How long does the Stock battery last ....

[robkay]

I just had to replace my OEM maintenance free battery. It lasted 4 years and 2 months from the date I bought the car new. There were some signs over the past few months that it might have been on its way out. I never had any issues, but my wife commented a couple times over the summer that the car seemed a little slower to start than normal. I should have thought to look into it but, frankly, I'm used to batteries lasting more than 4 years and since it hadn't shown me any signs of problems I basically ignored her...er, I mean it.

We got up to go to church one morning and the accessory lights would come on, but it just made a pulsating clicking like noise and would not start. Turned on the lights and they would quickly dim. The case of the battery was translucent with lines for Upper Level and Lower Level of the electrolyte. So, I put my trouble light up next to it and could see that the level was down about an inch below the Lower Level and it kind of looked like the upper half of the plates were exposed. I imagine that's a bad sign. Had I checked it out over the summer when my wife alerted me to a possible problem I might have been able to remove those plugs and topped it up and maybe gotten some more life out of it. Or, maybe it would have blown up and killed me, I don't know. (Or, maybe the wife had secretly taken the plugs out and removed some electrolyte so I would do just that. Hmmmmmm...)

I was going to get a Kirkland Signature for $60 at Costco, but they didn't have one. The manager told me that he had been having trouble keeping his battery stock up and couldn't venture a guess as to when he might have one in stock. Go figure.

Sams Club had a Energizer with the same specs, same warranty for $67 "installed." The thing is, I've noticed that Sam's changes sources and brands somewhat frequently and this concerns me a bit if I needed to have it replaced under the 36 mo free exchange warranty. Also, there is little info out there on Energizer, other than it's made by JCI. Johnson makes batteries sold under several brands, but the fact that they build them doesn't necessarily mean that every brand is built with the same quality components. Furthermore, Sam's is associated with Walmart and there are some pretty negative reports out there about Walmart's warranty service. Thus, I decided to forgo Sam's.

Ended up going with the Autozone Duralast Gold. It was $99 and the features/specs sound very similar to those of the AC Delco Professional. I think it might be a better battery than the Kirkland. There are Autozone's all over the place, so I think I can be confident of good warranty service. Also, the guys at Autozone were kind enough to run it over to my house (just a few miles away) because I only have 1 car and was stuck with a dead battery.

I did find that the battery is a tad taller than the OEM was, so I had to take some nylon wire ties and lash the rear hold down post together. The front post fits fine, no cobbling needed.

Oh--the Duralast is a model 35-DLG and this battery has (+) left, so it drops right in and you don't have to worry about your cabling. It mounts right up.

[Happy Little Pony]

The Costco I shop here in Florida stopped carrying Kirkland batteries and now carry Interstate brand. I had to get one recently and it, too, was just slightly taller than stock.

[auto pal]

Mine lasted two years and four months. Battery guy said that was good enough for a stock battery.

[jstantherprsn]

Batteries last around 4.5 to 5 years sometimes a little more. I learned a long time ago the biggest killer to car batteries is your aftermarket radio. I don't use amps or anything but all the cars in the past have died within 3-4 years of installing an aftermarket radio. Its not so much the wattage but the quantity of speakers and the standby power consumption. The echo I have is 10 yrs old and the guy replaced the original battery 1 yr before I bought the car off him in september but it only had 100k miles on it.

[DefStarYaris]

Mine finally died today. I had noticed it took almost 3 seconds to start here and there over the last 6 months or so.

Bought the car in January '08. A little over three years ago, not bad I guess.

[marcus]

left dome lights on for a week and drained battery 2x for the past 4 years my 4th year anniversary in april 15 2011. battery still as good as the first time i got it..

[roadrunner]

Purchased my Yaris new in September, 2006. I am still using my same battery 10 years later. It is now September, 2016. I got my moneys worth with this battery. Very happy with my Yaris.

[Ex-Rrrr]

on my 2007, replaced battery in July 2016. It was the original factory battery that came out.

[rabbito]

lasted 2 years...just died without any notification..lol

Sent from my SM-J700F using Tapatalk

[Brumman]

Like Ex-Rrrr my 2007 hatchback original Japanese battery has just had to be replaced after 9 years! I had some strange electrical problems for a few months before such as radio and clock losing settings overnight but no signs of a weak battery until one day it failed to start. Mostly local city driving in Canada - just hope the Walmart replacement will last half as long.

[snowsquirrel]

I just bought a 2008 5dr LB last month, after reading this post, I went out to check under the hood, surprise surprise, the "made in Japan" battery sitting there looking pretty!

Still going strong, the true test will be this winter's cold mornings.

[IllusionX]

Originally Posted by snowsquirrel

I just bought a 2008 5dr LB last month, after reading this post, I went out to check under the hood, surprise surprise, the "made in Japan" battery sitting there looking pretty!

Still going strong, the true test will be this winter's cold mornings.

That's not the original Panasonic battery...

Sent from my SM-G930W8 using Tapatalk

[snowsquirrel]

So this FB Japanese made not an OEM batt? Guess one can buy this in North America?

thanks for your input.

[Ex-Rrrr]

mine looked like the snowsquirrel photo.

[WeeYari]

Originally Posted by Ex-Rrrr

mine looked like the snowsquirrel photo.

As did mine before it got replaced 2 years ago.

[tarkus]

Originally Posted by Brumman

Like Ex-Rrrr my 2007 hatchback original Japanese battery has just had to be replaced after 9 years! I had some strange electrical problems for a few months before such as radio and clock losing settings overnight but no signs of a weak battery until one day it failed to start. Mostly local city driving in Canada - just hope the Walmart replacement will last half as long.

Same with the 2004 Echo I previously had, here in Toronto. The battery lasted about 9 years and I started losing radio presets, until it died a few months later. I was wondering if my radio had a developed a grounding fault or something. LOL

Sent from my LG-D801 using Tapatalk

[IllusionX]

Originally Posted by Ex-Rrrr

mine looked like the snowsquirrel photo.

So, some of you guys did not get a Panasonic battery?
That's new to me.

Sent from my SM-G930W8 using Tapatalk

[WeeYari]

Originally Posted by IllusionX

So, some of you guys did not get a Panasonic battery?
That's new to me.

The Panasonic was the OE battery in the sedan. Here is an '08 showing the Panasonic.