Am I the only one who buys batteries?

Just had to do the battery in the Saturn. It has needed motor mounts for probably a few months now, but I'm too lazy to do it.

Any time I buy a car, it gets a new battery. I don't wanna take a chance on what ever the previous owner put in.

Ian F wrote: Most of my cars have received new batteries at some point. The worst was the Cummins since it requires two monster type 27's which aren't easy to find and pricey when you do.

Don't say that. I'm pretty sure the batteries on my 95 are original, and extremely deep cycle. I've let that truck sit for months at a time, only to have it crank right up.

finally had to replace the OEM battery in the Integra last yr... ( it's a '01 ) that's 10 yr old battery... did so well I actually went to the Acura place to get the replacement

pigeon wrote: Threw an Interstate blemish battery into my 944 Turbo

Where exactly does one get such a thing? I always hear people on forums talking about putting these really cheap interstate batteries in their cars, but I have no idea how to get in on this myself. The E36 needs a battery before winter, and I don't feel like paying autozone, etc. $150 for one.

Put an Interstate in the RX8. It's big and heavy, but I think it's worth it.

I don't know why you folks go through so many batteries but maybe you have other electrical or grounding issues. The only vehicle I have which might eat a battery is the old mercedes but both my pickup and buell both have at 6+ year old batteries in them. If you keep the contacts clean and make sure the charging system is up to snuff their isn't any reason for a battery to crap out.

I did have an issue with the sealed HD battery on my bike before but I was able to get it charged and keep it charged long enough that something must have started working. The buell battery was 100$ so I'd hate to replace it.

Josh wrote:

pigeon wrote: Threw an Interstate blemish battery into my 944 Turbo

Where exactly does one get such a thing? I always hear people on forums talking about putting these really cheap interstate batteries in their cars, but I have no idea how to get in on this myself. The E36 needs a battery before winter, and I don't feel like paying autozone, etc. $150 for one.

Local Interstate distributor. Give them a call, mine usually only gets a few at any given time and in random sizes, even though they ask Interstate for all they can get.

lol Well yesterday I put a new Autozone (gold top) in the (2005) Saturn Relay.

The minivan has power everything, dual power sliding doors, DVD player, etc. SO I think getting 6 years out of the OEM AC Delco is pretty good in my opinion.

Like hotrodlarry, I usually replace a battery when I buy my car instead of waiting for it to die. And since I don't change cars like underwear...as I did when I was A LOT younger (not sure what that says about me), I'm not buying a lot of batteries anymore. I've had my current car (no pun intended), about 2 and 1/2 years and there has been no sigh of impending need of a battery.

I did replace a lot of batteries on older Hondas when they had no warning chime for "lights on". Bought jumper cables I was leaving my lights on so often.

benzbaron wrote: I don't know why you folks go through so many batteries but maybe you have other electrical or grounding issues. The only vehicle I have which might eat a battery is the old mercedes but both my pickup and buell both have at 6+ year old batteries in them. If you keep the contacts clean and make sure the charging system is up to snuff their isn't any reason for a battery to crap out.

I had a new car need a new batter... well, A car I bought new. The Battery lasted almost EXACTLY 5 years from the date of buying it.

This was a car I never left the lights on, never had a charging issue, and aside from an aftermarket stereo, had no strange electrical things added and certainly no electrical gremlins

I think I've put a battery in everything I've owned, and everything I've borrowed (two Tauruses, on two occasions from two people). Well, except for the Miata. I've owned the G35 and the 4Runner for nine months and three weeks, respectively, so I haven't changed those, but I'm sure it's only a matter of time.

My favorite was on the 87 Toyota LE van. Bought it from Goodwill for $400 with a bad battery. When I wanted to test drive it, it was 45 minutes of me and two guys from the Goodwill store looking around the truck to find it. It's beneath a door under the carpet of the left second-row passenger's footwell.

the Impreza came to me 5 yrs ago with a 3 yr battery ( don't know how long the PO had had it in there ).... it finally had to be replaced last wk... damn the price has gone up in the last yr

My 2500HD had a dead battery when I bought it (with 125K miles), but as long as it had been driven recently and it wasn't cold (or what passes for cold in California), it would start up fine. In December I gave up and bought two new AutoZone ones for it.

The Audi had a non-original battery in it when I got it (3 years old and 15K miles), which lasted maybe a year, then I put a new OEM (proper size) battery in it. That cost more than the two AutoZone batteries for the truck put together (not a common size, had to get it at the Audi dealer).

The Miata's panasonic lasted 8 or 9 years. Replaced it with a Westco, which was a piece of junk, it never worked right. After 2 years with that I gave up on it and bought an Optima D51R, which has worked like a champ.

The Odyssey lasted about 2.5 years on its original battery, but that's not the battery's fault. Honda minivans have lots of interior lights, which you can't see if they're on or not during the daytime. Four year olds like to turn them on and not tell you about it, so it got run all the way down and jumpstarted a lot. Before we bought the truck, the Odyssey served as a support vehicle for the Miata at track events a couple times, and I had to jumpstart it from the Miata at Laguna once!

Here in Phoenix we change batteries with every oil change. Well, not quite, but close. I buy the longest warranty battery I can get and they fail in 2-3 years. Just replaced the Saturn battery. It was an eight-year battery that died in exactly two years. 36-month replacement, though, so I got a free battery.

Batteries don't like heat.

David