When To Replace Car Battery?

[bk T]

As the title says, when is the appropriate time to replace a car battery?

Wait till it dies or, ... ?

To my understanding, there is not obvious symptoms indicating a weak battery, as an ordinary car owner, I don't have the test instrument to test it.

What are your views and recommendations? My present battery is 3+ years old; time to replace?

[R.M.]

I waited till it died... The AA were most helpful and very prompt - arrived within 10mins to the Supermarket car park where it died the death. The battery was original (Rav4 2010) and this happened a couple of months ago.

So I think you have a little leeway yet!

[allblack]

I think there's plenny of places that will do free battery checks.
Problem solved.

Just don't be fooled into buying one from them coz it'll be cheaper at Repco.

[bevy121]

cheaper places than Repco...

[kenj]

The school Hi Ace I used to drive never had battery problem. It was not a new battery when I started driving it in 2008 and I had it replaced in 2017.

Thought that was pretty good. Lots of cold frosty starts here in HB

Ken

[piroska]

Mine wasn't dead, but flat...got it going but in my experience you spend a lot of time doing this when they start to fail. So drove down to warehouse and bought another.

[Arnie]

Generally up to 10 years for a new car, replacement batteries after that around 5 to 7 years don't why the difference, if I get a flat battery for no apparent reason (like leaving park lights on) I get it tested. AA charge a lot for new battery from a call out from experience. I think it was about $30 from memory compared to our local garage which was same brand.

[zqwerty]

Having the battery in the engine compartment doesn't bode well for a long life.

The float charge voltage varies as the battery ages due to changes in the individual cells and is not entirely predictable, also the end-point varies predictably with temperature which can be tracked accurately electronically (negative temperature co-efficient) but due to the temperature gradient across the battery with changing conditions there is only a happy medium which can be chosen and not an optimum for all the cells. That is, there is a hot and cold side to the battery which means each cell is at a different temperature. ie cold where the cooling air comes in, hot where the engine is warming it up.

3 to 4 years is all you can expect although some last longer due to luck more than anything I think.

Loads of hard starting, low charge levels, temperature changes and overcharging are the killers.

[wratterus]

The quality of the batteries in Japan are generally a lot higher than here. Yuasa in particular I think supply a lot of the manufacturers with batteries for new cars. The % of recycled lead in the batteries is much much higher in NZ, which I believe is mostly why the battery in your jap car often lasts a lot longer first time around.

There is really no need to replace it until it stops doing it's job. If you're concerned about it, any garage or auto sparky should be able to load test the battery. If you're really worried about getting stranded, that can happen with a brand new battery too - possibly investing in a small jump starter might be a good option. There are some very decent ones around now for a sensible price, something like this.

Should also say that how long the battery lasts can be directly related to how you use the car. Do you do a lot of short trips? Is it very cold where you are? Lots of cold starting and short running is hard on the battery.

Conversely if you do mostly long trips (like Ken's school run) then it's likely to last longer as it's kept at the optimum charge most of the time and is starting the vehicle a lot less. That is why you will see the warranty on batteries is shorter when used in a taxi for example.

[Laggard]

My auto electrician suggested a deep discharge Panasonic battery for a vehicle I only use occasionally, works great after 3 months non use. Its in its fourth year and still going strong.