Team-BHP - Car battery life - How long did your battery last?
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My friend's Mercedes GLS 350d had it's OE battery changed which lasted for exact 2 years.The car is sparingly used and only taken out for long drives to Goa,Chennai etc and as a result has just crossed 5000kms in 2 years..

My experience with all my previous cars:

M800 (used): Drove about 40,000 Kms in 3 years, didn't change the battery.

Santro Xing: Had it for 5 years. OEM Exide Battery went weak at 4 years. Changed it to Amaron Green colour. Sold the car 1 year later.

Fiat Linea: Had it for 9 years. OEM Exide Battery went dead in 3 years, Replaced with Amaron that lasted for 6 years. I bought a new Amaron again 10 days before selling the car.

Chevy Beat: OEM Exide lasted 4 years, replaced it with Amaron, used it for 5 years and sold the car.

Honda Aviator: OEM Exide lasted for 3 years, changed it to Amaron. Used for 3 years and sold the bike.

My assessment:
OEM Exide underperformed in all cases. The sample has 3 cars and 1 bike. Amaron significantly outperformed Exide in all the cases without exception.

OEMs have higher bargaining power to demand better quality from spare parts manufacturers, still they have been providing bad qualities atleast in battery department.

On the other hand, OEM sourced tyres have same durability compared to the after market tyres I have bought.

Can anyone shed light on why OEM battery is less durable in particular. Or is it an Exide thing?

What do you say if your car's battery dies just the day before a planned long trip?

My Jazz's OE Amaron battery lasted for 54 months and died today. Replaced it with 11/19 manufactured Amaron Pro battery that comes with a 66 Month warranty. Costed me Rs 4900/-.

The stock Amaron (not sure of the model) on my 2014 XUV 5OO is still working well. That's just above 5 and half years.

Quote:

Originally Posted by saisree (Post 4719502)
What do you say if your car's battery dies just the day before a planned long trip?
.

That is good luck for you! The car didn't leave you stranded in the middle of the trip. :)

My Honda Jazz battery (SF Sonic) died suddenly after 3 years 3 months. No warning nothing. The car stalled on the road due to a speed breaker. After that, the car refused to start, no dashboard lights coming on, nothing. Like a sudden cardiac arrest. Due to slight downhill, was able to move to side of road and park, and had car jumpstarted. Later got an Amaron battery from batterybhai.com. Was surprised by the sudden failure. There were no warnings, car used to start on first crank.

I own a 7 years old 33000 KM run second gen Swift. While on a holiday to Madhya Pradesh on 21st December, the car suddenly refused to start stranding me in the middle of nowhere. Some very good Samaritans saved the day for me. You can read about my experience here:https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/stree...ml#post4722985

What happened was when I tried to start the car after a short break, it did not. Although the headlight, instrument cluster and the stereo was working. I asked a passing auto driver to push the car but even then it did not start. The car was pushed for 500 meters to a petrol pump and when I was entering the pump, I tried again, but, again to no avail. Now my helpers, upon advice from a mechanic, managed to start the car while it was being pushed backwards. When I asked him what different stuff he did, he said that he turned the key in half clutch. He said that it is a battery issue and advised me to idle the car for 15 minutes before going on our way.

Now I am not sure how is clutch related to starting the engine? I believe clutch is the link between the engine and the wheels, to enable the car to overcome its own inertia when starting from standstill. I normally start the car in neutral. Is there any role the clutch plays when we turn the key?

Also, all this was happening after driving almost 500KM, outside a town called Mauranipur. As per advice, I idled for 15 minutes before driving again and this issue did not occur again. Although next morning, when I was going to change the battery, starting the car took more time. It hardly took 2-3 seconds extra over the normal time, yet it was definitely noticeable for me. Again, I am surprised that the car refused to start after travelling almost 500 KM, but after idling for 15 minutes, it was working almost normally.

Since it was just the beginning of the trip, waiting to return to Delhi wasn't an option for me. I changed the battery from Mauranipur. The mechanic at first checked the condition of the battery with an instrument.

Car battery life - How long did your battery last?-img_9244.jpg

After that, he disconnected some terminals from the battery and told me to try. It did not work. Then he got a working battery from a Scorpio. He attached a terminal to the Scorpio battery and held the other end of the terminal to my Swift's terminals and asked me to try again. It worked. The mechanic said that the battery is worn out and after changing it, I can go about my holiday without any concerns. And thankfully, with the new battery, I didn't face any other problem in 1900+ KM.

Experts, please help me with what might have happened. Is this only a battery issue or do I need to go to the service center for a thorough checkup?

Car: 2015 Ertiga SHVS VDI

Replaced the stock battery after 3.5 years with 55000 kms in odo.

Car: Zest (Petrol)
OEM Battery & age at the time of replecement: Exide 44Ah, 4 years (Feb 2016-March 2020)

Had been to Chennai last week for personal work. There was no sign of battery issues on the onward journey. Started return journey and stopped somewhere near Tambaram Sanatorium to drop some relatives. The car did not start after that. With some difficulty, somehow managed to take the car to Sifa Motors (Thiruneermalai Road, near Pallavaram flyover) where it was diagnosed as Battery problem. Voltage was 12V without load and cranking voltage was about 9.1V.
Changed battery to Exide again (Amaron is not available in this configuration) and things were back to normal.
Cost: Rs.5200 & 4 hour delay in return journey to Bangalore.

My storme's exide battery died in 23 months. it is with the dealer now for charging + Gravity Diagnosis. Not sure what caused it to die completely in less than 2 years. There was no sign of it also except that it was parked for a week without running. I am checking the warranty options to change to a new one now.

I have factory fitted battery (never checked the make) in my Maruti. It's covered nearly 4 years and over 60000 kms.
Recently I am seeing over-charging issue. After 1 hour continuous running, if I turn engine off and try to start back again within few minutes, engine doesn't start. I initially thought, the battery has drained may be, but at last scheduled service, the SA said, battery is fine and dandy! So, recently, I keep headlamps on for a while then and try again. It works. Weird!

My ecosport's oem motocraft battery lasted 3.5 years/ 51k kms. One fine morning my car refused to crank. Had to push start it. Checked with a local dealer & battery test was done. Battery voltage was ok but CCA was on the lower side. Sulphation was found on the battery terminals as well. I could have continued with the same battery after cleaning the terminals with hot water, but decided against it & changed the battery. Bought Exide Mileage battery with 2+2 years warranty.

So my almost 3 year old Grand i10 failed to start today. It has not been used the last 9 days but otherwise gets used every weekday for office commute. The odo is still less than 10000 km.
I opened the hood and didn't see obvious problem. I'm sure I didn't leave any lights or anything running. Is this a dead battery or just discharged for not being used a week ? I had previously on occasion left the car parked for 2-3 weeks and never had any issue. I thought of calling the Hyundai RSA for jump start but seeing that I won't be using it for at least another week, postponed it till next week.

Any suggestion or advice ?

Quote:

Originally Posted by sabby_4c (Post 4769877)
Any suggestion or advice ?

You may be able to extract a few more months out of it, at best, by charging etc. I would recommend, for peace of mind, to just replace it.

So my 2.5 year old OE battery had to be replaced.


My Car i20 Asta (O) Petrol-2017, was given for the regular service at HASS, and I was told that they checked the battery and showed me the 'REPLACE BATTERY' chit.


Got an Amron FLo for Rs 3500 with exchange of old battery.


AM surprised that my OE battery conked off in just 2.5 years. My earlier car i10 battery, had lasted for almost 4 years.


But you have to do what you have to do!


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