Lifespan of a car battery

Top Dog · 13-12-2011 10:20pm

Changed mine last week - original lasted 6 years

Micky 32 · 25-12-2011 6:15pm

My Skoda Octavia vRS won't be 4 years old until April and is begining to show signs of dying. Funnily enough starts perfect on cold mornings. I have found sometimes when doing a few short runs the starter lags before going up to speed to start the engine. Got one of those electronic battery testers that measures the amps ( not load tester) conductance tester and most of the time the fail light comes on it..

A friend has a battery that's 15 years plus and starts a car no problem, it's an opel badged battery which i believe may be a Delco.

VW in their handbooks say " Batteries older than 5 years MUST be replaced"

Voodoomelon · 25-12-2011 7:08pm

One thing which has improved massively since changing my battery which I didn't mention, is my power steering. My steering was always heavy since I bought the car, I replace the battery and low and behold the Servotronic has kicked in much more aggressively and the steering is much lighter. Well worth the change for that alone!

griffin100 · 29-12-2011 10:24pm

Looks like the original battery in my 2003 S60 with 210k miles has just gone kaput. Left the highbeams on for 20 minutes with the engine off a couple of weeks ago which flattened the battery and had to jump it. If driven every day there's no problem but it won't hold the charge now if not driven for a couple of days - like over Christmas. Tried to start it today after 5 days sitting in the drive and nothing happening. Wounder if I could get away with not replacing it until january's pay cheque comes in..............

TheUsual · 29-12-2011 10:25pm

dgt wrote: »

Depends. Calcium batteries can last up to 5 years. Normal ones 2 to 3 years

2 to 3 years for me too ... a cheap breakdown to fix if you change it before that but, who here has money to be spending on batteries that are not broken.

unkel · 29-12-2011 10:26pm

griffin100 wrote: »

Wounder if I could get away with not replacing it until january's pay cheque comes in..............

If you drive it everyday, and not use it for very short journeys, you might get away with it

TheUsual · 29-12-2011 10:32pm

By the way on the battery chargers, have an optimate for 7 years now and they are great yoke for cars and bikes. (and I imagine big lawnmovers and tractors)

http://www.optimate-sp.com/

But you don't leave them connected for the whole winter as they are just for charging up to full capacity.
Also if you're battery is sick and weak, they will not fix it, just get enough chanrge to get you home or to work. Once your battery is knackered, that's it.

CJhaughey · 30-12-2011 12:37am

TheUsual wrote: »

But you don't leave them connected for the whole winter as they are just for charging up to full capacity.
Also if you're battery is sick and weak, they will not fix it, just get enough chanrge to get you home or to work. Once your battery is knackered, that's it.

You can safely leave them connected for the winter, They aren't a trickle charger they actually check the battery condition and charge accordingly.
Generally if you hook it up to a pretty flat car battery they will take a while to bring it up to charge, possibly days, The output is pretty small for most units as excess amps tends to warp cell plates which isn't good for battery life.
They won't work wonders but can desulphate batteries.

TheUsual · 30-12-2011 12:50am

CJhaughey wrote: »

You can safely leave them connected for the winter, They aren't a trickle charger they actually check the battery condition and charge accordingly.

No you will damage your battery, don't mind the advertising, batteries need a rest to let the acid settle and recharge. Take them into the kitchen or shed for a while to let them rest and them charge them again every few days.
Trust me I have 3 bikes and have had these problems with them.

CJhaughey wrote: »

Generally if you hook it up to a pretty flat car battery they will take a while to bring it up to charge, possibly days, The output is pretty small for most units as excess amps tends to warp cell plates which isn't good for battery life.
They won't work wonders but can desulphate batteries.

No they can't sorry. Once the battery is damaged you might see 12.5 Volts when fully charged but it only just enough to start your engine.
It's a breakdown on the commute waiting to happen, especially in cold weather when batteries are at their weakest. You can't bring back a damaged or dud battery "back from the dead".

Fishtits · 30-12-2011 1:04am

Batts are simple. You get what you pay for.

Buy cheap, you get junk.

Buy good you get ten years service., provided you keep it charged, that's all it asks.

CJhaughey · 30-12-2011 8:04pm

TheUsual wrote: »

No you will damage your battery, don't mind the advertising, batteries need a rest to let the acid settle and recharge. Take them into the kitchen or shed for a while to let them rest and them charge them again every few days.
Trust me I have 3 bikes and have had these problems with them.

I don't listen to advertising, I have had an Optimate for over 10 years and it has been hooked up to batteries for 99.9% of that time, and it has never boiled a battery on me in that time.
My last Yuasa YTX9-BS lasted 5 years with the charger connected when not in use.

Batteries start to sulphate once they aren't charging.
If they are charged the lead sulphate crystals on the plates are converted back to soft lead.
The best way to keep a battery good is to keep it fully charged, and that means either leaving it connected to a good intelligent charger OR regularly going out and testing the state of charge and charging it if below 80%
You are talking about removing a surface charge which isn't necessary if the battery is being maintained by a small charger.

TheUsual wrote: »

No they can't sorry. Once the battery is damaged you might see 12.5 Volts when fully charged but it only just enough to start your engine.
It's a breakdown on the commute waiting to happen, especially in cold weather when batteries are at their weakest. You can't bring back a damaged or dud battery "back from the dead".

Actually you can in some cases, depends what you consider damaged, if it is mild sulphation then constant current charging at 14.4V dc and 1% of the Ah rating for between 2 and 5 days and cycling to 50% of capacity and then recharging can bring the battery back. You need to monitor the temp during this process and not let the battery get above 50 deg.
I have recovered a few batteries this way.
Some newer 4 stage intelligent chargers can do this automatically

If it is physically damaged by overcharging, plates bent or heavy sulphation then yes the battery is dead and is not likely to be looking like Lazarus.:D

Regarding bike batteries, if yours failed I wonder if they came dry charged with the little acid packs that you refill?
The biggest problem with these is the fill process introducing bubbles into the cell, these sit on the plates and can reduce battery life by a huge amount, its a known problem.
I use an Odyssey on my bike, they work great!

Micky 32 · 03-01-2012 6:26pm

Something to note when you start talking about de sufaters etc. A well maintained never flattened battery when it comes to the end of it's life doesn't die from sulfation. It dies from positive plate corrosion.

During vibration, charging and discharging cycles bits( active material shedding) fall off the positive plates and fall to the bottom of the battery..

Overtime the battery either loses capacity from the positive plates being nearly depleted due to this process and/or the build up off sludge at the bottom of the battery( from the pos plates) that eventually builds up and touches the bottom of the plates and shorts the cell out.

Batteries that die of sulfation are due to undercharged batteries or batteries left lying up for long periods without charging.

Lifespan of a car battery

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