Just a funny story... I bought a Sears Diehard Gold battery about 3 years ago. It's worked great since. Great story, right? No wait, there's more. Anywho, last week it was really cold and everyone was having problems with their car. My car's been sitting for about 2 weeks doing nothing, and my friend needs a jump. So I go out to start my car, rurr, rurr, rurr...click, click, click, click. Crap! :laugh: Latter that day, I get it jumped and fire the car up. I went around for a while and recharged the battery, and the car sits again. Yesterday morning, I start my car. I was cleaning the inside some and didn't want to fog up everything. I finished cleaning, and turned off the car. I come out later, start the car and rurr, rurr, rurr...click, click, click, click Crap! :laugh: Now it's 30F out and I just ran the car like 2 hours ago... I've got no excusses now. I pull the battery and clean it up. The battery is the Gold series with a full 3 year warranty. I look on the side of the battery at the production code date: 12/08... Brilliant! :biggrin: Exactly 3 years. That's when you know the engineers did their job right. Now I didn't have a clue where my receipt was, and I did buy it in the summer some time, so within the 3 year (from purchase), but no receipt, no free battery. They were kind enough to go half way on a new one though, out of pitty I assume , which probably a lot closer to what I actually paid in full then they think it is. I did grab a new Die Hard Platinum for the car, pricey, but it'll cover me for the next 4 years...and then die. :laugh: I think 740 CCA and 100 RC is pretty much the highest 35 series battery on the market too, but the price makes an Optima battery (which has lower specs) look affordable, wasn't too bad with the partial cash back though. ...and the receipt is going in the glove box!
I have always replace my batteries with die hards. I have never had to replace one of my die hards... ever... granted the longest I have ever owned a car was my wrx fo 4 years.
everyone bitches about the stock battery, but i have one that failed a test that ive been running in my impreza for 3 years.
I have had pretty good luck with batteries. When they get old you need to be careful with them. The one I had in my Impreza worked great for 3 or 4 years. Then I accidently left the door ajar for an extended period of time and drained the battery. There was no bringing it back. I think that if I didnt drain it all the way it would still be up and running today. I did replace it with a Die-Hard. I am happy.
I am still running my OEM Subaru Panasonic Battery... going on 9 years and haven't failed yet, even when it was -20degF.
Yeah, it's funny how the original one fails battery tests. :laugh: I got rid of mine because I don't want to rely on the meager 360 CCA it has, although I do agree, it does function as needed without issue.
Maybe if my car was off all the time while I was using the lights, radio, etc... Optima's design in itself is unnecessary. They are essentially off-road batteries for sport use and don't damage from shock loads, useful for off-roading, but not so necessary with road going vehicles.
I'm not much of a chem guy, so I'm not sure what the science is behind the battery system and temperature limits. I assume at some point, there will be irreversible damage. Oddly, I've heard folks say more batteries die in the summer heat then the winter cold, so I don't know. I ran the battery fine this cold last year too, dash said -17, and it happily started up, this year, not so lucky. I was still reading 12V though, just stopped holding a charge all of a sudden.
After my last Excide Orbital lasted nine years, with four of those years being pounded by 800 watts of stereo, I'll pay the extra for them. Previously, I had killed three batteries and three alternators in three years. The lead-acid batteries seem to not like the sharp current demands of amplifiers and thay always bulged out on the sides eventually.
I only had to change the OEM battery out last year. That's pretty impressive. And, I killed it, so it may have made it longer otherwise, too.
The only time the stock battery starts to worry me is in the 0 degree and below temps. You can really tell it's straining when the temp is that cold. Other then that it's been great.
Any extremes in temps are hard on batteries. Vibration is also big. So is discharging a "starting" battery (like most automotive batteries are) lower than 80% of it's capacity. I haven't paid for a new battery in a farily long time, as I buy the ones with the long warranties, and they all die before the full replacement period is up... :laugh:
