Car would not start last week, but I thought I might get lucky and only have dirty terminals. Cleaned them up but battery would not hold a charge. Dropped it off at the dealership for confirmation (and state safety inspection). They just called an confirmed the battery was shot. I won't complain too much. I picked up my car in May 2005.

 

I'm on my 5th battery, pardon me while I DON'T feel sorry for you right now.

 

Wow, your battery lasted very long. I still have my original because I use a battery tender when I dont drive the thing for days.

 

My battery died out a few months ago while listening to my iPod. Barely 3 years out of the stocker before switching to yellow top optimia.

 

Went through two since Jan 05

 

Mines an 05 I got it Nov 04 and I had to replace my OEM battery in Dec 07 , so I got 3 years out of it. I went with a Sears as I always do when I replace an OEM battery , they have good batteries and a good warranty on them. Then a few weeks ago I had to do a heater calibration on my wide band and got an error code saying low voltage , so I checked the battery and sure enough it was going bad. I hadn't checked the battery or monitored the voltage on my scan gauge in a long time and there was no other indication of a bad battery yet , so I guess it was lucky I had to calibrate the gauge. I took it back to sears and since it was still under the 3 years full replacement warranty it cost me $1.38 , not sure what it was for but I really didn't care ...

 

On battery #5 here. The last one made it 10 months. Except for sequential taillights she is stock. And the first batteries died before the sequentials were installed.

It amazes me the dealership sees there's an obvious issue, but will continue to just put batteries in for free.

 

Anyone else switch to an Optima? Red or yellow? Results?

First sign of trouble I am going the Optima route. So far so good (Feb 2008).

 

Here's a tip: Replace your battery every three years. Period. Regardless of how long you're told they're supposed to last. You'll thank me later.

 

I don't have to worry about three years. The longest any of the batteries have survived is 13 months!

 

Care to elaborate as to why?

My original battery lasted just over 5 and a half years. I just replaced it last weekend. But I will say that after 3 years it started getting corrosion, and just generally lookin' nasty. I figure 5 years is a pretty good run...maybe too good.

 

My original '05 battery took a crap two months ago with only 16k on the odo. Replaced it w/a Bosch.

 

Yeah I agree he gets no tears from me either. I got my car in March of 2005 and I am on my 3th Motorcraft battery.

 

Switching to Optima won't save you. the Optima actually has less capacity than most standard batteries due to the voids between the spiral wound cells.

 

I am actually still on my original battery. Its been in the car since it came from the factory in Sept. 2005.

Knock on wood.....it will probably die tomorrow....lol

 

The short story is after the third battery was drawn down on my 07 they finally performed the diagnostics and found the SJB was was having a parasitic draw on the system. SJB replaced and as is well for now.

 

Is your SJB shorting out from water leaking down from the cowl?

Don't get the Optima, it's an inferior battery. I believe DieHard has a proper size AGM for our size, get that if you really want an AGM battery.

 

Don't really understand all of this battery grief? FYI: Our vehicles out in the shop with sealed units live on the battery tenders when not being driven. This extends the batterie's life for years and is much cheaper than the continued battery replacement problem. I learned this trick from friends who work with and maintan heavy equipment and large trucks in the shops. This has saved the company a pantload of green over the many years! Low trickle chargers with the auto shutoff feature is almost always cheaper than the cost of continued battery renewal over the long haul. CalStang

 

I just replaced mine two weeks ago it was the original one, I got four years so not too bad, IMO

 

Battery Tenders are not always practicle. Some guys live in apartments or can't park close enough to an outlet.