Top 5 items in your car - what are they?
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Ballistic Therapy
Member
4 good tires and 1 good braking system.
Steve_In_29
Member
It's not the heat. 29 Palms sees 100+ degrees for months at a time and I never had any trouble keeping batteries in every vehicle I owned there.XJThrottle said:
If a vehicle is "eating batteries" there is a vehicle problem. Unless the person is buying underrated and/or POS batteries.
I spent over a decade in the automotive biz in Phoenix. Mainline Honda tech.
I've probably replaced a few hundred batteries in that time. Many while the car was in warranty. I'll stick with what I wrote.
I've probably replaced a few hundred batteries in that time. Many while the car was in warranty. I'll stick with what I wrote.
Steve_In_29
Member
Good for you but that doesn't negate the fact it most likely was NOT the heat that killed them.XJThrottle said:
By the way, a few hundred out of how many vehicles you worked on during that decade? 5 days a week x 52 weeks x 10 years = 2600 days worked. Even just 3 cars a day means you saw approx 7800 vehicles over that decade. So a few hundred (300?) out of 7800 is roughly 4%. Hardly a trend of failure and not all of those failed for the same reasons I'm sure.
People kill batteries without even knowing it by doing such things as nothing but short trips or multiple start/stop cycles as they go about their errands. Where the battery never gets a chance to replenish the amps it took to start. Driving just a few miles while running the stereo and AC full blast further draining the battery. Do that multiple times a day for months on end with no longer drives to bring battery back to full charge and voila...dead battery.
Ok so by what you just said. My charging system is just fine. My diesel eats a set of batteries every 1 1/2 years. Everytime under warranty. I run the sh%% out of my air conditioner sometimes I have short trips. I run dual batteries 900 cca. My shortest trips are to bashes 7 miles away. I start my truck and let it run for 5 min before I put my foot in it. Dodge says my charging system has no problems. I have 560,354 miles on my dodge truck. I have seen around 10 batteries go in and out of it. Heat is hard on batteries. That's why I have moved my batteries back under my flat bed away from the engine heat. They are doing better now.
If 4% of my farts require an underwear change, that's a problem.
4% of a year is roughly 14 days. If your car didn't start 14 days out of every year because the battery was dead, you'd be cool with that?
If that's a passing grade for you Steve, so be it.
4% of a year is roughly 14 days. If your car didn't start 14 days out of every year because the battery was dead, you'd be cool with that?
If that's a passing grade for you Steve, so be it.
Steve_In_29
Member
Cognitive skills are lacking it seems. You stated as fact, "that the heat is killing batteries" based on replacing the batteries in roughly 4% of the approximately 7800 vehicles you saw in a decade. Yet have no actual knowledge of the specific reasons said batteries died. Sounds more like a parts changer then a skilled mechanic...it's hot and your battery died...so it must be the heat.XJThrottle said:
Beyond that if "heat killed batteries" as much as you claim it does why didn't the other 7500 vehicles need their battery replaced? There is what, a million vehicles in Phoenix and yet a million batteries are not getting replaced each year. Obviously the heat is not the over riding factor in a battery dying.
I provided just one example of how a perfectly good battery in a vehicle with a correctly functioning charging system could be killed in just a few months and it had zero to do with the heat.
I even pointed out that in CA I live in an area that gets hotter and for longer periods of time then Phoenix does yet we don't have an epidemic of dead batteries. When according to your logic(?) we should see even more dead batteries here. Yet I have had over 15 vehicles (up to 5 at a time) over the 34 years we have lived in the desert and the only battery that didn't last 4 or more years was due to the exact example I gave.
Steve_In_29
Member
I stand by my statement, you either have a vehicle issue, an amp draw issue in use or are buying crap batteries. Repeatedly only getting 1.5 years out of a battery is not normal.Ranger1 said:
Thanks for your opinion. I will stand by my Dodge dealers professional diesel mechanic. He was trained by dodge. I also took it to a professional diesel shop for some turbo work. They even said nothing wrong with it. Huh. Should I believe you or them.....I guess you should go into business for yourself u will be a millionaire
Steve_In_29
Member
If they think that replacing batteries every year and a half is "normal" then they aren't as trained as you think. Plenty of piss poor factory trained mechanics out there by the way. Lots of mechs that simply throw parts at a problem instead of getting to the bottom of what caused it.Ranger1 said:
You see them in the 6.0 diesel world. People talk about how their mech just replaced the EGR cooler on their truck and it has blown again in just a couple thousand miles. This means the mech never bothered getting to the root of the problem. That being the oil cooler's coolant passages are plugged, which since that then disrupts the flow of coolant to the EGR cooler it will be destroyed in short order.
As I previously laid out it is possible to kill a battery without heat having anything to do with it and with nothing being wrong with the vehicle or battery. Heck just having some corrosion on the connectors will do it as well. Corrosion that you don't even see, as it is under the crimp holding the connector to the battery cable.
Bottom line, there is NOTHING "normal" about having to replace batteries every year and a half.
As to going into business, no thanks. I retired almost 4 years ago from 37 years of troubleshooting equipment for the Marine Corps.
Ballistic Therapy
Member
Spare tire
Jack
Lug wrench
gas
phone
Jack
Lug wrench
gas
phone
-Med kit enough to cover all the people who would ride in my vehicle (me + 3 ad pet)
-Dry food and water enough for two days
-communications and chargers for those items
-2 layers of clothing tops (polypro, rain/wind cover brightly colored) for primary passengers (me + 1)
-extra ammunition for daily EDC
My vehicle already has a spare, jack and wrench.
-Dry food and water enough for two days
-communications and chargers for those items
-2 layers of clothing tops (polypro, rain/wind cover brightly colored) for primary passengers (me + 1)
-extra ammunition for daily EDC
My vehicle already has a spare, jack and wrench.
I would suggest not carrying a jump starter in the vehicle as they are known to catch fire. The ones from Harbor Freight have a large litium ion battery that I have witnessed catch fire in a dramtic manner. Seems to be more prevalent when they are stored in a hot environment, like inside the vehicle or outside in a plastic tote. The fire investigator I spoke with told me he had one behind the seat in the truck, but was going to remove it immediately.
Very bad Juju.
Very bad Juju.
1. Mtb helmet. Got to the trailhead too many times having forgotten it. Now it stays in the vehicle.
2. Another Mtb helmet
. For the times my son will forget his own helmet.
3. Pistol. Currently G19 with 4 mags.
4. Battery jump start device plus extra jumper cables just in case.
5. Solar flashlight with usb charging ports.
2. Another Mtb helmet
. For the times my son will forget his own helmet.3. Pistol. Currently G19 with 4 mags.
4. Battery jump start device plus extra jumper cables just in case.
5. Solar flashlight with usb charging ports.
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