Battery life?

[marie_kostic]

hey all, my general question is how long should my battery last?

I have a mazda3 gt 2007, with 50k on it and my battery sucks, or at least that's a possibility. Maybe it's the alternator?

Anyway I'd expect it to last longer then 50k so could it just be a sucky battery or is it possible to be abused by the previous owner?

[Thrizzl3]

how does the battery suck lol?

[bman13]

I honestly thought this was a misplaced phone thread

As Phil said, any elaboration on the sucky-ness? lol

[marie_kostic]

suckyness as in my battery died a few days ago and I needed a boost.... I was there for 10 mins.....
And then today, I turned on the radio but not the engine right away, total of 10 seconds before I tried to start up the car, and it had problem starting up.

[JonsMazda]

hey all, my general question is how long should my battery last?

I have a mazda3 gt 2007, with 50k on it and my battery sucks, or at least that's a possibility. Maybe it's the alternator?

Anyway I'd expect it to last longer then 50k so could it just be a sucky battery or is it possible to be abused by the previous owner?

My battery is still running fine here, got 75k without any battery issues (Knock on wood), btw I have m3 gt 2007.

[Thrizzl3]

suckyness as in my battery died a few days ago and I needed a boost.... I was there for 10 mins.....
And then today, I turned on the radio but not the engine right away, total of 10 seconds before I tried to start up the car, and it had problem starting up.

bring it to a dealer for diagnosis

[stevenma188]

Canadian Tire will also test your battery for you.

[aris]

Normaly a battery is good for about 5 to 6 years...Another thing is if your only doing short trips with your car then your battery will die all the time casue it's not charging on short trips.

So if your doing short trip go out on a long drive (1 hour or more) and it should be fine after

[Donutz]

Turning on anything when starting your car; radio, lights, etc, puts undue strain on the battery. The battery on my 2005 started going the winter before last. I had a hard time starting the car even now and then so I switched to a Red Top. I haven't had a problem since then.

[Rob23]

my dad and i both have 2004 mazda 3s with origonal batteries. never had a problem.

[Nick]

stick a multimeter on it, set it to ohms.
it should read 12.2-12.4ish if the battery is good. now start the engine and test it again.
it should read 14.4ish if the alternator is working properly.

[stevenma188]

Are you sure u want to be testing resistance and not voltage....?

[TheMAN]

original battery still going strong here
"refreshed" it in march by topping off electrolyte levels with fresh distilled water, and a good slow charge for 8 hours

[TheMAN]

Are you sure u want to be testing resistance and not voltage....?

those numbers are the general "good" volt numbers, but what he said about "ohms" is incorrect

[DumpInfo]

my dad and i both have 2004 mazda 3s with origonal batteries. never had a problem.

+1 same here bro! No issues yet

[marie_kostic]

I brought it to the dealer, battery was dead, had it changed free of charge. Everything's good now.

[mido]

Since when are batteries covered under warranty!?

[aris]

Since when are batteries covered under warranty!?

3 years or 80,000km

[TheMAN]

somebody hasn't been reading their manual

[zoso]

I brought it to the dealer, battery was dead, had it changed free of charge. Everything's good now.

But the real problem is why was it dead? and why wasn't it being charged?

[mazda lover]

2005 here, 75,000KM no battery issues here, no electrical mods-add ons etc.

[klym]

I have a 2005 as well, still original battery with no problems... I have a sound system installed, two amps plus capacitor with no problems (Knock on wood).

[MAZDA Kitten]

04 with 230k on it original battery! Never had issues starting the car even last winter was fine with a 5 year old battery.

[Zoom Zoom Boy]

It varies on a lot of factors, but you should easily get a good 5 years out of a battery. I've seen batteries last in excess of 10 years, but after about 7 or 8 years you really should replace them regardless of whether the car starts easily or not. The older the battery and less charge it holds, the more your alternator needs to work to keep it charged and replacing a battery is a lot easier and cheaper than replacing your alternator too.

[Takumi616]

110k on my 2007 GT, OEM battery and STILL going strong.... yea baby