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-   -   Car battery life - How long did your battery last? (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/technical-stuff/38613-car-battery-life-how-long-did-your-battery-last-11.html)

lol: Indeed. Will Maruti owners step up for a poll as to how long their OEM batteries lasted? I've personally had variations from 2-1/2 years to 4+ years. The best life I've had with ANY battery was with tubular inverter batteries from Exide which lasted all of 9 (nine) years (no typo, that!) in Kolkata, a place then notorious for its frequent load-shedding (power cuts). Otherwise for car batts, anytime there's minor issues in one after 4 years, I prefer bidding goodbye to it. Less than 3 years, I'm not happy.

Let's face it. Car mfrs exist to make a profit and they WILL choose the lowest cost supplier meeting what will be a preset acceptable standard of quality. My experience with Exide over a period of almost 20 years has been great The probabilty of me choosing Amaron over Exide is very small. But let me tell you, the feedback on TBHP is decidedly anti Exide.

To be honest, I dont mind replacing my battery every 30-36 months to be on the safe side. Having experienced a dead battery whilst in traffic, I'd hate to be caught again. There is no such thing as an everlasting battery and all vehicle owners must budget for a replacement every 2-4 years.

Rgds,

4.5 years and still running strong on my fiat palio

@ R2D2: I am also very pro-Exide, just for the record. It's not all car mfrs, but specifically MUL that I was wondering about - all battery manufacturers have first- and second-quality batteries, so maybe the seconds have a ready and not too stringent OEM-supply taker. I understand that in India, there are only 3 bigtime lead-acid battery manufacturers - Chloride (with Exide and SF brands), Amara Raja (Amaron) and now Tata (Tata Green). All the other brands either have their own stickers on someone else's batteries, or are small-scale assemblers. Rahimafrooz Bangladesh (Volta) exports a huge amount of auto and inverter batteries to India, sticks the labels of various Indian cos. on them, and they are sold under an Indian brand. Incidentally, Volta batteries are really good - I've used them.

5,7 and 11 years in various cars. Before you blame the Indian heat - keep in mind that cold weather isnt a battery's friend either. The battery output is reduced when it's cold with the net effect of increasing load.

They wont go bad if you take care of them and make sure they NEVER go flat. In commercial use, its common for Pb batts to last well over 20 years.

Same here. Our 100 Ah EXIDE tubular battery for inverter lasted for 9 years. Its been used atleast 30 mins a day on an average for the entire lifetime. Not bad at all. Now replaced with a 150Ah Amaron 100% maintenance free tubular since the electrician who replaced the battery recommended it over the Exide pack.

Our Indica Exide (90 AH ?) OEM lasted for 4 years. That too with a Sub and 2 components.

5 - 11 years!!! Now thats what I call good battery life! Most people are talking of 2.5 - 4 years as a good life span here! So whats the deal... all the companies are selling low quality batterys in India?

Hmm... any idea about Base Terminal (Panasonic) and Amco?

Both Panasonic and Amco Yuasa outsource their battery manufacturing for the Indian market. They don't have plants which can build a battery from scratch.

What steps / precautions needs to be taken ?

You need to check the water level and specific gravity on a regular basis - which I agree is a boring thing to do and most people don't.
All said and done, if the quality of the grid inside your battery is not very good - which will be the case with cheap batteries - your battery will not have a long life.
The more expensive batteries are nothing but better quality controlled ones where they check each and every grid very scrupulously before putting them inside the battery. Otherwise there is hardly any difference between a cheap battery and an expensive battery. I mean there is no difference in the basic technology or even materials used.

Hold your breath folks, because the number I am going to mention will surprise you now. More than the number, it would be the maintenance part of it :)

I have a June Two Thousand & Two model (trying to avoid numeric digits which you will grasp quickly in the post) Wagonr and the battery is still going strong -- TOUCH WOOD. Coming to the maintenance part, I havent let anyone touch the battery for last 3 years, except for once being removed from its place to start our Maruti Omni, without my knowledge, for which I was wild. Even the water level or density or gravity, whatever, is not checked. I have noticed that, if we take it to a battery shop for a checkup, the battery dies within a few months - two time experience with our Omni during this period. Just to add in, about three or four years ago, the car used to be parked idle at home, without even being started for weeks, multiple times, because of me not being in town (work related travel abroad). I know that it will just stop one day, but I am sure I will be able to sense it misbehaving & I would need to take action for it to rest in peace. I know it may be foolish, but I just dont want the service fellows to touch my battery.

The car has done close to forty five thousand kilometres till now (due for service shortly - thinking should I really give it for service for just for a incomplete wash & a oil change) and is solely driven by me in Bangalore city traffic - around 55kms daily ~ 300kms per week ~ nowadays. It is the standard OEM stuff with came with the car.

I remember a photograph in an Exide shop where a car owner was being facilitated & given a momento/prize for having a battery running for 5 years. Do I stand a chance for an award too? :p

LONG LIVE EXIDE (atleast the one in my car)!!!

PS: I hadn't seen this thread before & hence not posted about my battery status till now. And, Pl. pray that I would go home safely today without any starting trouble because soo many people would be thinking about my battery.

I already mentioned this in a v recent post - if you want the max from you battery keep it well guarded from battery dealers/mechanics! In facts dealers rape it even before its sold to you!!! But then you have to maintain the electrolyte between the MIN and MAX. I wonder how you have never needed to top up for so many years, assuming that its not a maintainance free battery.

Whats worse is that we cant be sure if the distilled water we buy is really distilled!

Amco was in colloboration with Yuasa. Seems that it has been discontinued now. So if they don't make the batts themselves, then why the colloboration? And any ideas as to where BT and Amco source their batts from?

My 2002-July WagonR had its OEM battery (Exide) till Sept-2008. Replaced with Amaron now.

agree:Second that. My battery went kaput just after the regular servicing done in August-2008. It was running fine till then. The dealer "topped" it up w/o asking me and made a note "Battery more than 5years old" in the service record.:deadhorse

My OEM Exide battery is still running in good health after 4+ years and 19000kms.

Though it suffered a heart attack in 2007 and the battery died, and everyone had written it off, it was revived and it is still running strong.

Lead acid batteries DO NOT like to be drained. Keep them charged and topped off at 100% all the time. The sulphur will form deposits in a discharged state because its no longer dissolved when discharged.

One big difference is that ALL batteries here are sealed. There is no question of "topping off" the battery. Maybe dirty water is the cause of most battery deaths in India? I thought perhaps the heat had something to do with this, but batteries here face 125*F/50*C temperatures often so I dont believe thats the problem.

I dont know what else to think of.