Missing my match today. Car isn't even three years old. At least the battery will be free, they are $200 at AutoZone which blew my mind.

I had a Toyota that ate batteries.

Dealer could never find the issue.

Hopefully, yours is a one time deal.

My Nissan truck turned 6 a few weeks ago. It came with a 84 month battery that has free replacement if it fails in the first two years. It's had 2 free batteries.

On a positive note, the current battery was installed in January 2019 and it's going strong.

quote:

Originally posted by tatortodd:
My Nissan truck turned 6 a few weeks ago. It came with a 84 month battery that has free replacement if it fails in the first two years. It's had 2 free batteries.

On a positive note, the current battery was installed in January 2019 and it's going strong.

I remember batteries lasting for 6-7 years, wife's car needed one just before three years, now my car did too. Good thing I got one more month left on the bumper to bumper factory warranty. Might have to ask them to do a 427 point inspection on her before the warranty runs out.

Bought an old Dodge truck in 2011. It needed a battery, so I got an Optima red top.

So far it has been good for 11 years.

Yeah it's astounding what a new battery costs now.
.

I’d put a charger on the battery once in a while or use one of those trickle chargers if you don’t drive the vehicle a lot. How many miles do you have on it now?

quote:

Originally posted by trapper189:
I’d put a charger on the battery once in a while or use one of those trickle chargers if you don’t drive the vehicle a lot. How many miles do you have on it now?

13,000. The first year and a half I had it, it was my weekend car. Gave up company vehicle and it's now my daily driver. Now my commute is only 5.3mi each way. I have a mall, post office/FedEx/UPS, dozens of shopping centers, HD/Lowe's, and Costco within 5mi of me. I really don't ever drive more than 15-20mi on an average day between work and errands.

The first 1.5 years it would go weeks without being driven. Two or three times it during the first half of ownership I'd get a text saying that it was going into power save mode and turning off WiFi, programmed starts, and other features. Once I drove it for 50mi or so continuous it would come out of power save mode. The stupid thing has more bells and whistles than most luxury cars. It has every single option Ford offers so all kinds of electronic doodads to act as parasitic drain when not running.

My '13 Tundra is still on the factory original battery and I've sucked it flat a couple of times by leaving stuff on.

Bring it back up with the charger and it just keeps on keeping on.

Our Flex is a '13 & is on its 3rd battery. All Ford dealer sourced Motorcraft batteries.
135k on the car, so not much to complain about. It's been very low maintenance in our ownership.

The parasitic drain on new cars is amazing. There can be over 3,000 chips sucking power when running, many still do when off. My 05 F150 has that stupid fake alarm led flashing on the dash. Absolutely useless but a current drain.

Dead batteries are caused, in no specific order, by a drain on the battery, infrequent charging ie not enough drive time to charge them, corroded cable connections, a bad alternator, and the reluctance of owners to maintain them. I worked auto parts for 12 years, and abusive neglect was the common standard of maintenance. Ignoring them for years was an upgrade to how they were previously treated.

Idling them for half an hour once a week to charge them doesn't spin the alternator fast enough to activate it. Not even. It takes 1800 rpms to get them into full output mode - highway cruise rpms. 850 won't. And, of course, thats 0 - zero - mpg when it's sitting at the curb.

A plug in dashboard solar panel would be a good answer for an infrequently driven vehicle. That was the military solution for HMMV's at reserve centers in the 90s - we'd have to slave jump one every month, and got well trained on the process. Once the panels were installed, and we are talking diesels with 24V, we had to schedule jump starts as a training refresher so we'd be able to handle the one or two newbies who would forget to shut down the vhicle correctly during Annual Training.

Solar panel on the dash keeps it up, if it does go flat, a 600 cold crank battery needs to charge at 10 amps. Divide that into 600 = 60, sixty hours. Two and a half days. Not 60 minutes. Not even. Force of will does not force a charge in them faster, and hot charging them will kill them after the fourth or fifth time. $200 is a waste of money when impatience seems to be a virtue. Prevention is much cheaper.

My 2021 Ford Bronco Sport shuts down the parasitic drain after around 72 hours without being driven. It sends me a notification in my cell phone telling me it's doing it and that its GPS and remote start won't work again until I get in the vehicle and start it up.

I think that's a great idea as I leave the area for a couple of weeks or more each year and the Bronco isn't going to be run for all that time.

quote:

Originally posted by Flash-LB:
My 2021 Ford Bronco Sport shuts down the parasitic drain after around 72 hours without being driven. It sends me a notification in my cell phone telling me it's doing it and that its GPS and remote start won't work again until I get in the vehicle and start it up.

I think that's a great idea as I leave the area for a couple of weeks or more each year and the Bronco isn't going to be run for all that time.

Mine is a Ford (Fusion) too, same thing happens for me, but it takes longer. Does yours have the same engine? 2.7 twin turbo?

quote:

Originally posted by Tirod:
Solar panel on the dash keeps it up, if it does go flat, a 600 cold crank battery needs to charge at 10 amps. Divide that into 600 = 60, sixty hours. Two and a half days. Not 60 minutes. Not even. Force of will does not force a charge in them faster, and hot charging them will kill them after the fourth or fifth time. $200 is a waste of money when impatience seems to be a virtue. Prevention is much cheaper.

You are confusing a battery’s CCA rating with it’s amp/hour rating. A typical car battery will take between 7 and 10 hours to charge at 10 amps.

I think newer vehicles can be high on ‘parasite draw’, a problem if sitting more than a few days.

The sister has a several year old Subaru, I think she’s up to battery #4, at least #3.

I read somewhere that keeping the car locked cuts down on the power draw because certain components get shut off.
If true, I guess if your car is kept in a garage for long periods it would be better for the battery to keep it locked.

quote:

Originally posted by Skins2881:
Mine is a Ford (Fusion) too, same thing happens for me, but it takes longer. Does yours have the same engine? 2.7 twin turbo?

Nope, 1.5 Liter turbo.

Every Porsche I’ve ever seen lives on a trickle charger.

quote:

Originally posted by Flash-LB:

quote:

Originally posted by Skins2881:
Mine is a Ford (Fusion) too, same thing happens for me, but it takes longer. Does yours have the same engine? 2.7 twin turbo?

Nope, 1.5 Liter turbo.

Wait, what? They put the 1.5t in them? Hopefully they really have fixed the coolant intrusion problem then. Do they have a 2.7tt available or does it max out at the 2.0? If there's no 2.7/3.5 I can never own one.

There’s two Broncos. The Bronco Sport is based on the Escape and comes with either a 1.5l 3-cylinder or 2.0l 4-cylinder EcoBoost. The larger body on frame Bronco comes with either a 2.3l 4-cylinder or 2.7l V6 EcoBoost. If you opt for a manual transmission, you can only get the 2.3l.

I’m not sure, but I believe the 2.0l on up all have more power than the 304 my CJ7 had and I guarantee they all have more power than my Ford built jeep.