Car Batteries

[Fishman Dan]

How long should a car battery last? We're talking a '96 Corolla Seca here.

Mine was dead as this morning, completely fubar. Got the NRMA out who got me started and just waiting for them to deliver my new battery.

Reason for asking is that the patrol guy said NRMA have a 3 year warranty, but just on the phone now I was checking with the operator who said the last battery was installed in May '04 - that's not quite 2.5 years.

Seems a little short to me?

[PeteyD]

Most have 1 year, some have 2. Not the longest lived part of the car.

[Grunt]

Car Batteries don't last anywhere near as long nowadays. All they used to do was started the car, power the ignition system and run a radio. Now they do all this plus also power the computer on the car, all the electric accessories. Fair enough the alternator charges the battery as we drive but the loads are huge and the battery cycles are quite frequent.

As they are now maintenace free (most you cant top up) the fluid in them gets a layer at the bottom of broken down metal that over time builds up until the point that it shorts out all the electrodes. The battery will go from working one second to dead as a doornail the next.
That is why their life is really a lottery there is no way known for knowing when it is going to fail. It will just happen some time after about 2 years, could last 10 but more often it will happen just on 4 years.

[fatrabbitbrain]

Yeah I would've said somewhere around 3 years.

1 year for a car battery is awfully short though.