Time to dump this turd?? Dead battery

[JimLev]

Guess I really can’t complain, my NAPA Legend battery lasted 12 years, the last 8 years it was on a smart charger when I thought about connecting it. The original battery lasted 8 years.
I met a car buddy for breakfast about 5 miles from my house, eat, when to start the car to come home, click, click, click.
Knowing that my battery wasn’t going to last forever last winter I bought a 1000A Li-ion jump pack.
Hooked it up and I was good to go.
Just got back from NAPA with a Legend 7549 battery. AAA discount took $14 of the price.

Forgot to add there is a $25 mail in rebate too!

[BimmrMeUpSnotty]

Man, thats pretty good that your battery lasted that long! I’m playing around with the idea of running a second battery in parallel so that this new custom sound system I’m about to install doesn’t tax the cars power system. I’m gonna be running almost 2 thousand watts, figured in a 1.5 farad capacitor to help things out, but the more I think about it, might be good to also run a second battery. I don’t care about over doing it, I just don’t want any problems with starving the cars charging system.

[amancuso]

Not too terrible a situation. For some reason I thought you sold your 5er.

[f355spider]

Excellent battery life, can't complain with that, or getting another of the same.
I have switched my cars all to AGM and my motorcycle to Li-ion over the past several years.

[philly98540]

that is unreal battery life Jim! Not sure how you pull that off, but damn thats good. I get like 5 or 6 max, but I DD too.

[CSMBlack-540i]

Just preventatively replaced my almost 8yr old Autocraft H8 with a hefty H8AGM back on Black Friday for $55. Too good a deal to pass up.

Best you can do now is about $90 after discounts, rebates and cashback on the same battery (they had 35% instant off Promo with $50 Rebate back on BlackFriday)

https://www.pepboys.com/search/?text=H8-900CHAGM

https://pepboys-image-production.s3....il_Rebates.pdf

Will probably be the last battery I have for the car. Weighs a good 10 lbs more than non-AGM it replaced and this has a 4 yr warranty, made by Exide.

Edit: Probably can get the Non-AGM for less than $80 but for $10 more AGM is the way to go:

https://www.pepboys.com/search/?text=h8

[BimmrMeUpSnotty]

that is unreal battery life Jim! Not sure how you pull that off, but damn thats good. I get like 5 or 6 max, but I DD too.

Yep, thats what I’ve been getting out of mine too. On my other E39’s the two year old Interstate batteries croaked from lack of driving and care..... on my part, but pulled them, took them back to Interstate and got brand new ones under warranty..

[ross1]

I say you start a thread in the general forum trying to drum up support for NAPA to replace it under warranty.

[edjack]

Man, thats pretty good that your battery lasted that long! I’m playing around with the idea of running a second battery in parallel so that this new custom sound system I’m about to install doesn’t tax the cars power system. I’m gonna be running almost 2 thousand watts, figured in a 1.5 farad capacitor to help things out, but the more I think about it, might be good to also run a second battery. I don’t care about over doing it, I just don’t want any problems with starving the cars charging system.

Running parallel lead/acid batteries will eventually kill them both as a result of the back-and-forth current flow between them.

[BimmrMeUpSnotty]

Running parallel lead/acid batteries will eventually kill them both as a result of the back-and-forth current flow between them.

No, they will drain and charge equally..... If you make sure you get two identical batteries, same amperages, same build family. The strain goes to the alternator. I’ve done it many times in the past, both batteries lasted equally well over a five to six year period, I did have a heavy duty alternator installed, so I need to maybe look into that, the alternators from the newer 3 series BMWs had 180amp alternators, I heard, but I also have the capacitor, might be overkill, I won’t be cranking it up like I used to, but I do enjoy cranking it up when some turd pulls up next to me blasting cRap music, or the goofy kiddy crap pop music that they listen to these days, I just want to be able to out blast the whole block if I have to. I like it to be able to go up to 11, 12, maybe even 13. I JUST WANNA ROCK!!!

[Ed CT]

I say you start a thread in the general forum trying to drum up support for NAPA to replace it under warranty.

LOL And if that doesn't shame them into replacing it, I've got the name of a good battery lawyer.

Yeah, 12 years is nearly a record I would think. But if you take care of them, and don't leave the key in the "on" position overnight (What knucklehead would ever do that?!) a good quality battery should last 7 - 8 years under normal use.

[BMW540san]

Not too surprising.
Combination of high quality battery, regular use of smart charger (many people don't realize it helps to prolong batery life considerably) and Jim's meticilous care of car (garaged and pampered) are probably main factors.
Last few bateries I bought are Autocraft Gold (actually made in Germany, at least the ones I bought) and I take advantage of 30-40% coupons which usually yield $45 saving.

[BimmrMeUpSnotty]

The secret to car battery longevity is regularly using a good charger that desulfates the cells as it charges them. The real way is to uncork the battery, replace some of the acid with distilled water and hook up the charger on a long slow charge to cook out the built up sulfur breaking them off the cells. Usually takes at least 48 hours. Some batteries with some heavy buildup from weak cells staying weak, dead, due to lack of maintenance. A regular exercise of hooking it up to a good charger results in good service life, as in Jim’s case.
I use NOCO Genius chargers, they’re well worth the money, been using them for over 5 or 6 years now, I have about 6 or 7 of them, one failed, but NOCO replaced it without telling me what went wrong. It worked fine one second, when I went to hook it up to one of the other motorcycles, it wouldn’t power up anymore.
I use the 3500’s for the cars, and the 1100’s for the motorcycles. I also have the 750 wallworth that they had, .75 amp charger, works great too. The newer versions will also properly charge lithium ion batteries.

[ross1]

The secret to car battery longevity is regularly using a good charger that desulfates the cells as it charges them. The real way is to uncork the battery, replace some of the acid with distilled water and hook up the charger on a long slow charge to cook out the built up sulfur breaking them off the cells. Usually takes at least 48 hours. Some batteries with some heavy buildup from weak cells staying weak, dead, due to lack of maintenance. A regular exercise of hooking it up to a good charger results in good service life, as in Jim’s case.
I use NOCO Genius chargers, they’re well worth the money, been using them for over 5 or 6 years now, I have about 6 or 7 of them, one failed, but NOCO replaced it without telling me what went wrong. It worked fine one second, when I went to hook it up to one of the other motorcycles, it wouldn’t power up anymore.
I use the 3500’s for the cars, and the 1100’s for the motorcycles. I also have the 750 wallworth that they had, .75 amp charger, works great too. The newer versions will also properly charge lithium ion batteries.

This makes a lot of sense.
I have a lot of cars that see little to no use so keep their batteries, when I remember, connected to the battery back up system for my sump pump. It has a rather elaborate looking charger/maintainer that keeps them in top form. When I forget and leave one to go flat in a standing car this things almost always brings them back. I have a couple 8 yr. olds that are still working.
A side benefit is that if power fails I have a LOT of battery capacity in reserve to run the pump.

[balidawg]

I’ve been putting the EverStart Maxx H8 from Walmart in our BMWs for a while. They have high CCA and are fairly cheap. Lasting over 5 years too.

[Mike WW]

I got about 11 years out of one for the now departed E12. That was not many miles, but a number times of going completely dead from just sitting. I was amazed it lasted that long. Johnson Controls Walmart labeled, but not their super duper one. Don't care for the store, but typically they're $50 cheaper than anyone else for a car battery.

That Champion from Pep Boys is a screamin' deal with what batteries go for these days, especially for a AGM battery. Reviews? Who makes them?