Ode to a battery...
 

Got a call from the wife before; she was at work, and when she went to leave her truck wouldn't start. Went to bail her out, and it turned out the battery was kaput. This is the orig battery to the truck, which is a 98 Ford Ranger. Can't really complain about a battery that lasted 10 years...:cool:

That is quite amazing. I would definitely run down to the store and pick up another one of whatever that Ranger came with!

And you live in Jersey?!?! That really was an awesome battery!

Yeah, I'll prolly stab in another Motorcraft. The only other vehicles I recall having long lasting batteries are Miatas, and I think alot of their longevity
comes from the fact that the battery is mounted in the truck, away from the nasty underhood environment.

ive used farm and fleet batteries in my truck and its been about 3 or 4 years no problems. my car has some autozone silver or something like that.

still kind amazes me that modern batteries will start fine one day then all of a sudden up and die and be flat dead in a few hours. my dad says he can remember when you could tell your battery was about to die about a week in advance where it would slow crank and dim headlights etc...

unstable bob -

Wow. Batteries used to live in fear of me. These days, if I can get 5 years, that's a win, and the five years is probably only because of the car chime.

But 10 years? Is that in cat years or dog years?

CarloSW2

I had a battery only last me about 2000 miles once. Of course that was over a span of slightly over 12 years!!! (battery came from my dad and my parts store we had in the late 80's) The car basically sat with a trickle charger on it most of the time. There were some years I was away where the car got no exercise at all. Finally up and changed it a few years ago now it has a Duralast Gold - Autozone - which is a great battery IMO.

Well, I have 7 cats and a Pug, so they can be "either or!" :D Actually, we bought the truck in the same year we were married, so it is easy to keep track of how old the truck is, and how long I've been married. But if ya wanna hear a "bummer," my marriage date is Sept 11, 1998. And we all know what happened on Sept 11, 2001...:(

unstable bob -

:( ... Find out if it was Sept 10 or Sept 12 on some other part of the world when you were married. If your wifey agrees, maybe you can celebrate on that day instead.

CarloSW2

Or, keep the happy event on Sept 11 instead of letting some goat humping jackwad in another nation make it a sad event.

It depends on the nature of failure.... If it fails due to physical damage -- it's likely to be close to instant death. If it fails due to poor maintenance - close to instant, you may be able to see signs - and you might be able to recondition. But... poor maintenance can lead to physical damage :/

A maintained battery will slowly reach it's ultimate death. The last battery I had felt like it was going to go for a month. I thought I just needed a tune up only because of the extra cranking time.

depends on how long your car has to crank to start. my trucks stock battery lasted about 7 or 8 years. its a side post so corrosion doesnt happen for some reason with those, id say most automotive batteries nowadays are maintince free so theres no real "maintince" you can do to a battery. but my truck starts up in about a second cranking time, winter its a bit longer but not much.

my 99 ranger battery just got replaced, i noticed last winter that the cranking was getting longer when cold so i jumped on a new one so i don't have to get the jump box this winter. 8yrs is good enough, i could of pushed it to 9 but don't want the hassle of getting stuck somewhere. it was original motorcraft. now replaced with??? $10 and it tested find ;)

I agree with you 100%. We clebrated this year by going to NYC for dinner and a Broadway play. Showed out support for the city, and had a darn good time. :)

does your ranger take a few seconds of cranking to fire up? my friend has a 99 v6 4x4 and it takes about 3-4 seconds of cranking to start. i dunno if its a ford thing or if hes got a fuel pump issue:confused: because if i tell him to put the key in the run position to let the fuel pump prime and wait a few seconds then crank it fires right up.

Could be a dirty filter, could be a weak pump, could be a leaking pressure regulator. Does it take a while to crank every time, only after it sits about 30 minutes or longer, or after an overnight? If every time I'd start with the filter, but if it will crank right up within 30 minutes of a shutdown but the longer you wait the longer it takes to crank then it would point towards the pressure regulator leaking pressure down the return line. If it will crank right up but acts flooded after sitting about 5 minutes, could also be a leaking fuel injector. There are several different tests that can be done to see what's what.

Hope this helps.

yea i knew about stuf fliek that but i belive its only after its been sitting for more than an hour if over ngiht or something its longer. but once its started it runs fine and doesnt act flooded or acts like its starving for gas. i think my 2.2L 4 banger truck could out run him tho accelerating wise...:p for a v6 it accelerates like a brick...ive driven a v6 blazer and it has some decent get up and go.

but anyways i would suspect the pressre regulator. i keep tellin him to put the key in run position wait about 3 seconds and then crank it up, if he does that it works fine.

Yep, regulator is getting weak then. If it were a leaking fuel injector it would act flooded within that hour, but not longer. Not a biggie, not something he has to fix until it gets bad enough that it won't maintain minimum fuel pressure. He'll first start seeing that as a dropoff in power in the upper RPMs that gets worse and worse till it won't run at all. Might take years.

yea hes wanting to trade it in for a car soon anyways :P just not sure what he can afford/wants, well he want sa subaru baja but cant find one in his range(came close but not sure if he want sto go thru with it)

The side post in the 01 Impala I had sprung a leak at the post and ran acid all over the car and driveway. I used to think Delco side post batteries didn't leak but there are always exceptions. Almost all the batteries I have changed in the last few years were cranking okay. They were starting to leak acid and I just don't have any patience for that. Ofteb I change them just after I buy the car.

huh ive heard of em leaking from damage or cables pullign to tight but not just randomly springing leaks... i guess its very possible tho since theres always litle flaws frm the factories. you wpouldnt happen to have a steep sloped driveway would you?

10 years. that was a good run. :)

I always change out battery's every 4 to 6 years. I can't stand the thought of a dead battery. It would pain me very much to have my wife stranded. She is worth a whole lot more than a battery.

Yeah, replacing the battery was on my list of "things to do," but as usual, it got pushed down to the bottom of the list. I'm happy the situation turned out to be "painless," as I was able to get the truck running with a jump, and we made it home.