Good Old Battery

What does a load test tell you? If you have a load tester, make sure to disconnect both terminals first so you don't fry anything.

My battery is about that age also, and I don't intend to replace it. I don't see how an old battery would harm your alternator, unless it has an internal short. Did you ask this person to explain how an old battery will harm an alternator?

If anything, I think a weak battery might harm a starter. The weak battery would cause too much voltage drop when starting the engine, which will harm an electric motor. Ok so I made that up, but at least I gave a supporting reason!

Rodney

Funny you bring that up. I was just thinking the other day that I still have the original battery in my 95 Grand Marquis and it's still going!

2 weeks ago it seemed to have died, since for about a week I had it in the garage but with a cellphone charger plugged into the cigarette lighter socket all that time, but I gave it a jump start and it's been fine ever since. Even while parked out all night in temps in the low teens.

Come to think of it, I have the original exhaust too. All with 173K+ miles.

Been thinking about changing car brands but this car has been very little maintenance. Well except for the window regulators that all seemed to have gone in about a 4 month span.

Depending on what is happening inside the battery, there is a chance that alternator damage is possible but I've never seen any real proof on the matter. It could be that some alternator failures simply "happen" at roughly the same time. OTOH, low battery capacity can and will eat starters for breakfast -

Much depends on how you view the utility of your car.... a breakdown, to me, would be a major inconvenience. The tow or boost, the timing of the breakdown (am I in a rush to be somewhere today? am I in my good clothes and now they are work clothes? have I missed an important engagement/errand/deadline?). If the thing craps out at the wrong time, will you and your car be featured on the 5:00 news with 20 miles of traffic behind you?

I prefer to maintain my units in a manner that assures me the least chance of inconvenience (and given my craft... embarrassment).

These days it seems battery failures come much sooner than they did many years ago....

lmfao no what would you fry by hooking up a carbon pile

get some certification PLEASE

hurc ast

lmfao a battery in poor state of charge causes alternator to HEAT tard heat = enemy

fact is if voltage drops below 12.2 volts start testing

case closed

lmfao u are an embarrasement

heat and vibration kill batteries again its hotter than before blame it on global warming

lmfao

I manage to keep batteries for a long time too. I do what you outline, and in addition make sure that the case between the poles is very clean. We go so far as to use a soda/water paste after cleaning well. This will neutralize the acid that might still be there. Acid will conduct, and will discharge a battery if it is powerful enought, even though it looks like dirt. This can be proven by using a dc meter. Positive lead on the positive pole, then drag the negative lead from the negative pole through the dirt and there might be a reading. If there is a reading, there is leakage between the poles on the outside of the battery.

Why? It sure as hell didn't help you, single platinum DC ignition boy.

JS