Team-BHP - Car battery life - How long did your battery last?

After 49 months & 61000km+ in my Cedia, the OE Exide Freedom decide to pack up yesterday. I didnt use the car for a week and it refused to crank.

I replaced it with Amaron FLO 42B20L for 3200/- including 500 bucks for buyback of the old battery. The local battery guy gave me a much better price than Amaron dealer who quoted 3500 including the buyback.

After 6 years and 4 months I just changed the OEM Amaron battery in my Swift ZXi. The battery had started playing up a week earlier and as I was going to be out of town did not want to take a chance. Changed it for another Amaron Green. Paid Rs. 3500 including buy back of old battery. I hope the new battery lasts as long as the old one.

SS

Quote:

Originally Posted by Reality (Post 2860932)

haha no its a basic setup plus i never used it with the engine off. The battery died a couple of times at night so got it changed. Could have pulled it for another month . I have seen a lot of swift diesel batteries being changed at around the 2 year mark. A couple of friends who have cruzes had to get their batteries changed after about 2 years. too. I know its a little too early because our baleno and accent batteries lasted 5 years respectively.

Same here, my exide oem just died on me after 2 years and 36k kms. I've got a swift vdi as well, thinking of going for the amaron.

Quote:

Originally Posted by gpa (Post 2845139)

Update: Turned out that this was a loose -ve terminal. Opened the bonnet a few weeks ago to clean and realized it was loose. Tightened it and its been a few weeks now and cranking is normal so am continuing with the same battery.

So after 4.5 years, I changed the OEM Exide battery in my Alto today. Winter has set in here in Bangalore and over the past week, the minimum temperature has dipped to ~11 deg C and so I decided to replace it more as a precautionary measure. Cranking was slightly strained over the past few months and although the car was used sparingly, with the cold setting in, I decided not to strain components such as the starter motor and hence replaced it.

Exchanged it for an Amaron GO with 18+18 months of warranty for Rs. 3000 which included a buyback of Rs. 500 for the Exide.

Battery life seems to be longer for a petrol car than diesel, probably because the glow plug in diesel vehicles need more charge and a slightly weak battery might not be good enough to get the car started, while a petrol car might still accept a slight drop in charge.

OEM Exide on Swift VDi lasted around 3.5 years but the one in VXi is still good after 4.5 yrs.

OEM battery in Zen (don't remember the brand as it was a long time back) lasted a little over 3 yrs and the replacement lasted another 3 years. After that we switched over to an SF Sonic that lasted close to 7 years and the current SF Sonic looks good at 3 years.

Quote:

Originally Posted by zenren (Post 2968060)

Battery life seems to be longer for a petrol car than diesel, probably because the glow plug in diesel vehicles need more charge and a slightly weak battery might not be good enough to get the car started, while a petrol car might still accept a slight drop in charge.

Sorry Sir, you are mistaken, there are no glow plugs in a diesel engine.
The fuel in a diesel engine is ignited by the high pressure compression of air that produces high temperature.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jidousha (Post 2968325)

there are no glow plugs in a diesel engine.
The fuel in a diesel engine is ignited by the high pressure compression of air that produces high temperature.

Not sure if you got confused with spark plugs. That is different from glow plugs.

I have a Swift DDiS and that is a diesel engine which has glow plugs for sure. Not sure if every diesel engine has a glow plug or not, but at least some diesel engines have it. I'd be curious to read about one that doesn't have it and how it operates.

Extract from the link below:

Quote:

When the engine is cold, the heat loss to the block is so high that it is not possible to heat the air to the autoignition temperature during the compression-stroke. To get around this, a cartridge heater called a glow plug is placed in the cylinder. Temperature sensors detect when the engine is too cold to create enough heat by adiabatic compression heating to exceed the autoignition temperature and the glow plug is activated for start up. Glow plugs are only used in a cold engine condition at start up.

These links might explain the role of glow plugs in a diesel engine.
Wiki link

http://engineerexplains.com/answr/DieselGlowPlugs1.html

Quote:

Originally Posted by zenren (Post 2968372)

Not sure if you got confused with spark plugs. That is different from glow plugs.

Thanks for the clarification, I was mistaken between glow plugs and spark plugs.
I thought the diesel was preheated rather than the engine block during cold start.

My car (525i) is not driven as much since i'm most of the time out of the country. Every 3 or 4 days later when i punch in the key, the idrive shows "increased battery discharge".

Was considering a battery charger like the CTEK mxs 5.0, but before that took the car to navnit for a check and he mentioned the battery has lived its age and needs replacement. Guys at Navnit were unsure/aware of even the OEM bmw battery charger even though they mentioned that 90% of bmw owners in mumbai have this issue since everyone owns more than 2-4 cars. Also, i was told that this battery is not available in the open market. Estimated cost of replacement is Rs.48,000 at the dealer. :Shockked:

Request advice from other Bmw owners , if they have ever changed their batteries out of the dealers & whether if its really not available in the open market.

Currently, it has the Varta AGM 12v 80 Ah OEM batter. What are the options for replacements.

The Exide Freedom DIN 55 battery in my car is still going strong after 7+ Years. There are absolutely no symptoms of any problem.

I'm a bit surprised how it can last so long, got it checked and it was fine and starts in first crank.

I know it can suddenly go dead on fine morning, just don't want that to happen during some trip.

Not sure if I need to change it as a precautionary measure.

Quote:

Originally Posted by FlyinLow (Post 2994170)

Anyone has any experience with AC Delco battery. ? .

My Chevy Optra 1.6 VGIS has AC Delco (It's a GM affliate battery). The OEM battery is still running strong (6 years). I am pleasantly surprised, feels(cranks) as new. Not sure if it's a one-off case, but i am happy:thumbs up

My ford fiesta petrol is still running on the same OEM battery and everything just fine..Craking is as good as new..But recently i got it checked with the Bosch battery check system and it indicated its in a bad state and needs an immediate replacement, then again i got it checked with thh A.S.S. They assured it will run fine :( not sure whom to trust..Still running the same with crossed fingers!!