Battery Life

[VicW]

As a follow-up to the 'change battery' topic,what have owners found is an average life for a battery in a Jazz?
My GD is now five years old and the battery seems fine.

Vic.

[guest2898]

Just changed my wifes 02 GD jazz's battery, so that lasted just over 9 years... so not bad at all... i sold a 98 civic a few years back and its battery was the original and 10yrs old.... 

[olduser1]

Most battery manufacturers make them for a 7 year life.

You can make them last by maintenance & trickle charging to avoid running on 1/2 charge for long periods

[guest869]

Mine is a 2003 reg, 70K miles and the battery is fine except for a long period of cold weather. last winter in Sweden after a week or so of -20 degree it only just started.

[culzean]

The expected service life of an automobile lead acid battery is from 4 to 5 years - after that they are living on borrowed time.  Many things affect the life - heat will kill them (high under-bonnet temperatures being the main one - which is why some car makers mount them away from the engine), and keeping them in a low state of charge (low mileage, short journeys) when the plates sulphate up (normally irreversible).

But it is the cold weather when higher cranking amps are required and lower battery efficiency  at low temperatures kicks in that they fail.

Batteries also lose efficiency as they get older, and other things like inter-cell weld corrosion can cause it to fail suddenly - so its not clever to keep a battery on your car for more than 5 years - the average battery costs from £45 to £70 - (or 20p to 27p a week over 5 years) - its a very important and hard working part of your car, ask the AA - most of their calls (other than punctures) are to do with failed batteries.

[VicW]

Many thanks for your replies so far.
The obvious answer I suppose is 'how long is a piece of string'
In his car repair and servicing business my son checks customers batteries at every service so that he can give them a heads up of impending failure.
As Culzean said,most failures seem to sudden and without warning.

Vic.

[guest2853]

I change it when the tester points out more or less 12.3 or .4 volts.

Normally this takes 5 years.

[guest1227]

I live in Jersey, no choice but short trips below 40mph.

I have 2 Jazzes, an '04 - changed the battery March'11 & an '06 changed the battery Jan'12.

Not bad for both!

[Geoffers]

Had a 'coke bottle' Cortina that needed a new battery at 11 years!
Never come anyway near that since!

[Top Down]

Had three MazdaMX5's and all ran on their original Panasonic Gel batteries for 16 years, give or take a few weeks! The 'pattern' replacements history was very chequered. The first was replaced under warranty, when it failed after 3 months. Within 3 years THAT replacement failed and was replaced unde warranty. On the second car the 'pattern' was replaced under warranty when it failed after 18 months. I don't know if it's still going as we sold the car a year ago. The third one failed just before the winter, just before five years was up.

It took me a while to learn the lesson but I installed a Panasonic Gel this time. More expensive but far less hassle and hopefully another 16 year life span!

[guest3040]

I purchased my '02 Jazz in December 2011.
The original battery (almost 10 years old at this point) was flat as a pancake when i went to take the car out for a test drive. One of the Honda mechanics jump started it for us and everything was fine.
They were going to charge it up for me before i collected it the next week.

I went to pick the car up a week later, signed the paperwork, paid the money, got the keys, jumped in the car and....    Nothing. The battery was dead. 

Had to wait 45 minutes for them to fit a new battery and do the tracking (which they had promised to do before collection).
It was a little annoying at the time, but at least i got a couple of free cups of coffee, lol. 

[chrisc]

Had a 'coke bottle' Cortina that needed a new battery at 11 years!
Never come anyway near that since!

Father had a 1960 Chev Biscayne.  Huge tank of a car and what looked like a bus battery.  He fitted a 100 amp altenator when he got it and the battery was still going strong after 22 years.  His battery was featured in a newspaper article entitled "they don't make them like that any more".  He attributed he long life to keeping the battery clean and full of electrolyte.  In summer, the under bonnet temperatures were over 70 deg and you had to top it up every week.  He kept a 5 litre bottle of distilled water in the car and we were not allowed to drink it.  He was a chemical engineer for ICI

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