How long can a battery possibly last

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44070dart said:
My brother swears his ford ranger had the original battery in it for 14 years. He drove 43 miles each way to work and did little else with it. 254,000 miles on this two wheel drive, 4 cyl. when it was to roached out to much to drive anymore.. Rusted to hell, but only put one clutch in it and this I know because we did it. Wish I had a picture of this thing, the rust was amazing, he had riveted straps to hold panel sections together. The rear bumper fell of just before he junked it. He took the passenger seat out for storage because he didn't trust anything in what was left of the bed. My big brother is as cheap as they come. He lived out in the country and his wife made him park it behind the house. Bought it new and got his monies worth. It got great mileage and it ran perfect to the end.
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Those old S10 and Ranger 4cyl stick shifts are about indestructable.

My sister put 200K miles on her first S10, dad bought it new for her to drive to school.
It was still nice body wise when she gave it to me, but she hit a cut stone about 18" in diameter, and smashed it dead center with the engine cross-member, never scratched the paint, but the tops of both tires were sticking out the front fenderwells.
She said she backed it back down the road to the local fire department, and they used the jaws of life to cut the sway bar to get the rock out.
I bought a front frame section from the wrecking yard and fixed it. I could not keep my wife out of that little gas-sipper. Wife wrecked it one day, not her fault, I just beat it back out and ran it some-more, until the safety inspection was due, it was not worth fixing again, traded it in on a used neon, and got $1400 out of it.

Sisters current S10 has over 350K on it, she runs the crap out of that little truck, it will not die.
 
Rainy Day Auto said:
I have a yellow top auto zone dura last gold that I bought two days before Thanksgiving in 2009.

It was a very cold day, I went out to start a yellow 74 duster and "click click click". I tried charging the old battery but it was out for the count. So my dad gave me a ride to auto zone. I told the guy, I need a battery for my duster and to power a winch. I need a good battery, one that just won't quit.

So he sold me this one. . .. and it just won't quit. It has been in multiple mopars over the years and the yellow duster is long gone. One time it even served as a loaner in my friend's truck when his went dead.

Today I used it to power a winch and it did a great job so I put it on the charger and thought "how long is this thing going to stay with me"

I keep it on the float charger in the "battery room" when not in use, so here it sits for the weekend till Monday morning when it will take me to work again so faithfully.

How long do these things last usually??

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There was a thread on here a few months ago that explained how to rinse out the case and change the electrolite and bring the dead ones back to life again...
 
My duster came with a mopar battery when I bought it. I was 19 and I'm almost 31 now. Still going strong and it wasnt a new battery when I bought the car.
 
sireland67 said:
Those old S10 and Ranger 4cyl stick shifts are about indestructable.

My sister put 200K miles on her first S10, dad bought it new for her to drive to school.
It was still nice body wise when she gave it to me, but she hit a cut stone about 18" in diameter, and smashed it dead center with the engine cross-member, never scratched the paint, but the tops of both tires were sticking out the front fenderwells.
She said she backed it back down the road to the local fire department, and they used the jaws of life to cut the sway bar to get the rock out.
I bought a front frame section from the wrecking yard and fixed it. I could not keep my wife out of that little gas-sipper. Wife wrecked it one day, not her fault, I just beat it back out and ran it some-more, until the safety inspection was due, it was not worth fixing again, traded it in on a used neon, and got $1400 out of it.

Sisters current S10 has over 350K on it, she runs the crap out of that little truck, it will not die.
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I got an 82 Mazda B2000, 247K. Runs like a top but I did have the head rebuilt and put an NOS carb on it. The exhaust was pretty rusted out past the cat (original!) but I was able to replace the empty muffler and seal up the pinholes in the pipe. Its got a wally mart $29 rebuilt econo battery in it and I have to keep the trickle charger on it as I only start it once a month as its non-op'd out here so I can store it "legally". What a joke. If I dont trickle charge it, it has about 15 seconds of crank left in it, but it always starts right up.
 
I had decent luck with batteries in Colorado,Could get 6 years or so on a 5 year battery. Since I moved here to the Valley of the sun I been getting 2 1/2 to 3 years on a 5 year battery.
 
If it isn’t a maintenance free battery and you can open the top, a battery will last as long as you can refresh the acid and clean the plates, Until the lead plates are gone and as long as the acid is refreshed, it will continue to operate.

Maintenance free batteries don’t allow that to happen, so they only last until the lead chloride covers the plates and the acid is depleted shutting down the electrolytic reaction that creates electrical power.

Keeping a battery well charged prevents the depletion of the acid and deposition of lead chloride on the plates.

The best way to keep a lead-acid battery alive it to keep it well charged.
 
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I recently sold my 2008 BMW 135i. It had the original battery in it. I sold that car since it was getting older and the maintenance is absurd. You have to get a new battery “coded” which is basically programming the car and letting it know you installed a new battery and it’s not being stolen. Stupid.

I replaced the bmw with a 1998 viper GTS two months ago. The battery was dead last weekend so I bought a new one and went home to swap them out. The bad battery had a sticker from 02/19... only 3 months old and it was K.O.’ed. The bad battery was an Oreillys brand and I had bought the EXACT same battery by luck. The Oreillys manager ended up giving me some money back without me asking when I took the core in.
 
in the 90's m buddies nova had a die hard that lasted over 10 years
i like optima deep cycle marine batteries
the electrical wiring on the coast needed the grounds and connections either coated in dielectric grease or wire brrush scrubbed every two years due to corrosion which increased alternator current out put over time
i run the biggest battery i can fit in my road runner, seems to last extremely well-car has head lights, that's it
 
The Optima batteries used to be very good. Now it's a crap shoot since they are made overseas.
 
There is a whole science to batteries, with different requirements for charging for the different chemical compounds used.
I have been taught to use a battery that has more CCA capacity than you need because you want to push your batteries capacity to no more than 80% of it's rating-with NO science behind that hypothesis.
I did this with the civics and road runner and it works well with batteries lasting usually at least 5 years

I think the yankees in the cold place more stress trying to operate in the rigid cold than we do in the lower latitudes

i have been taught to charge a low-charged or dead battery with a trickle charger, uninterrupted to regain as much of the CCA as possible

my uncle's wingman in his f-4 (30 years ago) crashed during dake off due to mismanaged battery charging-there is maintenance to them
your smart charger (@Rainy Day Auto ) is what extends the life the most - though i wonder if it has input selection for the battery type -which should be different maintenance
 
Still have the factory original battery in my ‘04 Ram 2500. Doesn’t even grunt on sub-zero Pennsylvania winter days. Body will probably rot off before the battery quits!
 
2009 Challenger. Factory Battery. No trickling or care. Lights right up. 14k lightly driven. Lays a lot.
 
The original batteries in my 04 Dodge 2500 diesel lasted 14 years. They were still working, but they made the starter drag one cold morning while we were at the beach. Diesel starters ain't cheap, so I bought new Autozone batteries for my truck. Autozone is the only place I will buy batteries.
 
New batteries are almost never charged fully from local auto stores. Regardless get the car home and charge at low amps all nite.
Trust me it helps start the Battery with initial function. I know people will disagree but unless you want to keep running back and forth up to you.
 
My old cars and truck that I drive once a week or so I use to put on a trickle charger. I ordered a new original MOPAR looking battery for my car recently. The sales person said to charge it with a 10 amp charger every other month and skip the trickle charger. FYI...
I went out and it took three to four hours with each battery, on a charger, to get a full charge. Might be some truth to that??
 
ZMan67S said:
My old cars and truck that I drive once a week or so I use to put on a trickle charger. I ordered a new original MOPAR looking battery for my car recently. The sales person said to charge it with a 10 amp charger every other month and skip the trickle charger. FYI...
I went out and it took three to four hours with each battery, on a charger, to get a full charge. Might be some truth to that??
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No. Trickle charging is in multiple government literature for battery longevity.

Often our batteries keep the ‘production ‘ of the mission going while away from frequent replenishment from supply lines.
 
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