On 5/28/04 5:35 AM, in article xDEtc.2$p%6.8514@news.uswest.net, "tflfb"
<fuksatw@qwest.net> wrote:

> Do you waite till your battery fails or replace it when you figure its about
> to.
>
> Thanks
> Tom
>
>
I have never prematurely replaced a battery. They get replaced when a)
outright failure - on the newer cars, this seems to be the way they go, or
b) too weak to crank the engine - haven't had one like this since moving to
Texas in the 1970's.

It doesn't get cold enough here (North Texas) to have the winter
battery-to-weak issues that plague the snow belt cars.

Current experiences:

- Last three Honda/Acuras: original batteries died at 24-27 months in a
one-minute-its-fine-next-minutes-its-stone-cold-dead manner. Honda's
maintenance free batteries don't seem to be able to handle Texas summers.

- Last four Nissan/Infinitis: 6-7 years before failure. These are
traditional screw cap over each cell style batteries. As long as the water
is kept up, they seem to last forever. Here too, when they have died, it
has been the one-minute-its-good-the-next-there-is-nothing mode.

- Volkswagen: car was 12 months old; drove over a railroad crossing; battery
was instantly dead.

If I had to predict when a battery should be replaced, I would say for this
part of the world, the maintenance free models at 24 months and the
traditional ones at 6 years. For myself, I will stick with the "if it ain't
broke, don't fix it" philosophy.