# How Long Do Your Car Batteries Usually Last?



## Maxx62 (Dec 31, 2013)

I purchased a Motolite Gold 21 series back in January of 2013, and it looks like it now giving up the ghost. It seems like I used to get five or six years out of each new car battery back home, back home. I dug out my warranty for my Motolite battery and it is only good for 21 months, so I'm guessing that batteries are only good for about two years over here? Wow, even a Walmart battery usually comes with a 36 month warranty back home. 

Also, I've seen batteries labeled as AC Delco, but something tells me that they are probably just Chinese counterfeits. As anyone tried the AC Delco car batteries over here, and are they any good? If not, which brand of car battery do you usually go with, and how long do your batteries usually last before they crap out?


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## Gary D (Oct 28, 2013)

Here in the UK we expect about 8 years from a battery. The heat is a battery killer so even a good battery will not last anything like as long in the Philippines. Add to that the poor quality I'm supprised many of them make it out from the dealers


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## Maxx62 (Dec 31, 2013)

Gary D said:


> Here in the UK we expect about 8 years from a battery. The heat is a battery killer so even a good battery will not last anything like as long in the Philippines. Add to that the poor quality I'm supprised many of them make it out from the dealers


Do you use any brand in particular?


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## Gary D (Oct 28, 2013)

The last battery I bought was a Ford own brand calcium. They tend to be expensive and I don't know if anything similar would be available in the Philippines. I could be worth checking out somewhere like S & R to see if they sell imported batteries.


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## fmartin_gila (May 15, 2011)

Mine is about the same age as yours. I bought it 11/20/2014 and installed it that day. It is a Motolite I paid PHP 1800(Approx USD 40.00) for it and it came with a 6 month warranty so I feel I have got my value out of it whenever it decides to quit. Heat is the major killer of vehicle batteries throughout the world. Best I ever got was 9 years out of a stock original equipment Ford Ranger battery back in the states and it cost USD 130.00 to replace so the Motolite is not such a bad deal considering what I have learned to expect from products here.

Fred


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## M.C.A. (Feb 24, 2013)

I had the Motolite battery and it lasted over 4 years, I did service it occasionally with battery water, lessons learned from living in Guam 10 years, you don't want a dry cell and you also never want to stick in tap or filtered water it has to be 100% distilled with no additives so I get that water from motorcycle or car shops, maintenance free battery, Lol there's no such thing.


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## Datchworth (Jul 5, 2015)

Maxx62 said:


> I purchased a Motolite Gold 21 series back in January of 2013, and it looks like it now giving up the ghost. It seems like I used to get five or six years out of each new car battery back home, back home. I dug out my warranty for my Motolite battery and it is only good for 21 months, so I'm guessing that batteries are only good for about two years over here?


From what you say you battery lasted well over 3 years and you got more than double the warranty time. I used to buy Motolite Gold for a truck and used Enduros for saloon cars. The Golds didn't last that much longer than the Enduros. I reckon the cheaper Enduros are a better buy, especially if you do more long runs in the vehicle. One Enduro went on and on to over 4 years. I went to a dealer to have it changed, preventively, and they didn't want to do it. I had to insist.

The battery choice here is mainly between Motolite and Motolite. Another example of the lack of competition here with some products.


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## Maxx62 (Dec 31, 2013)

Gary D said:


> The last battery I bought was a Ford own brand calcium. They tend to be expensive and I don't know if anything similar would be available in the Philippines. I could be worth checking out somewhere like S & R to see if they sell imported batteries.


Thanks I'll check out S & R next week.


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## Maxx62 (Dec 31, 2013)

M.C.A. said:


> I had the Motolite battery and it lasted over 4 years, I did service it occasionally with battery water, lessons learned from living in Guam 10 years, you don't want a dry cell and you also never want to stick in tap or filtered water it has to be 100% distilled with no additives so I get that water from motorcycle or car shops, maintenance free battery, Lol there's no such thing.


I think that mine is sealed, but haven't looked at it too closely. Since the warranty is expired I think that I'll peel back the label and see if there are access covers under neath. Also, I agree, nothing screws up batteries faster than putting ordinary tap water into them.


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## Maxx62 (Dec 31, 2013)

Datchworth said:


> From what you say you battery lasted well over 3 years and you got more than double the warranty time. I used to buy Motolite Gold for a truck and used Enduros for saloon cars. The Golds didn't last that much longer than the Enduros. I reckon the cheaper Enduros are a better buy, especially if you do more long runs in the vehicle. One Enduro went on and on to over 4 years. I went to a dealer to have it changed, preventively, and they didn't want to do it. I had to insist.
> 
> The battery choice here is mainly between Motolite and Motolite. Another example of the lack of competition here with some products.


I think that I paid approximately 6,000 Pesos for my battery that is now failing, so I was kind of expecting it to last for five or six years. 6,000 Pesos is roughly $130 USD, so that's almost the same price that a paid for a Die Hard battery at Sears a few years ago. Well, this isn't back home and everything is somewhat a calculated risk over there. Sounds like the Enduro maybe the way to go if I can't find anything else.


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## M.C.A. (Feb 24, 2013)

*Calcium based battery*



Maxx62 said:


> I think that I paid approximately 6,000 Pesos for my battery that is now failing, so I was kind of expecting it to last for five or six years. 6,000 Pesos is roughly $130 USD, so that's almost the same price that a paid for a Die Hard battery at Sears a few years ago. Well, this isn't back home and everything is somewhat a calculated risk over there. Sounds like the Enduro maybe the way to go if I can't find anything else.


I'm pretty sure Motolite carries a calcium based battery, I was told by my money changer to buy this from Motolite but it was out of my budget range.


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## hogrider (May 25, 2010)

Agree 100% that heat is a battery killer. Original Landrover battery here costs me more than P12,000 and I reckon on it lasting couple of years, 3 if I'm lucky. Batteries on my boat I reckon will only last 1 season due to the extreme heat.
When I was researching the best battery to use on the boat I read all of the advantages of the sealed matt type gel batteries with claims that they can be even operated upside down. Remember thinking at the time, if my boat batteries are ever upside down, then the health of the batteries will be my least concern...!!!


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## UltraFJ40 (May 20, 2014)

I know I'm piling on but I had a battery die on me today. $100 Everstart replacement from Walmart (5 year warranty).

The last one was an Autocraft and it died after 51 months of daily use in South Florida. Naturally it had a 48 month warranty.



Heat is definitely a major killer.


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## Maxx62 (Dec 31, 2013)

I think that I've uncovered another potential electrical issue going on with my car. Right now I'm using a borrowed battery from one of the other vehicles in our compound, and it seems to be running fine. However, this morning I went outside to crank it over, and the starter motor turned very slowly, and then gave the dreaded solenoid click. I got another vehicle and jump started it, and then it fired up right away.

After I got home I decided to investigate things a little bit further. I took off the negative battery cable and placed a volt meter between the negative post and the battery clamp. I found that something was drawing 12 volts at .25 amps, even with the key turned off, and all accessories turned off.

I pulled out all the fuses one by one until the volt meter dropped to zero. Turned out that after I pulled the fuse for the interior lights, the meter returned to zero. As near as I can determine the problem is related to the light inside the trunk. I disconnected the wires running to the contact switch for the trunk light, but the voltage only dropped to 8 volts instead of returning to 12 volts. 
'm thinking that maybe my 

Well, my solution right now is to simply pull out the 10 amp fuse for the interior lighting. What the heck, I don't drive around that much at night anyway.


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## hogrider (May 25, 2010)

Maxx62 said:


> I think that I've uncovered another potential electrical issue going on with my car. Right now I'm using a borrowed battery from one of the other vehicles in our compound, and it seems to be running fine. However, this morning I went outside to crank it over, and the starter motor turned very slowly, and then gave the dreaded solenoid click. I got another vehicle and jump started it, and then it fired up right away.
> 
> After I got home I decided to investigate things a little bit further. I took off the negative battery cable and placed a volt meter between the negative post and the battery clamp. I found that something was drawing 12 volts at .25 amps, even with the key turned off, and all accessories turned off.
> 
> ...


For sure, with no light on there should be no current draw so definitely needs investigating. However, 0.25A should not cause any significant drain on the battery unless it was over a few days. Are you sure that the alternator is OK and the battery is being charged whilst the car is driven? Are you sure that the problems is battery related? I had a similar situation recently, sometimes starting OK, sometimes the dreaded solenoid click and it turned out that the starter motor was the culprit.


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## M.C.A. (Feb 24, 2013)

*Battery Issues*



Maxx62 said:


> I think that I've uncovered another potential electrical issue going on with my car.
> 
> Well, my solution right now is to simply pull out the 10 amp fuse for the interior lighting. What the heck, I don't drive around that much at night anyway.


I had a Cadillac stateside and one of door switches that control the dome light broke and it drained my battery, had to get the switch in the door fixed.


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## galactic (Dec 2, 2014)

My Motolite Golds conked out at just 16 moths. Switched to Panasonic and Amaron. Longer warranties, heavier metals.


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## Maxx62 (Dec 31, 2013)

hogrider said:


> For sure, with no light on there should be no current draw so definitely needs investigating. However, 0.25A should not cause any significant drain on the battery unless it was over a few days. Are you sure that the alternator is OK and the battery is being charged whilst the car is driven? Are you sure that the problems is battery related? I had a similar situation recently, sometimes starting OK, sometimes the dreaded solenoid click and it turned out that the starter motor was the culprit.


Sometimes I may go three or four days without driving this particular car, so conceivably a quarter amp could kill it over that period of time. However, I'm wondering what's the deal with 8 volts? The only thing I can think of is that maybe a rat got into my trunk and caused a short somewhere. Last year a rat ate the wires for the electric motors on my passenger side window (he attacked it inside the dash) so I'm guess that he must have got under neath interior panels inside the trunk, and nibbled on the wires. Maybe when the weather's cooler I'll go out there and pull all the junk out of there and take a closer look at wiring inside the trunk. 

Also, I'm fairly confident that my alternator is working correctly. The output from the alternator appears to be slightly above 14 volts, but hard to tell with this old analog meter that I'm using. 

I'm thinking that maybe I've had the short in the trunk for awhile, but until recently my original battery was healthy enough to handle it. Also, I found a fusible link that was heavily corroded, and I think that may have been causing problems with the voltage being supplied to the S terminal on the starter solenoid? Maybe there wasn't enough current flowing, due too bad fusible link, that the bendix gear couldn't engage, and the solenoid just clicked.

Well, I've cleaned and tightened connections at starter and also grounds on engine and body frame. I've replaced the bad fusible link, and I've disabled the interior lights (the circuit with short) by pulling the fuse. Right now I'm running on a known good battery, and the car has started about a dozen times without clicking. Guess I'll just have to observe it for a while, and see how it goes.


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## Maxx62 (Dec 31, 2013)

M.C.A. said:


> I had a Cadillac stateside and one of door switches that control the dome light broke and it drained my battery, had to get the switch in the door fixed.


The relay for my radiator cooling fan failed about two years ago, and nobody had it in stock not even the Kia dealership. My solution was to get a 50 amp pull switch and mount it in my dash board. I have to watch the temperature gauge very carefully, and when the engine starts to get hot, I pull out the knob and then the fan comes on. A little while after that the heat assisted choke failed, actually takes hot water from engine warm up bimetallic choke spring, but the metal tubing rusted out, and I couldn't find an easy way to fix it. I tried living without a choke for awhile, but if the car has been sitting for a few days it can be hard to start. (Mazda B1 engine with Hitachi carb) My solution was to set up a manual choke system by installing a slide cable with a knob on my dashboard. problem was that I couldn't attach the cable to the choke plate at the angle I wanted, so to start my car I have to push the knob in all the way (close the choke plate) and to drive I pull the knob out all the way. My wife isn't so good at following directions, so I got some white paint and wrote "IN START" "OUT RUN" on my dashboard. It's not very pretty, but it works perfectly.


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## DonAndAbby (Jan 7, 2013)

The members in my Trailblazer club recommend Amaron. I couldn't find one on a Sunday when I needed one, so I have the Motolite Gold 21 month.

The OEM AC Delco in the Trailblazer lasted less that 2 years. Those AC Delco batts are built in Thailand, as is the Trailblazer.

When I lived in Florida, the batteries were all marked as Hot Climate batteries and had longer warranties that you could count on. Whenever I bought new batteries I bought Diehard. As batteries got better, it seems that the manufacturers had battery life and warranties nailed. You could count on the battery to last warranty months + a few months!

I put an Optima battery in my Corvette and it never failed. If I had a boat I would consider buying another but they are expensive. They have them here in the Philippines now.


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## UltraFJ40 (May 20, 2014)

DonAndAbby said:


> The members in my Trailblazer club recommend Amaron. I couldn't find one on a Sunday when I needed one, so I have the Motolite Gold 21 month.
> 
> The OEM AC Delco in the Trailblazer lasted less that 2 years. Those AC Delco batts are built in Thailand, as is the Trailblazer.
> 
> ...


I've had a few Optimas, two or three reds and a yellow top in my Land Cruisers (FJ40, 80 and the 100). They failed as did all the others and I got excuse after excuse when trying to replace them.


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## DonAndAbby (Jan 7, 2013)

UltraFJ40 said:


> I've had a few Optimas, two or three reds and a yellow top in my Land Cruisers (FJ40, 80 and the 100). They failed as did all the others and I got excuse after excuse when trying to replace them.


Yeah, on the Corvette forum I used to be in, it seemed like people either loved them or hated them!


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## Edino (Sep 22, 2013)

On our "11 Starex CRDI we replace the battery every 2 years proactively as we felt it was getting weak. We use the car mostly in the province (Batangas, Calatagan), so reliability is quite important. We felt its better not to risk failure. I am confident, these batteries do not last more than 2-3 years. Better replace before they fail!


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## sintai (Feb 24, 2011)

Yes, 8 years life in the UK would be normal. My 3 series BMW there still has original battery after 8 years. this car has the battery in the boot, so away from the heat of the engine compartment. My Honda CRV in Manila has battery in the engine compartment so is subject to intense heat.
If all cars in tropical climates had the batteries in the boot they would last very much longer, but that would not be in the interest of the battery manufacturers would it!


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