OEM battery went to 5 years 8 months

Holy shit.

 

Not sure why some of you have such short battery life as a battery that matches or exceeds power requirements specified by the vehicle's manufacturer, vehicle's charging/starting system has been and is in good condition, installed in a vehicle used/stored in a moderate climate should last 5-6 years.

Not a bad idea to start looking to replace at 5 years old.

I base this opinion on my owning/operating a chain of auto parts stores over 16 years and buying/selling/warranting literally thousands of batteries over the years.

 

i did not post as shown .............

three separate posts have been combined

i do NOT know how to combine 3 separate posts

 

came here looking for replacement info today. 2016, bought in feb of same, just had a realllly slow start today. 5.5 years, Im ok with that. Now... what can I get near Flagstaff, AZ?? having to shop remotely from SW Utah, because the Husband has my truck at Grand Canyon....

 

Walmart.

 

Great prices, but thats the last place on earth I try to shop at.

 

Fair enough. AutoZone.

Really the only difference you are going to find is the label, there are only 3 manufacturers in the US, and most batteries come from 2 of them. I mainly try to get one from a place that has locations everywhere in case I need to do an exchange.

 

I have a 2016 Tacoma TRD OR Model (which I got in December of 2015 - 108,000 miles on the truck), I have a 8000lb winch (I use weekly), I use the battery on the truck to start my backhoe and jump an old farm truck regularly. I do test the battery annually and until about a month ago all the cells tested out fine...It looks like I will need to replace the battery before the winter, but everything works perfect...That's almost 6 years on the a single OEM battery...Now that's a great investment...

 

Went w an interstate. Just based on the sound of the starter on the new battery. The old one must have been on its way out for a while.

 

Walmart factor to consider: They are EVERYWHERE and 7 days a week (I'd bet 24/7 will be back soon enough). You can easily get a warrantied replacement and they have a very high turnover (Fresh stock). Someone not inclined to do their own work, might want to consider this. A close 2nd to this is probably COSTCO or NAPA.

i.e my daughter moved 1/2 way across the country, she could, but unlikely she would change her own; I chose to swap the 2yr old no-name battery for a fresh NAPA gold. If needed I think she can get a replacement pretty easy and I would bet the store would do the easy swap for her.

 

I've never had a battery last longer than about 2 years in Arizona. The heat just kills it. My OEM battery is close to 3.5 years, and its making me nervous. Seriously. I may replace it soon with OEM because I just can't believe it's lasted this long I've got a road trip coming up to some remote places. Don't want to get stuck with the family. Of course I was always replacing with AutoZone in the past so maybe that's the problem.

 

Thus the part in my post where I say "in a moderate climate should last 5-6 years".

 

2007 Taco bought new 2.7L
292000kms
Original battery still going strong!
In Canada! 14 cold winters

 

Long slow draw plus heat kills batteries! An occasional quality time with a trickle charger and definitely put it on a trickle charger if it will be sitting 1 week+. Batteries in my region can be expected to last 7 years on a daily driver, any more and you are on borrowed time. My daily drivers have been lasting 7-8 years... knock on wood!
BTW my Solstice needs to have supplemental power when the battery is out (I use a lawn mower battery to feed it) or weird shit happens. Just a warning, some vehicles have unique needs. Or maybe it’s just because it’s a GM!

 

Move to Phoenix AZ, Luck if you get 2 years..... The Sun Kills them

 

That’s about what the battery life map says.

 

Does heat kill batteries because it boils the electrolyte inside?

Can this be corrected (or at least mitigated) with regular battery maintenance?

Specifically buying a $1.99 gallon of distilled water and adding it to the battery cells to bring up the level on a regular basis?

That is what I’ve been doing with forklift batteries for 25 years and it seems to keep them healthy.

I feel like this used to be a part of regular maintenance but someone, somewhere, decided that hundreds of dollars in new battery sales, along with a terrific savings in distilled water, was a good business decision.

 

I get about 5 years on walmart brand batteries. Everything else I've ran 2-3 years.

 

Here is the deal there are 4 flooded acid battery manufactures in the US they are many battery names but only 4 companies making them so who knows where they came from by name, Johnson Controls happens make the batteries for Walmart by the way.