"flobert" <nomail@here.com> wrote in message
news:v01ie1hvmou7nejth7a0ruui64voajc0u1@4ax.com...
> On Wed, 27 Jul 2005 05:49:38 -0700, "Michael Pardee"
> <michaeltnull@cybertrails.com> wrote:
>
>>"ap" <corsica@ragingbull.com> wrote in message
>>news:1122302819.747066.122750@z14g2000cwz.google groups.com...
>>> Is it normal for the battery to fail load test
>>> at only 36K?
>
> Batteries are not engine componants, they work by time, and not miles.
> Was the battery topped up?
>
>>>
>>
>>That really depends on the climate. When I lived in Phoenix I never had a
>>battery survive three summers - they would almost always give up early in
>>the third summer (like around May, since summer there is pretty much
>>May-September, and it's hit 100 degrees in March.) Now I live in Flagstaff
>>and the only battery I've had to replace in 4 years was in a car we had
>>recently bought.
>
> Did you let the car run for a little before turning the AC on, and
> similarly turn the AC off a little bit before you turned the engine
> off in Az? if not, thats what would have killed them.
>
My car didn't have A/C but had short battery life the same as my wife's. Two
years, then replace (and that was with batteries advertised as being
designed for hot climates). On hot afternoons the temp guage would already
be off the bottom peg before I ever started the engine. The day it was 122,
when I started my car the battery simply exploded.

I also buy only full-service batteries. Sealed batteries in that heat are a
bad idea, and I just carry on the tradition here.

Mike