M. Essaie

Anyone in the habit of replacing the battery at a certain age? Mine doesn't crank emphatically and, if it died, the way it is stored in the garage would make the (defeat-the-Porsche-maladroit-engineering) front left wheel frunk cable dance almost impossible.

KrisA

I'd say it's probably a good idea to replace the battery every 5 years, 4 if you are risk adverse. My Cayman is a 2012 and is on battery #3... which I should check the date on!

MrMoose

Yeah, on my daily drivers I always replaced the batteries every five years: seems like false economy to wait until one dies. Now I've got an inexpensive digital battery tester: I'll check at five and decide based on that, but I won't go longer than seven. This is in California: somewhere with hotter summers or colder winters you might do a lot worse, or on a car that sits where you're deep cycling the battery more.

As a relevant note: it's good to do a visual inspection now and again as well. Literally last weekend I was working on the wife's Mini and realized the 3 year old battery was leaking and corroding the battery support. Freakin' mess: it was under the front cowl so really hard to see. Lesson learned: use an AGM battery even on the normal cars.

Stonesg

What timing.

My car was delivered Wednesday night and the first thing I had to do yesterday was replace the battery.

Date code showed it to be five years old and I'm sure the weeks it's been spending on the dealers lot was the last thing it needed.

I also normally change by time and five or six is when I start thinking about it.

Aussie skypig

The Frunk thing is a consideration, but I’d suspect it would likely open, even when the battery was starting to obviously crank slow. Or even failing to crank.

My Cayman was bought with an aging battery (as noted on the last service report.) I work “away” for 2 weeks at a time. When I came home I’d put it on the C-Tech charger. Then drive it around for 2 weeks. (With a little Lithium “starter” as back up.) I did this for a few months while researching a replacement with no issues. When I installed a largish Lithium Battery, the car starting cranking speed increased noticeably! (The previous battery was well past its prime!)

All this to say: I never consider replacing a battery on date. My batteries seem to last longer than average. I believe just “being nice” to your battery adds years to its life. Simply turning your lights off, before the engine. (Sadly more difficult in the “all singing” modern car world.) Not letting it go low/flat. A trickle charger if not used for weeks. Keeping water in it if not “sealed”.

When my battery shows signs of decay, I give it a good charge and start carrying the Lithium starter. If the symptoms persist, I replace the battery. At my leisure.

old man neri

Lot of factors such as climate, battery, drive habits, and quality will determine. For example, my wife's '12 Toyota is still on the factory original battery. I, personally, wait till mine starts giving me signs it's on its way out.

ekam

Modern batteries suck and they need to be replaced after 5 years.

Aussie skypig

Maybe.

Or maybe it’s modern cars, and the way they abuse batteries.
I see so many people walking away from cars with the lights left on. They turn off automatically. (After slapping the battery in the face).
I suspect many modern cars have current draws even when turned off. Sensors? Security?
Many modern cars have “smart” alternators that save a thimble full of fuel a year, but potentially don’t charge the battery properly. (They probably aren’t working if you turn all the current draws off before the engine. Instead, they are “saving fuel”.)

All these things mean the battery spends more time partially discharged.
Lead acid batteries live longest if kept fully charged. Big discharges kill them quickly - leave your lights on a few times and flatten it completely and the battery is finished. Having it often a little discharged hastens its demise.

My 2016 Transit van has running lights that cant seem to be turned off. It has 2 batteries, one which seems to run all the “behind the scenes” current draws, and is always a bit low when I put a charger on it. It was the one that failed first. (I now have chargers wired in, and turn them on regularly

The battery that came with my used Cayman was 6 years old when I replaced it - no idea how it was treated in the first 5 1/2 years of it’s life.
I’ll be interested to see how the (light weight!! And powerful) Lithium lasts. Completely different chemistry and I don’t know what behaviours, if any, can extend their lifespan. Anyone? (I know not to use “multi stage” lead acid chargers. They are very bad for Lithium batteries.)

sasilverbullet

Nope, keep an eye on it, there's so many variables. I've had batteries dye at 2 years, and some over 6 years.

There's another inherent problem with our cars, the main terminal for the battery on the firewall can cause "slow cranking". Do a search on the forum, there are quite a few posts on repairing the item. Cheap and not hard to do.

Stonesg

In addition to the above...

With the assumption that the positive cable is solid to the engine compartment, I am planning on adding a ground cable all the way back from the engine/frame ground back to the battery.

I've fixed electrical gremlins on several vehicles with this tactic.