Periodic battery replacement

[Felonious Crud]

We all know that batteries die and need replacing, but what's the general view on doing the latter before the former has left you stranded? Mine is 7 years old, still seems to do the necessary but won't last forever. Worth investing in a replacement?

 

[RoaryRati]

From my experience an original lasted longer (12 years) than the replacement (6 years) - but they always die when you urgently need them.........

 

[Scaf]

Is it “doing the necessary” unaided or with the support of a trickle charger ? If the latter, then the trickle charger could be hiding the true condition of the battery.

But if there has been no hint of it letting you down, I wouldn’t bother changing it.

 

[Felonious Crud]

Good question, Sam. It's frequently on the trickle-charger.

 

[lozcb]

Good question, Sam. It's frequently on the trickle-charger.

Drive it more

 

[SE_123]

Don't use a charger for a couple days, then test the voltage of the battery. That would give you an idea of it's voltage and ability to hold charge.

 

[Tallman]

You can get lucky, I just replaced the battery on my 2012 X5 and it was still the original battery. But it is used a lot and has nearly 90k on the clock. But that is an outlier of course. i don’t think it’s a bad idea to preventatively change a battery that’s over 5 years old as that is the age often quoted as being the point where a lot of failures happen. The cost in terms of time and money to figure out niggly things that go “wrong” when the battery is in the way out is not really worth hanging on to an older battery just because it’s still working.

 

[Felonious Crud]

You can get lucky, I just replaced the battery on my 2012 X5 and it was still the original battery. But it is used a lot and has nearly 90k on the clock. But that is an outlier of course. i don’t think it’s a bad idea to preventatively change a battery that’s over 5 years old as that is the age often quoted as being the point where a lot of failures happen. The cost in terms of time and money to figure out niggly things that go “wrong” when the battery is in the way out is not really worth hanging on to an older battery just because it’s still working.

That's pretty much what I was thinking. Top tip from @SE_123 (thank you); assuming it starts when it comes out of storage I'll do exactly that. Otherwise the decision is forced upon me a bit.

 

[midlifecrisis]

If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

 

[Gazcw]

We all know that batteries die and need replacing, but what's the general view on doing the latter before the former has left you stranded? Mine is 7 years old, still seems to do the necessary but won't last forever. Worth investing in a replacement?

For the sake of a 100 notes or so against the potential pain and time messing about with locks, windows, seat memory etc... if Aston are as prone to strops as Massers it is a no brainer for me. Change and have another 6/7 years of no worry.

 

[Felonious Crud]

For the sake of a 100 notes or so against the potential pain and time messing about with locks, windows, seat memory etc... if Aston are as prone to strops as Massers ...

They are! Same histrionics, same cause.

 

[Tallman]

For the sake of a 100 notes or so against the potential pain and time messing about with locks, windows, seat memory etc... if Aston are as prone to strops as Massers it is a no brainer for me. Change and have another 6/7 years of no worry.

If you change batteries you still disconnect and have that resetting trouble. It would make sense to then have some clamps on one of the batteries connected to the car to keep charge whilst making the controlled changeover.

 

[Gazcw]

If you change batteries you still disconnect and have that resetting trouble. It would make sense to then have some clamps on one of the batteries connected to the car to keep charge whilst making the controlled changeover.

Most people seem to have trouble from a prolonged flat battery rather than a quick change. Thats not to say certain things won’t have a strop when you reconnect.

 

[Tallman]

Most people seem to have trouble from a prolonged flat battery rather than a quick change. Thats not to say certain things won’t have a strop when you reconnect.

Better safe than sorry or RTFM of course

 

[zagatoes30]

I think you should consider the whole car suspect due to its age but I will gladly take it off you and suffer the slow degradation, just ship it over here and you will hear no more about it

 

[Felonious Crud]

I'd like to do you the courtesy of giving it a good clean first, Andy. It'll have enough cow shite spattered across it from Ireland's rural roads so I'd like it to at least start off sparkly and nice for you.

 

[Gazcw]

I think you should consider the whole car suspect due to its age but I will gladly take it off you and suffer the slow degradation, just ship it over here and you will hear no more about it

I imagine the driver is more suspect than the car but I bet you don't want to take him with all the degradation...

 

[happydaze]

I'd like to do you the courtesy of giving it a good clean first, Andy. It'll have enough cow shite spattered across it from Ireland's rural roads so I'd like it to at least start off sparkly and nice for you.

Bullsh!t! I mean it's not just cows that wander the roads.

There would probably would be bullsh!t as well...

 

[c4sman]

Related battery question. My 2019 GT has on 2 occasions shown “alarm unavailable” warning and given me the double beep when I have locked it and walked away after say a 40 minute drive. If I start it and drive the warning stays on the dash until I next park and lock it when it goes away. Battery seem strong and I on a Ctek fairly regularly (but not kept on charge constantly). Any ideas?

 

[Felonious Crud]

I'm going to guess a dome unit fault. Mine did the same thing. Issue is some screwy circuitry related to the motion sensors. I'm not sure if a code reader would pick it up. It's the single-piece until top of the windscreen and central with the lights and alarm motion detect etc etc buttons.