Battery on my 2013 Genesis made it through it's 8th winter

[TinsleyC]

Eight Chicago winters and my original battery turns the engine over like it was new......Is this unusual????

Maybe you park over a nuclear waste site...

 

[PMCErnie]

Today I replaced my battery on my '16 3.8. No warning that I've associated with battery failure: ie slow cranking. But it did self lock itself for a few weeks in the garage before the failure, so maybe that is a warning signal? I went out to go somewhere and it was dead. Put my battery charger on it, and the digital readout said 6 volts charging for a few minutes and I thought "Oh boy, that's not good!" and then it flashed "bad bat". I got a 3year battery at Autozone for $200. They have a $18 core fee. 4 nuts and a vent tube so it's not that hard, but the tube didn't feel like it went in far enough. I pulled a plug out before putting it in and there was an unplugged vent hole on the other side, so I put the plug in there. It's just that the old battery had that vent tube in a lot further and a lot tighter. I twisted and tapped with a hammer and it would not go further! Maybe it's good enough!?!

My back up vehicle is a '94 K1500 with 61,000 miles that I have a battery isolator on, so when I want to use it, I open the hood and turn the battery on. Works very well!

Yes, and imagine if you had needed to drive a child or spouse to the hospital when the battery croaked.

 

[Kyser_Soze]

Yes, and imagine if you had needed to drive a child or spouse to the hospital when the battery croaked.

What's funny is that I had read about battery failures in Hyundai Genesis' just a week earlier and thought that I've had good luck since my car is 5 years old with the original battery.

 

[jimmy buoy]

My 2015 still has the original battery but is garage stored and not used much during crappy weather. I've never replaced any battery until it shows signs of failing or until it has actually failed to start the car - and I've lived to talk about it. Why are we all so wasteful anymore for the sake of convenience? A real life emergency from a dead battery when we have cell phones, uber, 911 calls connected to first responders that include ambulance, police, firefighters is not what I'd call a real emergency!

Life if full of risk. It's unavoidable but we each manage risk in our own way.

 

[TinsleyC]

I wait for a sign of failure as well, I have for 45 years. If the battery is 3+years old and I can detect a slightly slow crank, I plan replace it - but don't see it as an emergency. But I do love in the city where car service is readily available if needed.

My other car, a QX50 is 5 years old and I noticed a slightly diminished crank last fall, but replaced it a few weeks ago. No issue. Never had a 'good' battery just totally fail on me. However, not sure I trust these new-to-me AGM batteries in heavy-electronics cars. Time will tell.

 

[EdP]

My 2015 still has the original battery but is garage stored and not used much during crappy weather. I've never replaced any battery until it shows signs of failing or until it has actually failed to start the car - and I've lived to talk about it. Why are we all so wasteful anymore for the sake of convenience? A real life emergency from a dead battery when we have cell phones, uber, 911 calls connected to first responders that include ambulance, police, firefighters is not what I'd call a real emergency!

Life if full of risk. It's unavoidable but we each manage risk in our own way.

Yes, there is always risk but some is good to avoid. I don't want to have to deal with a dead battery 1400 miles from home on a cold winter night. Or come out of the hotel halfway home and the car not start.

Not such a big deal heading to the store on a sunny afternoon but it is leaving work in a snow storm. Having has some inconveniences in life I'll pay for some convenience.

 

[Chad86tsi]

Yes, there is always risk but some is good to avoid. I don't want to have to deal with a dead battery 1400 miles from home on a cold winter night. Or come out of the hotel halfway home and the car not start.

Not such a big deal heading to the store on a sunny afternoon but it is leaving work in a snow storm. Having has some inconveniences in life I'll pay for some convenience.

To me it's like tires, why wait to replace them when you are bare and hydroplaning all the time when we all know you can drive them till they actually blow out. There's probably a few thousand miles of extra use in there. I don't consider it wasteful to replace them prior to blow out, I hate changing flats on the side of the road more than I hate wasting that last thousand miles. Most of us replace tires when the risk of continued use rises beyond a threshold, even when there are clearly a few miles left on them.

I find this decision is similar to when to buy gas, do you drive until it stops running, or get fuel prior to running out? Some get fuel prior to the low fuel light/warning, some right after, and some push it. I tend to push it a ways, but I track miles very carefully once the light comes on. I reset my trip counter at every fill up. I've only run out of gas once in the last 500,000 miles, and that was 1 mile from the gas station I had planned to stop at. We don't have the luxury of a battery capacity gauge, but we do know they have a time/use factor. To me, the low fuel (battery) light comes on after 5-6 years, depending on use and battery size. Then I track it's behavior carefully. I'm currently at 5-1/2 years on mine, I'll probably replace it in the fall when it starts to get cold again.

As to it being wasteful, last time I had a car not start (Altima, it ended up being an electrical component failure that I could bypass), it made me 3 hours late for work. At that cost me about $170 in lost wages. The replacement was $65. I'd gladly replace that component in advance had I known it had an approximate expiration date, and I'd be money ahead. I'd also have had to replaced that component anyway, so it's not creating waste.

 

[PMCErnie]

Sadly, this is the story of America’s infrastructure. Let’s just wait till it collapses seems the mantra.

 

[PMCErnie]

To me it's like tires, why wait to replace them when you are bare and hydroplaning all the time when we all know you can drive them till they actually blow out. There's probably a few thousand miles of extra use in there. I don't consider it wasteful to replace them prior to blow out, I hate changing flats on the side of the road more than I hate wasting that last thousand miles. Most of us replace tires when the risk of continued use rises beyond a threshold, even when there are clearly a few miles left on them.

I find this decision is similar to when to buy gas, do you drive until it stops running, or get fuel prior to running out? Some get fuel prior to the low fuel light/warning, some right after, and some push it. I tend to push it a ways, but I track miles very carefully once the light comes on. I reset my trip counter at every fill up. I've only run out of gas once in the last 500,000 miles, and that was 1 mile from the gas station I had planned to stop at. We don't have the luxury of a battery capacity gauge, but we do know they have a time/use factor. To me, the low fuel (battery) light comes on after 5-6 years, depending on use and battery size. Then I track it's behavior carefully. I'm currently at 5-1/2 years on mine, I'll probably replace it in the fall when it starts to get cold again.

As to it being wasteful, last time I had a car not start (Altima, it ended up being an electrical component failure that I could bypass), it made me 3 hours late for work. At that cost me about $170 in lost wages. The replacement was $65. I'd gladly replace that component in advance had I known it had an approximate expiration date, and I'd be money ahead. I'd also have had to replaced that component anyway, so it's not creating waste.

Sorry, you can’t have it both ways. You’re in the CHANGE camp.

 

[joegr]

I fully agree with your point, but I don't think that tires are a great comparason. There is some legal liability to driving on bald tires, and bad tires have a much greater chance of causing a crash than a failing battery does.
One thing not mentioned, is that a failing battery adds strain to your alternator and may lead to it failing sooner than it otherwise would have.

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[Chad86tsi]

I fully agree with your point, but I don't think that tires are a great comparason. There is some legal liability to driving on bald tires, and bad tires have a much greater chance of causing a crash than a failing battery does.
One thing not mentioned, is that a failing battery adds strain to your alternator and may lead to it failing sooner than it otherwise would have.

You also can't jumpstart your battery by yourself on the side of the road, but you can change a tire yourself. Both can leave you stranded if not prepared. Since you don't take a spare battery where ever you go, I find sudden battery failure a greater risk. I do stretch mine to the limits, but I always replace them before I've been stranded.

Few appreciate the alternator strain either, so it's a good point to make. I've seen a lot of people complain about their alternator going out a few thousand miles after they replaced their battery like that was some sort of bad luck. Really it's a predictable failure at that point. An alternator serves 2 purposes: to recharge the battery after the start of the car, and to provide the running demands once started. If your battery is sick and deeply discharged every time it's started, that alternator has to run at max capacity for a while to recover the battery. It wears it out quickly.

 

[millemk]

Why not buy a new battery and keep it in the trunk when there is some suspicion of the battery going bad, or maybe at a certain timeframe, as a backup if/when the main battery fails? In my observation, those "new" batteries available for purchase may well have been sitting on the merchant's shelf for up to a year anyway.