Lead acid battery longevity.

Gramaisc

Forum O. G.
What is a reasonable age for a car battery these days? Mine gave up a bit quicker than I expected as I pratted about with a lighting issue today. I'm reluctant to abandon it prematurely, as I've a;ways believed that the best battery that you'll ever have is the one that it came out of the factory with....

It's just turned nine years old.
 

wildwood

Well-Known Forumite
Varies alot with capacity - and usage / history etc.

They're not too bad though, start from about £30 quid but upto 3 figures if it's a large one!
 
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cj1

Well-Known Forumite
probably overdue replacement halfords do free battery health checks along with a lot of other places if you wanted to make sure its end of life
 

Laurie61

Well-Known Forumite
It's probably got clogged with sulfate ? if it gets too bad it can cause internal shorting. You can slow it down with a pulse conditioning charger, I have one, but yours is likely too old to restore ? If you attach a charger look into the battery through water top up caps and see if there is any bubbling, a bubbling cell is dead . If they all appear similar, then it might be worth giving it a good charge and see what happens. If you need a new battery buy one with the same cold cranking amps, it should last as long as the one originally fitted.
 

Gramaisc

Forum O. G.
Well, I've treated him to a new one, courtesy of some financial assistance from @shoes - I'll stick it on if it stops raining at some point.
 

Gramaisc

Forum O. G.
The new battery is now fitted and appears to function OK.

The paperwork that they rely on you losing so that you can't access the guarantee, should you ever need it, is secreted in the very handily placed enclosed fusebox right next to the battery.

The old battery is still fairly functional and is about to become a solar energy storage device in its retirement.
 
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