knowing when to change a car battery?

Midget

Midget

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Jun 1, 2002
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i was just laying in bed doing the random thought thing and trying to sleep when i thought about my car battery. it's a 2000 grand am, bought in late 1999. i've never changed the car battery, but the vehicle has under 60,000 miles on it.

when do i know to change that car battery, short of letting it die? i've lived in ann arbor, MI for the past 4.5 years and i understand extreme cold/hot weather has its effect on batteries so take that into account.

thanks!


oh also when do i get that serpentine belt changed? i think i'll go outside tomorrow and check it for cracks. other than coolant and oil changes and tire tread/pressure and brakes, is there anything else that i need to be thinking about for upkeep of my vehicle?
 
Wow, if you got 7 years out of a battery, you must be living right! Slow turnover in winter is a good sign you should be looking for a battery, but in the summer, the heat will just kill them without warning in many cases. Starts fine then nothing. After 7 years, I would just spring for a new battery.

The serpentine belt is usually called out for replacement between 60 and 80 thousand miles, but your owners manual will tell you for sure.

The preventive maintainence that people most often neglect, IMO, is getting their automatic transmission fluid and filter replaced. It usually costs about $80 at a quick lube place, but it's easy to do yourself.

Keep the oil changed, the air and fuel filters clean and the tranny serviced, and it shoud run almost forever. :thumbup:
 
so 7 years out of my battery is pretty good then? cool.

i'll take a look into the issue of transmission fluid/filter.

as for my car battery, there's no slow turnover in the winter and summer time has always been a go. but i'll look into purchasing a new car battery too. do they come charged? that is, can i just buy a car battery and keep it in my back seat or something until my old one dies? cause i'm interested in seeing how long i can suck life out of it. ;)



locomike said:
Keep the oil changed, the air and fuel filters clean and the tranny serviced, and it shoud run almost forever. :thumbup:
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thanks for the advice, but i can't help but laugh at this one.

in 2003-2004, i made a road trip out to berkeley, CA from rolla, MO. on the way back, the car broke down in middle-of-*******-nowhere, KS, and i was stuck in a fairly horrible and expensive motel for a week with absolutely nothing, in the middle of probably some of the worst heat i'd ever experienced in my life. my car went up on the lifts and was torn apart until the mechanic could find the root of the problem--apparently, the flywheel had broken.

the flywheel. we're talking like, a solid, 1-inch thick chunk of steel. i got to look at it--there was a huge crack going down the middle, all the way to the other side. i'm actually impressed it had gotten me as far as it did, cause i started hearing some *whirring* from the engine in vail, CO, and i had driven all the way to kansas with it getting worse and worse.

anyhow. to this day i still can't believe a piece of metal that thick could just randomly break in a vehicle. but hey, who knows. i'll take your advice and keep an eye on the transmission fluid and filter. and i'll never buy a GM vehicle again.

oh, and of course, the flywheel and repairs were not covered under the warranty.
 
Average life of a car battery is 5 years, less in the warmer south , more in the colder north .Seven years ? it's about time for a new one. Regular oil changes are the cheapest form of preventive maintanance.Also change filter at the same time .I also put in a can of injector cleaner .Otherwise you'll have a major problem at about 50,000 mi. Belt should be changed at about 50,000 ,check the manual.
 
Midget said:
do they come charged? that is, can i just buy a car battery and keep it in my back seat or something until my old one dies? cause i'm interested in seeing how long i can suck life out of it. ;)
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They do come charged, but keeping a new one with you for a spare is a bad idea for lots of reasons.
 
Better to buy one of those solid-state jumpstart units and keep that in your trunk.
I just put a new battery in my 2003 Hyundai. The problem you have is that since the thing deteriorates rather slowly, you "get used" to the less-energetic cranking. When you put in the new one, you instantly recall what a healthy battery is like!
I had one warning sign, my remote wasn't unlocking the doors properly. As in, it would open the passenger-side only. The solenoids were not getting enough juice.

Service stations and auto-parts stores will run a static test on your battery, which may be useful in giving you some idea of it's health.
 
Get a hygrometer -- a real one, not the kind with the five balls. When you find your battery is weak and won't start the car you don't know whether the problem is a bad battery or the problem is your electrical system is not charging a perfectly good battery until you get out the hygrometer. If you find one cell is weaker than the others, buy a new battery.

I agree with the others you should get a new battery after 7 years regardless, but get a hygrometer too to keep on hand. They're cheap, much cheaper than replacing parts one by one until you find the one that needed replacing.
 
P.S. Do they still sell those sealed batteries? If so don't buy one of those. Among other problems you can't use a hygrometer on them.
 
Drive the car until the battery dies. If you have problems with the battery running down, like say the starter turns over slowly after leaving say a radio on without the engine running for say 15-30 minutes then yes change the battery.

The battery in my propane powered 1994 pick-up is still original after 120,000 Km. I was waiting for it to die after the first 5 years when many batterys start going soft, but this one just keeps going. I keep the battery clean and it gets a work-out. Cold start up on propane means engaging the starter for at least 10 seconds of constant cranking. Then once I get to the submarine stop, I like to eat my sandwhich in the truck with the radio on and the engine shut off. I usually take half an hour to eat while the radio is going, and there is more than enough edison to crank over all 8 cylindars with zip.

Batterys are hard to tell. I had another that started up my Miller welder for more than 14 years, but I once bought a truck battery for the other truck and it lasted less than 3 years went soft and died in less than a couple days later. If I remember 25 years ago I had another that died just after the warranty ran out. Batterys are hard to tell, drive them until they go soft or dead, or you are just throwing away good money.
 
drive them until they go soft or dead, or you are just throwing away good money.
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Heh, maybe, supposing you don't need/care about being some where on time.

IMO, change the battery now, before you get stuck again where you don't want to be.
 
agreed daveh..

bufford, what happens if your battery dies in the middle of one of those canada winters? that would suck.
 
better to buy a good new one and have no worries this winter-

when i was a kid the guy across the street in the winter would turn on his headlights for 5 minutes or so before he started his car,said it would warm the battery and make it last longer-still dont know how true that is-

ps-change the serpentine belt every 5 years even if you dont put alot of miles on the car
 
I usually replace my vehicles battery after the warranty runs out. 5 years is about the max.

I also always follow Consumer Reports recommendations for batteries; they have been pretty reliable. Last battery I purchased a couple of years ago came from Walmart. Was highly rated at the time, and was very inexpensive. It is in my daughters Explorer, and is going strong, even in these below freezing temps.

I'll second the not buying a sealed battery. In addition to not being able to use a Hydgrometer on it, you cannot top off the water when needed.
 
HYDROMETER--used to measure specific gravity..like battery acid.

HYGROMETER-- used to measure humidity. Not in a car battery.

Can't help it, I'm a mechanic and Jr. meteorologist
 
imho the best batt around right now is an optima they dont have acid in them IIRC, anyway have one in my 'vette and its been a good one, they arent that much more than a die hard for example, die hards arent bad either,
 
several brands have spiral no free acid cell care batteries. All probably manufactured by Optima.
 
DaveH said:
Heh, maybe, supposing you don't need/care about being some where on time.

IMO, change the battery now, before you get stuck again where you don't want to be.
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PREVENTATIVE MAINTANENCE keeps you from spending too much time in a place you don't want be in and spending money you don't really have.
 
Midget said:
agreed daveh..

bufford, what happens if your battery dies in the middle of one of those canada winters? that would suck.
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Yes it has happened in the past- dead battery syndrome, all it means is an interuption in the schedual, maybe an excuse for an unschedualled coffee stop. I carry booster cables, and ask for a boost. Then at some point in time someone else is need of a boost so I return the favor.

Unfortunately, most of these 'inconvenience stops' involve something more expensive than dead batteries. Like the day the tranny packed up after an awful day at work.- thats for another thread.

As for canadian winters? They are a thing of the past. 30 years ago most parking lots were equipped with block heater outlets so that folks could plug in their block heaters to keep the engines warm. Today these things are long gone. Typical weather in December was cold and snow, with night time temps constantly in the -25 to -30 range and rising to -15 to -20 during the day. January could see temperatures as low as the -40 range and propane would flow poorly, and in some cases not at all.

Today the forcast is calling for temperatures of -2 for a high and -5 at night with rain and warmer temperatures later this week. Heck my snowmobile is still in summer storage, and from all indications it will stay in there for quite sometime yet.
 
Optima batteries are AGM type [absorbed glass matt] Instead of liquid acid all the reaction take place in the fiberglass matt. Thes batteries can be used in enclosed areas [some new cars have them under the seat] and take vibration and impact better [off roaders prefer them].Putting batteries under the seat is better because it removes them from the hot engine comp,heat reduces battery life !artment
 
severtecher said:
HYDROMETER--used to measure specific gravity..like battery acid.

HYGROMETER-- used to measure humidity. Not in a car battery.

Can't help it, I'm a mechanic and Jr. meteorologist
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THANK YOU severtecher! i'm no mechanic, but i have a bit of meteorology from university, and i was wondering for the longest time why someone would be measuring the humidity in a battery...hahaha... you cleared things up.
 
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