Recharging car battery

[clare]

I replace my batteries when the vehicles don't start. I drive cars that I buy 5 or 6 years old (sometimes more) and drive for another

6-12 years. I have only replaced the alternator on ONE vehicle (90 ford Aerostar) in the last 30 years (owning minimum of 2 vehicles at a time) and many of my vehicles have gone over 240,000km. Current pickup truck is 18 years old, 324,000km, still on original alternator.

Over the years I HAVE replaced the brushes on the odd alternator - but that wear occurs regardless of battery condition. You may note, only ONE of my vehicles was a GM and I only owned it for about 96000km. GM had a lot of temperature related failures with theire little SI alternators.

[philoÂÂ]

A "lead-calcium" battery has very poor "deep discharge" characteristics but it's not quite that bad.

Over-discharging it a few times won't take too much life out of it...but if it occurs frequently the life will be significantly shortened.

[trader_4]

I think that's a little extreme. She hasn't said how many times she's drained it, just that it's not the first time. Starting batteries are not made to *routinely* deep discharge, but IDK that just because you did it a few times, or even 10 times, means you should chuck the battery. If you're doing it frequently, it's the primary usage for the battery, etc, then it's a different story.

I get 6 years from batteries and alternator replacements are also unusual. I think I had one alternator go in 35 years. And that one was in a company car that was less than 3 years old, less than 60K miles.

[philoÂÂ]

On my '59 Triumph, the generator brushes would only last about ten years.

Every ten years, yep I'd have to replace them again. After about the third time I just got tired of all that silliness and sold it to some sucker.

[Higgs Boson]

Well, SOME would say it's "very old" , but it's actually a '99 Nissan Maxima GLE. AFAIK it does not shut off headlights automatically; wish they still made the buzzer. Or is there some setting I have missed?

[Higgs Boson]

Yikes!!! What should I do, Stormie? and you other guys. It's a relatively new battery - 2-3 years --so I don't want to kill it!! Should I do more long-distance freeway driving rather than just dick around town??? Or what?

I actually asked the road service guy about that. He said some were very expensive (I think I could make out $400???) but some less so.

Basically I should just be MUCH more careful!!! Let this be a lesson to me.

Thanks to all.

HB

[Pico Rico]

that's the problem with "general rules of thumb" - people start believing claptrap.

[clare]

Just remember to turn the lights off - and don't leave the glove box door open, or anything else that leaves lights on.. Mild discharging of the battery is not detrimental - but deep discharge is. A good half hour highway drive every month never hurt ANY car though - gets all the fluids warmed up, cooks out condensation - lots of good effects. Including fully charging (and equalizing) the battery.

[trader_4]

Just don't leave the lights on. Doesn't the car have a chime that alerts you if you go to exit the car with the lights left on? And despite what some are claiming here, I've run lots of batteries down over the years, many times, and it didn't kill them. If you use a car battery as a deep cycle battery and do it every day, yeah the battery isn't going to last long. But if you forget you lights a couple times a year, it's not going to kill a 2 year old battery.

You can get a typical charger for $50 - $75 that will charge it up enough to start in about an hour. You can get one for less if you're willing to wait over night for it to charge. Lower current ones will cost less.

[TimR]

Long ago I made a simple rule for turning the car off, and enforced it with my children.

When you turn the key off with your right hand, put your left hand on the lightswitch.

If you forget, do not then turn the lights off. Instead, restart the car, then turn it off correctly.

That makes it a habit. Nobody in my family has ever run the battery down by leaving the lights on.

Of course a battery eventually fails and needs a jump. But we've avoided the avoidable ones.

[clare]

Except it is not claptrap. It was stated in the IBMA manual several years back, as well as in many battery service publications.

shows 10% depth of discharge giving 1400 recharge cycles, A 50% DOD giving about

450 cycles, and 100% DOD less than 200 for a normal (not deap discharge) lead acid battery. This is FACT.

Lots of good information in a DOE publication by John A. Yoder EH-31 GTN U.S. Department of Energy

19901 Germantown Road Germantown, MD 20874-1290 Phone [phone] Facsimile [phone]

Available at energy.gov/sites/prod/files/2013/06/f2/hdbk1084.pdf

[Pico Rico]

but that does not support your original statement by any stretch of the imagination.

[philoÂÂ]

Those numbers look realistic.

The original statement implied that the battery would only survive four such discharges...that's not at all true...

however "calcium" batteries are definitely not designed for deep discharge.

[Higgs Boson]

THAT'S A WONDERFUL REMINDER! Hereby adopted.

Now can you give me one to remember to take my cold bag into Trader Joe? I've tried everything, including a Post-it on the wheel which I ignored.

It's not the dime a bag they're charging here now -- it's the mufa PRINCIPLE of the thing. Neurons in what's left of my brain have to make new connections....!!!!

Thanks again for the Mnemonic. (I always wanted a chance to use that unpronounceable word.)

Wikipedia: A mnemonic, or mnemonic device, is any learning technique that aids information retention.

HB

[Tony Hwang]

Hmm, It's funny they have more battery problems in the South than up here in cold Canuck land, it seems. I just replace at first sign of battery trouble which is usually around 5 year mark. 3 year seems to be too freequent. Since coming into alternator age from generator, I don't recall having too many battery/charging problems in various cars, trucks I have driven.

[Ralph Mowery]

I don't think I ever had a car with a generator, all alternators. The only alternator I replaced was on an old Dodge Ram 50. I seldom drove it and about half the time I had to charge the battery up because it sat so long. Most batteries seem to last for 5 years or more in my cars.

The only battery I had problems with was a riding lawn mower. An 8 HP motor and I used it about an hour each time I mowed the grass. If I got 2 seasons out of it I was lucky.

This is in the middle of North Carolina.

[clare]

With the Delco Freedom batteries, 5 times leaving the lights on often resulted in the battery being DEAD. If you want to try running yours dead to prove me wrong, go right ahead.

[clare]

No, if you start at 1400, kill it once you are at 700. Kill it again you are at 350. Kill it again you are at 175. Kill it again you are at

87.5. Call it 88. The fifth discharge gets you 44, the 6th makes 22. The 7th makes 11. The 8th leaves 5.5 - call it 6. The ninth makes it

1. The tenth makes it 1.5 - call it 2. The 11th gives you one more - so you get 12 full discharges to 100% DOD.

Now if you only get to 90% DOD the numbers go up.

From real true life experience with several customers' vehicles with the high calcium Freedom Batteries, they would have been happy to get

11 chances. I had several less than 2 years old dead after 3 or 4 times leaving the headlights on overnight.

[clare]

Heat accellerates battery failure.

[Ed Pawlowski]

Youngsters missed that. We had 6 volt systems too.

I converted a 6V Karmann Ghia to 12V. Everything but the starter was changed. Turn the key and it really cranked.

The generator also turned the cooling fan so it could not be removed. My brother, the engineer, bored and reverse threaded a Chevy alternator and screwed it on to the generator shaft.