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

Quote:

Originally Posted by J.Ravi (Post 1673762)

Both the OE batteries [Exide] in my previous vehicles, Maruti Suzuki Omni [10 years], and then, Versa [5.5 years], were hale and hearty and kicking for more than 5 years in both the cases. But, I know, I cannot expect the same spectacular performance in the same brand in case of my present features-rich Fiat Linea.

My Linea's OE stock Exide battery is still going strong even after 3.3 years and 59 k km.:thumbs up

This might be an exception. My Safari Lx 3.0 Dicor (purchased) in Mar 2006 had the stock battery running till I sold it off in Aug 2011. Which means it lasted with me for a full 5.5 years with zero problems. It had Amaron as the stock battery. And in general, my experience with Amaron has been extremely good :). and for some reason by experience with Exide has been super-bad. It always just dies after the warranty period.

My car's OEM fitment, Exide lasted for 5 years. I changed to Exide Matrix (sealed for life) and it was stolen after little over an year of good service. Was going pretty strong till then.

Then I got SF (standard furukawa) which I changed in the later half of 2009 which is still giving me good service. But since its a basic model & more than 3.5 years old, I am almost prepared for the dooms day any day (though still no signs of a weak battery as yet).

Quote:

Originally Posted by R2D2 (Post 3031586)

Phew! Rs 48K for a battery! The Exide Express range is not AGM, they are normal low maintenance lead acid batteries and require top ups at scheduled intervals.

Unfortunately AGM car batteries aren't very common place in India due to different reasons.

Amaron recommends the Pro range "AAM-PR-600131087" for 5 & 7 series BMWs. Check this:

http://www.amaron.in/choosebattery.php

Given a BMW's sensitive electronic/charging systems, before you buy do cross check with the dealer if the car's charging system accepts normal low maintenence batteries.

AGM batteries normally take higher charging voltages. Using a wet battery in a system set for AGM may cause the wet MF battery to require more than normal frequent top ups.

Yes, I'm finding it difficult to hunt down an AGM battery. Neither the Exide express nor the Amaron Pro is AGM.

Lot of local dealers are telling that they have changed BMW batteries and are recommending the 100 Ah but somehow I can't take their word for it.

Need to know it from real people here, if anyone has done it.

Also, they tell me that they will have to do change it in ON mode (whatever that means) cos if its disconnected, then the car needs initialization of the system.

BTW, i just changed my honda city's 5 yr old battery today from Amaron to Exide Max 35L(MF). Costed me Rs. 3600 with old battery trade-in (MRP 4247)

Finally after 6 years of running, the Base Terminal on my Baleno started to give way. On couple of occasions, I was left with no power to start the car which made me to replace the battery outright. Bought a Bosch S4 battery from Vikas trade links on JC road. The total cost of the battery came to 2.4K as I am entitled to a discount for the employee (30% and 350INR for the buyback of the old one)

is it true that with increasing amount of electric functions in the car, the life of a OEM battery will also reduce?

For e.g. My Dzire is about 4 years old and is still running on the OEM battery. Can i expect the life of the battery to be lower in my Micra as it has loads more stuff than Dzire - namely - electric side mirrors, push button start, keyless entry, rear wiper, etc.

Quote:

Originally Posted by jacs (Post 3078956)

My Xylo's OEM battery gave up after 3.5 years. Looks like Exide, need to replace this week.

thats quite good in my opinion. how many KM is your vehicle run yet ? also let know which battery you buying.

my Xylo is almost 70K KM and turning 3 years age this June'13.

My car's (swfit vdi) battery lasted 3 year and 36K, changed it from Exide to Amron.

I had a terrible experience with Natesh Batteries near South end circle in Bangalore. I made a mistake of thinking that if I procure the battery form Amron Pit stop the prices will be cheaper. I was not offered any discount and on requesting for some discount, the staff (Mr Shabir) was pretty rude and he single handily undid the good work done by the person who had come done and fixed the battery at the location where the car was stalled.

I will not recommend the place for anyone else and lesson learnt is that the dealers are not always cheaper.

Quote:

Originally Posted by pcpranav (Post 3081787)

thats quite good in my opinion. how many KM is your vehicle run yet ? also let know which battery you buying.

my Xylo is almost 70K KM and turning 3 years age this June'13.

Hi Pranav,

Tusker completed 49K KMs yet. Stock battery was Exide Freedom and I installed Amaron Black last weekend. It came with 1.5years replacement warranty and costed 4300 after buy back.

Although I last changed my battery around 3.5 years back, but I remember that the original battery in my petrol Indica lasted around 35k km or roughly 4.5 a 5 years.
As you can see that the mileage was not high for a five year run, but I used to be careful about the battery. AC and lights off while starting the car etc. I guess these small things also helped.

My Omni's OEM Exide battery finally gave out after nearly 6 years of service. It has lost one cell and still runs quite well if jump started. However, it has run only around 38K kilometres. In the last one year, it would drain down often and come back to life once I topped up the distilled water.

Does the life of a battery depend on the number of years of usage or on the number of kilometres for which it has been run ? I would tend to go with the former.