New battery after 2 years??

[Deleted]

I just had to live work to go pick up my wife because her car would not start and her mom was waiting for her at the train station in Boston.

Yesterday it wouldn't start so I gave it a boost. This morning same thing again but I needed to be back at work by 1 so I just let her have my car and drop me off/pick me up later. And no she is not living her lights on (that is what I thought at first).

I've had my car for 4 years and still haven't needed to replace the batteries, hers is only 2 years old.

It's a 2010 Honda Civic.

[Angel!]

It might be under warranty, talk to honda. I just replaced my 07 civic battery this year & I probably didn't need to because it turned out the battery wasn't the problem, although the tests did say it was a bad battery.

[NancysSummerSip]

Had the same issue with my 2010 Nissan Versa, Carl. Damned battery died after two years, exactly. I live in a hot climate, which is supposedly hard on batteries, but I thought that was ridiculous, too.

Not sure why it went. Could be the battery itself, or the electronics just drain the smaller battery faster.

[ontrack]

Does your wife do a lot of stop and go, short duration driving? Our car battery died when the car was around 3 years old, and we deduced that was most likely the culprit.

[The Walk of the Penguin Mich]

My previous car was a Mazda and for some reason, the factory installed batteries did not seem to last any more than about 2 years. They would prorate the battery, but replacing it with a factory battery was almost the cost of a new one.

After the second time I replaced the 2 year old battery, I wound up replacing it with one from the local auto repair shop and I wound up getting nearly 7 years out of that battery.

[Deleted]

New car batteries are not the best, especially on foreign built cars. It is an item they can cut costs on. Get a replacement from a reputable auto shop and you should be good for a while.
That's assuming there is not an electrical problem someplace.

[Plain Old Petunia]

I knew it was a Honda before I got to the part where you state it is a Honda.

Yes, their batteries suck. My first one died at 35k miles. As in, "died as I was driving down the road". Honda replaced it free of charge, and that battery died about 35k miles later. Now I have a DieHard from Sears, thank you very much.

[whoami]

I live in Texas, buy the 84 month high end batteries for all our cars, and they still havent lasted more than 3 years at the most. I've been through at least 4 or 5 batteries in my car in 10 years as the car "brand" battery was a cheapo and worthless in the heat. Once we figured that out, we went with the more expensive supposedly longer lasting batteries.

[Deleted]

Dec 5, 2012 13:55:04 GMT -5 Plain Old Petunia said:

I knew it was a Honda before I got to the part where you state it is a Honda.

Yes, their batteries suck. My first one died at 35k miles. As in, "died as I was driving down the road". Honda replaced it free of charge, and that battery died about 35k miles later. Now I have a DieHard from Sears, thank you very much.

Wow, my wife is at about 34k miles; coincidence

[NancysSummerSip]

Coincidentally, the battery in my Versa went at about 35,000. Good info here, though. I made the dealership replace it for free, since it was under warranty, but next time, I know better.

[Deleted]

Dec 5, 2012 14:30:11 GMT -5 NancysSummerSip said:

Coincidentally, the battery in my Versa went at about 35,000. Good info here, though. I made the dealership replace it for free, since it was under warranty, but next time, I know better.

I think we might go to a dealer and get a free one since it is a leased. We only need it to work for the next 7 months.

[NastyWoman]

Dec 5, 2012 14:30:11 GMT -5 NancysSummerSip said:

Coincidentally, the battery in my Versa went at about 35,000. Good info here, though. I made the dealership replace it for free, since it was under warranty, but next time, I know better.

I'm asking because I really don't know, but is the lifetime of a battery tied to distance driven in any way? The (original) battery in my Versa is ~6years old, but I only have 42k miles on my car. So maybe it is time for me to start to worry?

[moneymaven]

Sometimes they give you a prorated credit for the life the battery should have had per warranty.

[tskeeter]

Dec 5, 2012 15:28:56 GMT -5 NastyWoman said:

Dec 5, 2012 14:30:11 GMT -5 NancysSummerSip said:

Coincidentally, the battery in my Versa went at about 35,000. Good info here, though. I made the dealership replace it for free, since it was under warranty, but next time, I know better.

I'm asking because I really don't know, but is the lifetime of a battery tied to distance driven in any way? The (original) battery in my Versa is ~6years old, but I only have 42k miles on my car. So maybe it is time for me to start to worry?

I believe that car battery life is related to how much the battery has been charged. That would make how many miles a car has been driven the most reliable way to easily measure whether or not a battery is worn out. (A car sitting unused for 15 years would get minimal miles, so the battery would likely still be in good shape. Even if the battery is discharged.)

Car batteries are essentially a stack of lead plates in a bucket of acid solution. Each time the battery is charged, the lead erodes a little bit. To make a battery last longer, you need more lead plates or thicker lead plates. This is inconsistent with getting high MPG on a car. Obviously, lead is heavy. Hauling around a heavy battery burns more gas. So an easy and cheap way to get higher CAFE ratings for the window sticker of the car you make is to reduce the amount of lead in the battery so the car is lighter. Hopefully, you specify enough lead in the battery so that most of the batteries will last the full warranty period. It appears that some car manufacturers are cutting it pretty close as many of you guys are reporting battery failure just before a 36K mile warranty expires.

Interesting to note that many of you reporting short car battery life are driving cars designed to get great fuel economy (Civic, Versa), where the weight of the battery would be an important factor in the fuel economy of the car.

[wvugurl26]

I've got 124k miles on the original battery in my 2009 Subaru Impreza. It gets over a hundred at times here in the summer and below zero some winters. I probably just jinxed myself!

[Jake 48]

just replaced the original battery in the 2005 F 150

[Deleted]

My Toyota battery lasted five years or 55,000 miles. I wouldn't have replaced it then because it hadn't caused me any problems. I was going to buy a Die-hard when it did. But I took it in for the oil change, and the dealership called and told DH that I needed a new battery so he authorized it.

[Sammy]

I almost choked when I heard the price of replacing batteries in a gas/battery type car.

[marvholly]

I have a 2007 Impala bought in Dec 2006.

I live in metro Chicago, known for it’s COLD winters which is also a battery drainer. Since 2010 ALL my driving but 3-4x/year is stop & go.

Granted I drive <4000 mi/year since 2010 and <10,000/yr before that.

I DO suspect I am overdue to replace it as I well remember needing a battery every 3 years whether we drove American cars or foriegn.

[lurkyloo]

Dec 5, 2012 13:55:04 GMT -5 Plain Old Petunia said:

I knew it was a Honda before I got to the part where you state it is a Honda.

Yes, their batteries suck. My first one died at 35k miles. As in, "died as I was driving down the road". Honda replaced it free of charge, and that battery died about 35k miles later. Now I have a DieHard from Sears, thank you very much.

What a bizarre way for a battery to behave--normally when they go bad they gradually lose their ability to hold enough charge to start the car. When the car is running the alternator continuously recharges the battery so it shouldn't die while driving. Are you sure it wasn't a bad alternator? I guess maybe the battery just shorted out?

[MB-NY]

I had the original battery in my 2001 Toyota Camry until I traded the car in back in 2011. Never needed a jump start and never had it charged.

The battery in our 2006 Nissan Altima lasted maybe 3 years.

Go figure.

[Angel!]

Dec 6, 2012 11:40:40 GMT -5 lurkyloo said:

Dec 5, 2012 13:55:04 GMT -5 Plain Old Petunia said:

I knew it was a Honda before I got to the part where you state it is a Honda.

Yes, their batteries suck. My first one died at 35k miles. As in, "died as I was driving down the road". Honda replaced it free of charge, and that battery died about 35k miles later. Now I have a DieHard from Sears, thank you very much.

What a bizarre way for a battery to behave--normally when they go bad they gradually lose their ability to hold enough charge to start the car. When the car is running the alternator continuously recharges the battery so it shouldn't die while driving. Are you sure it wasn't a bad alternator? I guess maybe the battery just shorted out?

I was thinking the same thing. In general a car doesn't need the battery while running unless the alternator is bad. Maybe newer cars are different, but I know in older cars you could actually disconnect the battery once the car is running.

This is why popping the clutch to start a car works, because all the battery was actually needed for was the initial start. Once the car is running, the battery is irrelevent & the power is drawn from the alternator.

[The Walk of the Penguin Mich]

The battery in my Subaru is 5 years and seems to be ok. But I was thinking that the 2 year old Sentra that I bought before my Subaru I wound up needing to replace the battery in the first year I had the car too....so about at the 3 year mark.

[Deleted]

I had a Honda Odyssey and the factory battery lasted for about 5-6 years before it needed replacing. I had close to 100K on it too.

Maybe it is with the newer ones? Mine was a 2003.

[The Walk of the Penguin Mich]

Dec 6, 2012 12:43:18 GMT -5 @angel33 said:

I had a Honda Odyssey and the factory battery lasted for about 5-6 years before it needed replacing. I had close to 100K on it too.

Maybe it is with the newer ones? Mine was a 2003.

I'm wondering if it is the models. Carl's wife has a Civic, which is the low end of the Honda line. My Sentra was the low end of the Nissan line, as was my Mazda. I think someone else who needed to replace their battery had a Versa that needed replacing at the 2-3 year mark too.

[2kids10horses]

We carry one of those combo car emergency battery/starter/air pump gismos in every car. About $50 at CostCo. They have come in handy many, many times.