Back to batteries – I live in Florida and have never changed a battery until they go bad. I once had a battery crank fine and then 10 minutes later when trying to crank again it was so dead the dome light would not illuminate. That battery was the original in a new vehicle that was less than 2 years old. Most of my batteries seem to go out in the coldest day of winter. But I belong to AAA and carry jumper cables in both my vehicle and my boat.
From a bunch of anecdotes, I get the impression that some new cars have batteries that were mistreated while at dealerships (such as many starts/stops when moving the cars around on a lot) and buyers only only occasionally pay attention to how long a car has been on a dealer’s lot and almost never check the battery in a new car before buying.
Now there’s a thought: make dealers check the battery before delivering the car. . .
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There’s an issue with the notion of making dealers check the batteries on new cars before they’re sold.
This means that a flat rate mechanic is going to have to be paid for his time performing an electrical systems check.
In turn, that means the dealer will have to eat the cost (Ha…) of that labor operation or pass it on to the customer who is buying the car.
The dealer will have to hide the cost of the operation or spell it out on the window sticker.
How many potential customers are going to be thrilled over being charged to check the battery on a brand new car? None would be my guess.
Or just include it with the already obfuscated “dealer prep” charge…
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The thing with jumper cables is that you have to find a donor vehicle. Right or wrong, I’m not a tow truck and I don’t intend to put my car at risk jumping someone else’s car with a 7 year old battery trying to get every last electrode out of it.
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My vehicle was special ordered and I picked it up the next day it was delivered to the dealer. The battery was probably manufactured with a defect in it. Unless a salesman switched his old battery for my new one. But the dealer replaced the bad battery at no cost to me
My mistake for presuming in your case.
Then again, your case seems to be an exceptional one due to a defect.
The batteries have their own warranty just like tires that is stand alone . Out 2010 was on the show room floor and the battery was low enough that they used a battery pack to start it. That battery lasted 6.5 years so having the dealer check each new car battery is not practical.
I remember replacing a few batteries on cars which were on the showroom floor. I was instructed to do it. The repair orders specifically stated to replace the batteries on specific vehicles, which happened to be located on the showroom floor.
However, customers saw me doing this. If I’m being paid to replace a battery . . . and I was fortunate enough to actually be compensated for my work . . . I’m not going to also wait until customers are no longer in sight. That is not in my job description
I don’t care that customers saw a battery being replaced on a new, unsold vehicle, on the showroom floor. That’s not my problem. I don’t get paid to worry about such things. That’s the service director’s job, not mine.
But if I were a customer who knew nothing about cars, seeing such a thing might make me think twice about the product AND the dealership.
Batteries are unpredictable. It’s best to keep them fully charged for longevity. When I go fishing and return home I top off both my trolling and cranking batteries. Of course my truck stays charged with mostly daylight driving. But I check all three routinely for water level. I remember as a teen in school I owned a '39 Ford and the battery went dead. I would not have the money for a new battery until I got paid from my part time job. So what I did for about 3 or 4 days was always park on an incline. To start I would turn on the ignition, depress the clutch pedal, the car would start rolling, I would have her in low gear and pop the clutch. That old flat head V8 was so easy to start. We can always improvise when we have no money.
I did that drive until it fails, just once. Late to work; had to work on the battery at 20 below zero with wind chill at least 50 below zero; had to have a taxi take me to buy a new battery at 50 below prices; then pay a taxi fifty below taxi prices to take me home and had to put it in at 50 below wind chill. Then I stopped being stupid and haven’t done that again.
I worked on black boxes for military aircraft, including some which were designed to transport nukes. The military used a high-reliability system. Engineers would analyze every part on the aircraft and establish a maintenance plan which did the equivalent of replace it just before statistically it will probably start to fail, that is, on similar aircraft. Yes, that means you do not get every last “electrode” out of it. (I assume Bing meant electron, but I like electrode better.)
But, if the bad guys are after us, replace before it fails on an F-16 or B-2 or Apache chopper is really a good thing.
High rel really doesn’t cost that much more. If you get three more years out of a battery, the nuisance when it does fail, and related costs to get it running again, you probably don’t gain a cent.
I do high-rel on car light bulbs, due to being a lightning rod issue for cops on the Interstates.Maybe 2005 I asked on here when light bulbs would start failing. I got a lot of smart-alecky comments One guy said why don’t I replace the transmission every so often, just in case. The correct response is if I knew when it probably stood a chance of failure, I would indeed replace it about that time. But, on my Toyota, if you keep the fluid in good shape, they seem to almost never fail. And, yes indeedy, I did ask that question of Alex, my service writer at Toyota in Pharr. He could not remember a failed Sienna transmission.
Anyway, a few months after all the insults, including several men who said bulbs never fail, which is why every supermarket and gas station and discount store has a bulb display. [sarcasm] I drove in from Virginia and the next morning when I checked my bulbs, the high brake light was dead. At only 78,000 miles, I think.
Several had said a burned-out bulb was no big deal; drive until the cops tell you one is out, I guess. An attorney from California posted that in California a burned out bulb had become a full fledged moving violation with points on your insurance.
I try to use the highest quality bulbs I can buy, and maybe 50000 miles is the replace-them-all target.
Likewise if a bulb does burn out I replace them all. I am amazed at the hassle people will tolerate just to save a few cents here and there.
In the Snow Zone, batteries normally lasted the five years and were replaced in good weather at good weather prices and at my convenience. In McAllen,my son-in-law who has lived there his entire life except college in Austin, said they usually last two or three years. He is an electrical engineer and a very clever man in many ways. I believed him.
I don’t know why they don’t last longer. My wild theory is they spend so much time in heat it causes them to fail early. I remember one winter some years ago, we set out to visit the Snow Zone in winter. We check in by phone every night, and I complained to my daughter, “You didn’t tell us about the natural disaster!”
She said, “What natural disaster?”
I said, “North of San Antonio all the leaves have fallen off the trees!”
She started to say something, then realized I was funning her, and laughed. The leaves don’t fall off the trees in McAllen.
Well, to nit-pick, they do fall off, of course. But, not all at the same time.
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Day After Tomorrow anyone?
Did he really believe that himself . . . ?!
Was he high on something when he said that . . . ?!
That movie took far too many liberties with the science behind the story for me to consider it anything more than bad science fiction. Scientists said at the time the movie came out that that scenario was beyond what’s possible in terms of rapid change.
…and with all due respect, I believe this kind of reaction to a work of fiction hurts the cause of environmentalism.
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I periodically take a look at a brake, turn signal and marker light.
When they get noticeable darkening on the glass I replace them all.
This last time it was after ~58,000 miles.
With halogen headlights I look at the filament with a magnifier.
When it starts to get lumpy I replace.
Good post! In industry we look at the cost of failure and the associated costs such as lost production, as well as safety,in order to establish an optimal maintenance and replacement schedule.
In the Middle East, one company changes all the rubber belts and hoses on their vehicles every year! The cost and nuisance of a breakdown in the desert far outweighs the replacement cost.
Where we live most of my friends test their batteries every fall before heading into winter. A battery on its way out may be OK in September, but may not crank the engine in January on a cold morning. In Seattle a battery theoretically has the longest life since it’s neither very cold or hot there.
In short, common sense will dictate when to replace things. The motor in a bathroom fan is less critical than the cooling fan motor in a computer room. Criticality Analysis is now a well developed science. The Armed Forces have developed this over the years as well, based on their requirements.
The last time I had a vehicle breakdown on the road was in a 1984 Chevy Impala in 1990 when a rad hose blew. I had failed to perform the “squeeze test” before the summer season.
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…or drive until you notice a burned out bulb during a routine pre-trip inspection of your vehicle. 
I’ve even taken the step of cutting a wooden dowel the proper length so I can use it to hold the brake pedal down while I check my brake lights by myself. I can usually spot a burned out front fog light or head light reflected in a vehicle or storefront window, and I recently noticed my reverse lights were burned out when I backed up at night.
There are lots of options other than driving until you get pulled over that don’t involve replacing and disposing of working parts.
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Here in the North East - I’ve yet to replace a battery under 7 years old on any vehicle I’ve owned in the past 40+ years of vehicle ownership.
Heat is the real killer of batteries. Cold will show you when your battery is weak.
Have you considered doing what I do? Whenever I park in front of a building with a plate-glass front, I use it as an impromptu mirror to test all my lights–half when arriving, the other half when leaving. That way, you don’t have to cobble together some mechanism to hold the brakes, while you run outside and look.
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I don’t have to do that for burned out turn signals, because my lights flash extra fast when one burns out. I do use that for the front marker lights, but it’s rare for me to have that kind of opportunity to check the rear lights, so I never considered it. It is a good idea.