How Long Should The Battery of a New Car Last?

talismansa on 05/01/2020 - 19:07

Bought a new Mazda3 sp25 just under 3 years ago and the battery just died.
Granted I don't drive much, just hit 10k kms, but I thought a new battery for a new car should last at least 5 years.

My last car was a brand new Kia Rio and drove it even less, went on a couple of 2 month holidays, and it had no battery issues. And while I was selling it after the 5 year warranty expired, it sat there for 3 months and it still started up like it was new.

Did I get a dud Mazda or is it par for the course?
And do they even do anything about the battery when I get it serviced at the dealership?

Automotive Car Battery Rechargeable Battery

Comments

  • brendanm on 05/01/2020 - 19:09
    +3

    Warranty is generally 2 years. Stop/start in your Mazda is a major battery drainer.

    • oscargamer on 05/01/2020 - 19:18
      +8

      No. 10k km in 3 years is the killer.

      • brendanm on 05/01/2020 - 20:51

        Not really. I've seen plenty of cars do way less KMs a year than that, with batteries older then 2 years.

        • Skramit on 05/01/2020 - 22:19
          +1

          It’s the type of driving tho. If u do one 30 min drive once a week it’s gonna charge the battery better than 10 x 3 min drives each week.

          A quick google indicates a battery need approx 30 min of driving to fully charge up.

          • brendanm on 05/01/2020 - 23:05
            +4

            @Skramit: A battery does not need 30 minutes to charge. I've explained this to people on here before. Starter operates for say 5 seconds, assuming average 80amps while cranking, 80 X 5 = 400 coulombs.

            The alternator produces say, 60 amps, to recover the 400 coulombs, we calculate 400 / 60 as taking 6 2/3 seconds to recharge.

            In real life, your starter won't be operating for 5 seconds, and will have a much higher initial current draw, and probably lower continuos, and depending on the vehicle, your alternator may supply more or less than 60 amps after running accessories etc, however it's very obvious that 30 minutes is a ridiculous amount of time.

            • Euphemistic on 06/01/2020 - 07:57
              +1

              @brendanm: It may also depend on a ‘smart’ alternator. Our vehicle had one fitted and the battery would only get just enough charge to get the voltage up then the alternator would deactivate to save engine load and therefore fuel under certain driving conditions like highway driving. The original battery didn’t last very long and we had a few jump starts after leaving the radio on for a while etc. deactivating the smarts on the alternator has increased the charge to the battery and since then the battery is charged constantly and the battery lasts much better.

              Deactivating the smart alternator is a regular thing on forums for our model, especially for those towing and adventuring. The consensus is that it increases battery life as well as avaaible charge. Not deactivating is a recipe for shorter battery life.

              • BigBirdy on 06/01/2020 - 09:00
                +1

                @Euphemistic: From 40 years driving and motorcycling experience, only doing short trips (no more than a few minutes), always ends up with battery issues. If you’re only doing short commutes, add in a regular (say weekly) drive of 20-30mins to recover that week’s worth of accumulated lost charge. Ie you don’t need to drive 30mins per engine start, but per accumulation of trips that were too short to keep the battery charged.

                • Euphemistic on 06/01/2020 - 10:53
                  +1

                  @BigBirdy: Agree. Unfortunately in an effort to save a minuscule amount of fuel the smart alternator effectively turns every drive into a short trip for charging the battery. The main reason I disabled the smarts on our car, same as many others.

  • oscargamer on 05/01/2020 - 19:14
    +4

    This you?

    https://forums.whirlpool.net.au/thread/91jlw2n3

    • spackbace on 05/01/2020 - 19:20
      +5

      Lol

      Yeah I go for 7 min drives about 3 times a week.

      I reckon Uber would be cheaper than owning/maintaining a car under those conditions

      • talismansa on 05/01/2020 - 23:48

        Unfortunately I have family that live on all the corners of greater Sydney, and I have to visit them every 3 weeks.

        Plus I have a 2 year old.

        You think I'd be complaining about a $300 battery on a website for tight arses if I didn't do the maths on whether a $30k liability is worth it?

        • spackbace on 05/01/2020 - 23:59
          +5

          You think I'd be complaining about a $300 battery on a website for tight arses if I didn't do the maths on whether a $30k liability is worth it?

          Yes

          You bought a brand new car, yet won't maintain the servicing (which is a capped, set price) to keep the warranty.

          So not only was it pointless buying a new car if you're going to lose the warranty, but your depreciation vs cost of use is ridiculous.

    • unco on 05/01/2020 - 21:30

      Wonder how many threads we can find over multiple forums.

  • ihbh on 05/01/2020 - 19:20
    +1

    YMMV - my Camry lasted 13 years but we don't drive much.

  • holdenmg on 05/01/2020 - 19:24
    -1

    Ooh, I know this one…

    Long enough for the car to do a test drive for a buyer and get off the lot.

  • Mechz on 05/01/2020 - 21:00

    Did you read the date of manufacture on the battery? It could be well before you bought the car.

  • pegaxs on 05/01/2020 - 21:28
    +1

    Did I get a dud Mazda or is it par for the course?

    Yep. Dud Mazda. You should have bought a Peugeot 307

  • Skramit on 05/01/2020 - 22:18
    -2

    You do realise that batteries charge with driving right but they need a decent sustained drive to charge properly? If you don’t drive it much, it’s gonna go flat quickly. 10k in 3 years would be about right to run down your battery quicker than usual IMO.

    Car batteries need approx 30 min of driving to charge properly. So if your driving short 5 or 10 min trips all the time, you’re gonna have a shorter battery life.

  • whooah1979 on 05/01/2020 - 22:46
    -1

    Bought a new Mazda3 sp25 just under 3 years ago

    Take it back to the dealer. There is no reason why the battery should last as long as the manufacturer warranty.

    • spackbace on 05/01/2020 - 22:47
      +2

      There's many reasons

      • whooah1979 on 05/01/2020 - 22:48

        A good dealership should replace it no questions asked.

        • spackbace on 05/01/2020 - 22:51
          +1

          Depends on the loyalty of the customer. If it's the selling dealership, sure. If you've never seen them before in your life, and won't in the future, then no.

          And if I need to explain why then you don't understand basic business.

          • whooah1979 on 05/01/2020 - 22:58
            +2

            @spackbace: A battery is about $150 retail. OP can call up the person that sold them the vehicle and tell them that something is wrong with it. Bring the vehicle in for a check and ask them nicely to replace the battery. That is the easiest and cheapest way to resolve this matter.

  • jimbobaus on 06/01/2020 - 00:33
    +3

    We see heaps of Mazda's come into work with their iStop light flashing on the dash indicating an error with the system
    8 times out of 10 its the battery.
    Mazda have indicated to us when we ask that the iStop system can be a real burden on the in car battery so sadly battery changes are common

    we even stock a battery at our store which comes with the following condition on the warranty
    "warranty is for 48 months, except when fitted to a Mazda with iStop, in this case warranty is 36 months"

  • jackinyourbox on 06/01/2020 - 08:26

    If you maintain it with a good charger over 2 years. Calcium ones go at least 3

  • JIMB0 on 06/01/2020 - 09:13

    9 years.

  • dimitryp on 06/01/2020 - 09:48

    My VW battery (original) lasted for 6 years with relatively low km's, but when we drove we'd drive 10km+ in a trip

  • brad1-8tsi on 06/01/2020 - 10:31

    It depends on the car & battery size / type but 3-4 years seems the average.

    Our Accord Euro they last just past the 2 year warranty period (every damn time) as the battery is ridiculously small for a car with lots of power options.

    On my Skoda the factory battery lasted 6 years & the replacement (and higher capacity) Varta lasted another 6 years.

    I had a Nissan U13 and the Panasonic in that lasted 9 years.

    Cars with stop/start seem to fail much quicker.

    Have you checked if it's covered by warranty? VW/Skoda cover the batteries as a warranty item. I'm not sure what Mazda do

  • OzFrugie on 07/01/2020 - 00:04

    bit off topic, what are the certain signs that your car battery is dying and need to be replaced before too late?
    it wont be out of the blue, will it?

    • Euphemistic on 07/01/2020 - 08:33

      It is pretty much out of the blue, especially if your car kicks over and starts quickly. The major sign of a failing battery is the car starter motor sounding slower.

      • OzFrugie on 07/01/2020 - 08:53

        It cannot be detected during regular servicing?
        My last service i asked the mechanic and he said theres still 60pct left in the battery and nothing to worry about..

        • Euphemistic on 07/01/2020 - 10:43
          +2

          Well you can do a load test, but it requires special equipment. You could test the voltage with a cheap volt meter but it doesn’t tell the whole story like a load tester does.

          Knowing how old the battery is will help too. Assume it’ll last 3-5 years.

          If you aren’t a heavy battery user, ie decent length drive. No stop start tech in the engine. Don’t leave the lights, radio etc running without the engine much the battery will last longer. If the car starts quickly it’ll use less capacity and be less likely to pack it in than a car that winds over a bit.

  • talismansa on 08/01/2020 - 15:30

    In case anyone is wondering, I took the car into a Mazda dealer and they did a warranty replacement of the battery without question.

    They initially tested the battery and it came back saying it was very healthy, but I told them it had to be jumpstarted 3 times over the weekend, and they just decided to replace it anyway.

    But the car wouldn't unlock again when I picked it up, so they replaced the fob battery, and everything is fine now.

    It could have been the remote fob battery… we'll never know.

    • ShortyX on 11/01/2020 - 21:07

      Out of curiosity, what were the initial symptoms?

      • talismansa on 13/01/2020 - 10:04

        Remote unlocking was intermittent. Then The car would unlock but wouldn't start, then it wouldn't even unlock

  • 1bug on 29/02/2020 - 18:56

    My BMW 3er battery lasted 10 years (drove ~4K per year)

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