How long should an OEM battery last?

It was common to get 8+ years out of the old Panasonic batteries in mid-2000s 4Runners. Those things were legendary.

 

I live in hot ass Texas where we have 9 months of summer and most of that is 90 and above. Bought my truck new in Oct 2015 and still on stock battery @ 50k miles.

 

It is sad. For instance Interstate exports its SLABs (spent lead acid battery’s) to Canada whose regulators are similar to in US recycling. But 1/2 a million tons of SLABs go to other countries such as China and Mexico etc. It is well know that raw materials “returned” can be less consistent and if even one of the cells in a “new” Made in US battery has a weaker cell it fails prematurely. The challenge is of course you can’t tell by looking, nor in a post manufacturing QA. This is especially true if there has been an attempt to mask the issue with layered electroplating of “clean” materials on top of out of spec which is essentially part of typical battery manufacturing in the first place. Kind of like delicious frosting on top of stale cake. Sucks.

 

No wonder it’s such a great forum! We actually have 1% good information, many orders of magnitude superior than others no doubt!

 

Agreed it’s the “raw” materials from frankly excellent recycling (or dumping of environmentally challenging materials in foreign countries) that introduces the the loss of chain of custody and consistently in remanufacturing.

 

There seems to be an issue with the OEM batteries, my wife's 2016 Rav4 did not show any issues but when we took it to service after 1.5 years the dealer told us they have tested it and that it was faulty, so they changed it under the warranty. Not sure what the problem was as we never noticed anything, but I am sure this will happen again and from what I can tell my new Tacoma will probably have the same issue when the time comes. Will probably upgrade to an Optima battery then.

 

Batteries charge back up much quicker than that. 2-3 minutes tops. I keep mine CLEAN, posts are clean and get lithium greased and charged occasionally in the winter. I'm sure today's cars power vampires have alot to do with battery life and more importantly no warning of a impending failure.

Had a Ranger. Battery lasted 7 years. Highest quality part on that truck.

 

Hot sun cooks vehicle batteries, even that jump starter under the seat.

 

I’ve had good luck out of OEM Toyota batteries. My Tacoma battery lasted for about 6 years and my current corolla battery is exactly 6 years old and still going strong. Alabama by the way.

 

Wow you guys have me paranoid. I need to test both my wife's 11 corolla and my taco. She is still on her OEM battery believe it or not, last year I checked it was good, but noticed this winter on real cold days it was harder to start. She may be due real soon. In regards to my tacoma, mine is a 17', what kind of battery do you guys recommend? I don't have anything crazy running on my truck, soon to be installing ditch lights and a light bar but that's about it. It's currently my DD until next year I'll be buying my wife a new vehicle and her corolla will be my DD. I do go off roading ,maybe once a month if that, my two young kiddos keep me busy lol. Sorry don't mean to thread jack.

 

Here in Philadelphia, with fairly temperate weather. I opened up the battery after a good 60 min drive to check fluid levels. I put about 8 ounces of distilled water in to the 6 holes to get the water line to form a meniscus. I've had the truck 3 years, this June. The cells were still covered to the top with fluid but I was surprised by how much water I had to put in. I was expecting maybe 2 or 3 ounces, which is what our car needed after about 3 years. But the car also sits in the garage which is about 20 degrees cooler in the summer and the battery is in the trunk, not the engine bay which may impact battery fluid levels. I was surprised with how much water I had to put back in to get the meniscus. I guess we should be checking battery fluid a little more often and keep some distilled water on hand.

Truck started up fine and there was no fluid bubbling out the top after a drive, so I know I didn't over fill it. I've done that before.

 

I got my truck in January of 2016, still on the stock battery. It did sit for a week recently without starting(I was on vacation), it just barely started up. I forgot I had my Garmin dash cam on(park mode enabled) so that probably ran it down a lot.

 

Oem batteries should go a while Toyota carries a 2 year full replacement and and a 5 year pro rated warranty so 7 years total.

 

2-3/4 years right before it got really cold so i put in a AMG from sams and Toyota payed me for it..

 

Nothing to do with a truck battery but I still have the original battery in my shed kept 2007 zero turn Graveley.

 

I live in a mild climate. The OEM Toyota and Honda batteries seem to go about 4-5 years and then they leak around the posts and make a mess. Normally that's why I change them, I haven't had one flat out fail in quite awhile.

 

For the owners that replaced the OEM battery themselves under 3 year warranty and sent the receipt to Toyota for refund, did they pro rate the amount? What address did you send to? Thx for any info

 

Mine previous battery lasted about 3 1/2 years In S/W Missouri until this last summer after work i was sitting on the tailgate listening to music when it shit out and I had to leave my windows down all night until i could buy a new one the next morning

 

I replaced mine after almost 3.5 years just as a precaution. It was showing signs of weakening (and it was corroding like crazy around the post), so I didn't want to take the chance of it dying on me.

 

I replaced mine 3 months short of 3 year right before the -20 hit and knew it was going fast. You need to call them up and tell them why you couldn't go to the dealer and proof it was dead (better be good).
mine took awhile to get (over 2 months) and they sent me my full $195 for my upgraded AGM 24f from sams club.
Same as the one from autozone
sorry just didn't want to pay +$300 for the other ones.
hope this helps