saw it in the back of my car, liked it and bought the same thing. Two days after he received it, the 5 y/o battery in his wife's car died. He hooked up the jump pack and the car fired right up.
Good addition to my trunk.
I carry one of those NOCO starters with me .
I’ve told this story more than once but here it is again. My wife’s car was only 6 months old and the battery tested fine one month, then so dead I couldn’t even unlock the doors at Detroit airport the next. There was nothing with my tester or the behavior of the battery that would have led me to believe this was going to happen. This car was on a charger the day we drove to the airport, then sat for a week and it was completely shot. I now have a jump box in every car I own.
With today's nanny features you don't even have a chance once the battery is on its last legs. The starter could still crank if the voltage is say 9V and there is some juice left in the battery but today's electronics will see 11.5V (or some threshold) while cranking and just disable the starter relay.
Nope...sorry... below my setting, you can't try to start it anymore....
My wifes Equinox started perfect enough one morning, then the next morning turned over a half a revolution and then nothing. Battery was at 11.4V. It wouldn't even let her try to start it.
You don't get "slow starts" anymore. It works until it doesn't.
Nope...sorry... below my setting, you can't try to start it anymore....
My wifes Equinox started perfect enough one morning, then the next morning turned over a half a revolution and then nothing. Battery was at 11.4V. It wouldn't even let her try to start it.
You don't get "slow starts" anymore. It works until it doesn't.
