Quote:
Originally Posted by Tcoat
Also not unusual for a place to sell batteries to say "it is going to go at any minute"
And for people to ignore the obvious root cause and try to find something worse that isn't really there. In this case the answer to the problem was given in the very first response, backed up several times and was still the last thing actually tried. There was not one single symptoms reported that would lead to the car battery being the issue and replacing it did not resolve the issue.
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I respectfully disagree with PART of what you said:
In his very first paragraph, the OP said his battery died and he needed a jump. That, right there is enough reason for me to replace a 5 year-old battery. Once a lead/acid battery is drained to the point that it needs to be jumped in order to start the vehicle, it has already suffered damage. Electronics in modern cars nowadays are very finicky and can fail simply due to low voltage conditions. It's best to have full voltage, okay to have no voltage as it won't hurt anything that way, but it is very bad to have low voltage. Low voltage conditions weren't really a big deal up until about 35 to 40 years ago due to the simplicity of most vehicle's electrical systems, but it is a whole different ball game now.
Most people nowadays would be lucky to get five years out of a stock battery. I got seven years out of a replacement battery in another Toyota I have, but as soon as it started giving me problems with not holding a charge after making sure the terminals and cables were good, I bought a new one without even having it tested. I was VERY lucky to get as much use out of that battery as I did.
And looking up the service history on my FR-S, I found that the OEM battery had died on the lot before the car was even sold to it's first initial owner. Toyota replaced it under warranty. It is still in the car and doesn't give me any problems since I pulled it out to perform a normal battery terminal cleaning and maintenance to remove the corrosion on the terminals the first week I had it.
But I do agree with you that it is in the interest of an auto parts store to want to sell you a new battery, that's what they do. There are dishonest salesmen out there, and very few of those salesmen have the actual skills to use one of those battery testers properly in a step-by-step troubleshooting procedure (big surprise, huh?). And that's also the reason why you should learn as much as you can about the cars that you own and learn how they work and how to troubleshoot and fix at least minor issues such as was presented here in this thread. You'll save money in the long run, and maybe even enjoy the experience. I know I do.
Maybe our OP is loaded rich and doesn't particularly care about spending $100 for the piece of mind that a brand new automotive battery will bring.