My perfect surprise car breakdown...

faz

faz

Sexiest Ex-Mod around!™
Dropped the wife at work in the morning, then dropped the toddler at her daycare, and went to work. Tonight, went to pick up the toddler, needing to then go pick up the wife and go to airport to pick up mother in-law arriving from Canada. Cool... taxi dad in his trusty X5 to the rescue!

Parked the car at toddler's daycare, went in, picked her up, came out, put her in her child seat... start... click click click... nothing!.... click click click again, nothing. Dead battery, it sounds like, even though the dome lights are pretty bright looking and never had any signs of the battery heading south!

After a few tries... how the F#$% can this be a dead battery case, I am thinking: 4 year and 2 months old car... driven every day about 50 miles??? no lights left on by mistake.... come the F$@# on!

Called AAA who surprisingly showed up in 10 minutes, while my daughter was playing in the grass front yard of the closed day care... eat your heart out, east coast... this is the kind of weather we are paying dearly for in California!

The AAA phone lady had asked already what my problem was, and I said to I need a boost, I think. Somehow this AAA truck that shows up seems much smaller than I had seen before. The AAA dude says he could check my battery, I said go for it... he gets the spare wheel out, gets to the battery and tests it, a bad cell... 10.3 volts output... bad battery.

I had noticed the 'battery replacements' sign on the truck earlier....

- Do you have a battery for this?
- " yes we do... I have 40+ batteries in that truck"
- how much for one for my car?
- "around $165 after all said and done"
- go for it!

10 minutes later, a new battery in the car, he is running a test on alternator and stuff... his hand held unit says all is ok and no problems with alternator and what not... daughter is still happily watching her barney dvd in the costco self-battery-powered $150 DVD player...F@#$ the headrest $800 DVD screen units that rely on car's battery to operate... we are running ghetto self powered DVD player, baby!!!!!!

I am on my way to pick up the wife and her mom from the airport (wife got a ride to the airport from a friend meanwhile) with a new battery in less than half an hour.

I could NOT have asked for a better scenario to have the battery take a dump on me. This was probably the happiest $165 I spent on a battery, ever!
 
TheRobSJ

TheRobSJ

Großer Mechaniker
Papi-C said:
4 years is pretty good for a battery.
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Depends on how the car is being used. If the car sits for days between uses, then yes. If it's used everyday...then ehhh. My six year old car still has the original battery. And it's an AGM Delco battery too. Those are notorious for early deaths. But my car gets used pretty much daily.
 
Marlowe

Marlowe

Beer Whisperer
Batteries seem to make it about 3-6 years for me. I've had them make it to 8, but that's pretty rare.

Usually by 4 I'm keeping a pretty close eye on it, with an eye towards replacing it. It's much cheaper to replace them at about that age than to get stranded somewhere.
 
faz

faz

Sexiest Ex-Mod around!™
Rob, question for you... can a battery just die out of no where, just like that, in a parking lot without any prior signs? I mean, everything worked perfectly well before... I normally leave this car parked on the weekends and use the wife's car... easy starts Monday mornings with the first hint of turning the key after more than 48 hours of not being used...

... then all of a sudden, drive to daycare and park the car, get the daughter, and a dead battery? (well, not a dead battery... lights and stuff were still coming on, but not enough juice to turn over the engine... and read 10.3V as per the guy's hand held device.)


p.s. the car started and ran fine this morning... so I am assuming the problem was only the battery, even though it might be too early to tell.
 
faz

faz

Sexiest Ex-Mod around!™
Eisernkreuz said:
That's what you get for buying an X5. Shoulda got the Benz :p
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After buying the QX4 a while ago, I totally did not want a 4x4 ride quality... my choices were limited to unibody SUVs, mainly X5 and Lexus RX... ML didn't make the list (not a unibody) mostly due to old looks of the older body style, and cost of the newer body style. (wanted to keep the cost below $25k.)

Lexus would have been a much better choice from reliability point of view, but I am now more of a german car person than a japanese car person. I used to be a huge fan of Toyota/Lexus before... now they are way too soft for me, it seems, and the interior quality/fit/finish seem to have gone south in them.
 
faz

faz

Sexiest Ex-Mod around!™
Papi-C said:
4 years is pretty good for a battery.
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I am pro changing the battery before it going south, and this was on my list of preventative maintenance things to do within the next month or so. (Have had this car for about 4 months now.)
 
Marlowe

Marlowe

Beer Whisperer
Battery capacity is reduced with age. 10.3 is very flat for a lead acid , so I'm guessing either he wasn't in good contact with the battery terminals (easy, especially when they get gunky), or the lights/etc. were putting it under a lot of load.

As it ages, it'll top up fast, but may only have 30% of the capacity it once did... it may not have shown a sign of it during the first start, but with a short trip that didn't fully charge it and/or reduced capacity, asking for more starts was probably more than it had in it. The aging is related to the chemistry involved in the charge/discharge process...the battery is never as good as it was new, and over time, this reduction in capacity accumulates.

It's usually not the first start that makes it obvious, it's asking for subsequent starts with a weakened battery, where each one just might take a half second longer than it used to -- something you hardly notice, even if you are starting to suspect the battery. This is why I tend to replace them every few years anyway. If I haven't replaced them yet, I'll keep a meter handy and keep an eye on it. If it's discharging fast, or the self discharge rate (when parked) seems a lot higher than it used to, you're due.
 
faz

faz

Sexiest Ex-Mod around!™
Thanks Marlowe, appreciate the input. The battery leads were clean and he was making good contact... it seemed like a shorted cell and his tool suggested a bad cell.

What you say makes absolute sense with regards to multiple starts, and a good first start not being a sign of good battery. Thanks.

I was spoiled by the huge battery in my previous C240 that lasted me 5 1/2 years before I had to replace it.

While living in colder climate in Canada, I would definitely change the batteries every 3 years or so... the cold starts did take their toll on everything, and you didn't want to be stranded under the snow. But here in CA, I must say, I have gotten a bit lazy about this in my cars.
 
Marlowe

Marlowe

Beer Whisperer
I had to replace my truck battery last year. Only hint was that it seemed like it might be taking a half second or so longer than it normally did to start. The difference was so slight I left my stopwatch in the truck and started timing my starts, and trending it over a couple of weeks just to make sure I wasn't going crazy. I generally use it commuting or on other longer, freeway trips, so measuring battery voltage at rest wasn't helpful -- it always appeared to have a full charge.

Didn't bother load testing it, just pulled the battery and found a slight bulge around one of the terminals and a little electrolyte (none of which was visible as mounted in the battery bucket with the insulating sleeves on).

Sometimes you really can tell and you have some hard starts and warnings before it completely gives out on you -- other times it's still good for the first start, but not subsequent starts.

When I was 16, I got stranded in my parent's car -- they hadn't replaced the battery in 8 years. No hints, always started right up for me...until that last time, when it wouldn't start up at all. Second start after a short trip -- they sent me to the grocery store.

Thankfully, since it was their car, and I was only a few miles away, I made them pick me up, bringing my tools, and installed a new battery for them.

BTW, I'm from MT originally and grew up mostly in the northern plains or great lakes states. I never really lost those winter habits, and still replace batteries fairly frequently. Here being stranded in the desert heat could be just as bad as 45 below...
 
Ducposer

Ducposer

Sidewalk abuser
Thread jack: So your Canadian, or you married a canadian? From which part? I have LOTS of family back up in Canada :thumbup
 
faz

faz

Sexiest Ex-Mod around!™
BTW, I'm from MT originally and grew up mostly in the northern plains or great lakes states. I never really lost those winter habits, and still replace batteries fairly frequently. Here being stranded in the desert heat could be just as bad as 45 below...
Click to expand...

:thumbup



gsxraddict said:
Thread jack: So your Canadian, or you married a canadian? From which part? I have LOTS of family back up in Canada :thumbup
Click to expand...

I am from all over the world, man! :laughing
 
Ducky_Fresh

Ducky_Fresh

Treasure Hunter
I made it 5 years on my battery and got a new one for good measure. Didn't really need one though. Factory Nissan battery was pretty good, so I got the same thing.

Falore Nissan in Sunnyvale gave me a pretty good deal on the battery, with installation. Was about $15 more than had I bought it at Kragens. Fair deal to me, didn't have to hassle with it. :)
 
lefty

lefty

Well-known member
Faz-

It's good to hear that the AAA driver was able to give you a happy ending.

I just replaced the battery on my 2004 Mazda 6. It was giving me all of the warning signs- so I went to Costco and got a new one. It probably does not help to have a 2 mile commute. Now the battery on my ZX9 is dead.

I hope your family is doing great
 
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