I am just not sure what you folks are doing to get "dirty batteries". Maybe you are off-roaders. Again, I may well be kicked out of the Manly-man club.. but I just drive my cars and van on city streets.. the thing doesn't seem to get all that dirty.. and I get how macho it sounds to say to the wife "Gotta go our and maintain battery in cars honey.. be back in a few hours" but with modern batteries what exactly do you do? There is nothing to fill.. or check the level... what exactly do you guys do.. I suppose you can put a meter across it an check the voltage.. but what else?
How macho is it to have to push your car out of an intersection? Especially when she has to steer it while you push. Look at the scowl on her face.
For maintenance free batteries, keep the top clean. Wash it off, dry it. Simple. Check where the cables and post connect. If you see the beginnings of corrosion, remove, clean and reattach.
Its bad when it no longer satisfies your needs. If you don't like the trickle charging then a new battery will certainly reduce your need to do that. Alarms/RKE/Remote Start and other ignition-off drains will cause you to have to do it more.
Our family has used the rule of 4 winters of use living in the northern half if the USA. Beyond that the battery may work but one never knows for how long. Simply easier to pick a warm comfy day to change it out on my schedule, not waiting until it has failed.
Any money wasted on a earlier than needed replacement offset my not needing a tow later on.
A battery that won't hold a charge for 3 weeks is bad. Unless, there is something in the vehicle that is draining the battery. Installed a radio once that clock and keeper circuit would drain a battery in 3-4 weeks.
30-60 minutes a week of driving should keep a good battery up. If it doesn't keep your battery up, then replace the battery. Better yet, get a Harbor Freight $4 Volt-ohm meter and use it to check the battery. Should read 12.65V 24 hours after charging or driving the vehicle. If it drops to around 12.40V after 24 hours of charging or not driving, it is probably sulfated and just won't hold a full charge and you need to buy a new battery. Quit futzing around and spend $55 for a new battery.
Yes. The battery in my pickup if fine with sitting for 2-3 months without driving. Even the old battery in my Explorer, which would only hold about half of the charge, would start the vehicle after 2 months of non use.
Well i use them until they show signs of not working. Typically this happens when I inadvertently leave the dome lamp on overnight and it does not start the next morning. But often I still wont replace it. I dont do much traveling, so im not concerned. If I am going to take a trip then ill probably service a lot of things.
You are correct about a failing battery. Not only can it be a load on the alternator, but it can cause the alternator to load everything else in the car. In automotive world we call it a "load dump" test. Running a car without a battery installed is a bad idea. The battery acts like a giant capacitor. Without it components can be damaged. We design to deal with this situation nowadays, but the bottom line is that it is a bad situation so your advice of replacing routinely can't realy be argued against.
My battery fail;ures in the past tended to be ZERO days and places with no heat or convenient place to wait for tow.
for ME its just not worth the inconvenience of getting stuck
Incidently temp extremes espically cold cause the biggest load, cranking engine with stiff oil, and thats why more fail at that time.
The last battery that died for me was last summer, it died in my driveway, came in fine, my 200 amp boost charger wouldnt budge it, neither would AAA battery truck, I told AAA a jump wouldnt work, ended up having a second truck for a tow.
Lawrence, No, a new decent battery should hold up just fine with 30-60 minutes a week if the Alternator is good, and there is not an amperage draw coming from somwhere.
Alternators do begin to go in time also. I had one go on my '97 Chevy Tahoe, which has relatively low mileage, in which it didn't seem to throw sufficient voltage. (Virtaully all modern Alternators nowdays have internal Voltage Reguilators)
Same with the battery, I had it tested, and sure, after the drive to a shop, it appeared to be fine, but it actually wasn't.
Modern on board computers shouldn't draw so much amerage, that a car is dead a week later. Neither should an Auto Alam, but if one of them becomes faulty, then yes, they can eat brand new batteries quite quickly.
I would also make sure that no lights are being somehow left on, like a tunk light, hood light, or glove compartment light.
Should a new battery be installed, and you're suffering the same problem still, then I'm certain you have other problems as I mention above, as an amperage drawe from somewhere, or a bad Alternator. Mark
It only takes five minutes or so to charge a battery back after starting the car, so as long as you keep the motor on at least five minutes each time you start the motor, you'll be fine.
I find that auto batteries last about 10 months less than the rated age. For example, a 60 month battery dies about 50 months.
"Lawrence M. Seldin, CMC, CPC" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:
The problem is;the battery's plates SULFATE(when seldom used) and the internal resistance of the battery goes way up. That drops too much voltage under cranking currents. Also,modern cars draw some current even while not running.
A float charger on the battery while it's sitting unused would help. You might want to wire up a quick-disconnect plug/socket so the charger can easily be connected or disconnected,without muss or fuss.(no need to even open the hood,if that's the way you do it.)
But first,start with a known good battery. Wal-Mart sells them very at low cost.
"Stormin Mormon" wrote in news:qztJf.6538$ snipped-for-privacy@twister.nyroc.rr.com:
It depends on outside temperatures and how much vibration or shock the battery gets(dislodges material from the plate's grids,eventually shorting the cell).Hot climates evaporate water from the electrolyte sooner.
First, keep your battery clean, because some dirt conducts electricity. Either mix baking soda with warm water, or do it the lazy way like I do it. Pour baking soda over the top of the battery, especially near the ternminals, especially the negative I think. And then slowly pour warm or hot water over the battery. When there is no more bubbling, it's clean enough afaik.
According to Pat Goss, who is the best car guy I know of, and is wasted on Motor Week where he deals mostly with car models and not car innards, the car is using excessive electricity when it i s not on if it is sufficient to light a ??? lightbulb.
I can't remember the number and I'dhave to search my house to find it. It's 57 or 93 or 92 or 53, I think, or close. It's a little spherical incandescent bulb that used to be used a lot for dash or glovebox lights. It has a bayonet mount, one filament, the outer case is the ground, and the center solder place is the + side. Does anyone know which bulb I mean?
When I had a very old battery, it would go dead if I didn't drive until the third day. Eventually it only took until the second day (skipping only one day.) So when I went away for Thanksgiving, I disconnected the battery and reconnected when I got home. The battery was fine. Using the lightbulb above, I confirmed that I was draining too much electricity and eventually I reallized that the pager attachement on my burglar alarm was really not an attachment but a separate alarm. So I was probably using twice what I should have been. Still, if I had used half of what I was using, it would have only lasted 2 to 4 days.
I guess it was before I had figured all this out that I bought a Battery Buddy. Not cheap ($60?? I forget) but worth every penny.
In the following year, it tripped maybe 100 times, and there was always enough electricity in the battry when I reset it to start the car.
The radio presets were lost each time, and the time, and some alleged values that make the car run better with time. Alhthough I never got any impression that my 88 LeBaron ran any worse after the battery was disconnected and recon.. than before then.
So if you're not going to run the car a lot, I recomment the Battry Buddy, (or maybe the 2 simlar products that have other names.)
OR,
There's nothing wrong with a trickle charger. In 1967, I had a '50 Olds that used a 6 volt battery, and it was hard to start on the cold days of the Chicago winter. So I plugged in a 1 amp trickle charger. It didn't do enough when set on 6 volts so i set it on 12. I decided to leave it on whenever I was parked, so I put the charger inside the hood and let the cord extend a bit out of the grill. It ran all winter, tripping its circuit breaker about every 40 seconds for 4 months, and resetting after 10 seconds, That is, it tripped about
270,000 times, without damage to it. I still have the charger 38 years later and it still works fine (although I did replace the diodes.)
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