Need New Battery

Autozone, Napa, Walmart or the dealer.

Ken W

Sam's Club $50

Ignoring his agents wishes,"limey" flung open the hotel room door and announced to the gathering crowd:

nah...get an Odyssey and never have to worry about replacing it again.

People are more violently opposed to fur than leather because it's safer to harass rich women than motorcycle gangs.

-Unknown

Remove "die spammers" to email

Sears, Interstate, Parts Plus. Autozone will test your old battery.

Mike

Do not bother testing any battery over 3 or maybe 4 years old. It is on its last legs and either needs replacing now or will soon need replacing. Buy a new battery, and if it runs down, then and only then do you need to spend money on a test of the charging system. Of course, if you can get a free test, then go ahead, but if you have the original battery in a 98, then it is almost certain that your problems will be cured with a new battery. Average life of a battery is 3 to 5 years. I know of people who have gotten more life from a battery, but it is unusual.

Steve

Ignoring his agents wishes,"sf/gf" flung open the hotel room door and announced to the gathering crowd:

..sage advice. That's why every time I've replaced an OEM battery, I've replaced them with Odyssey batteries. I had some of them in cars/suv's that were still going strong after 9 years and were still working fine when I sold them.

People are more violently opposed to fur than leather because it's safer to harass rich women than motorcycle gangs.

-Unknown

Remove "die spammers" to email

Right... why bother having the system tested...... just because your battery warranty isn't any good if the charging system bakes it shouldn't hold you back.... Of course, if it's undercharging, we had nothing better to do than wait for a boost or a tow truck..... so what if we're late for something - probably just some piffling little thing like a job interview, some claptrap with our family or our loving bride in advanced labour.... no biggie.

Shortchanging yourself on car maintenance is false economy and is sure to doom you to a life of missed meetings and opportunities...... if you feel you deserve second best, especially when it concerns something that can turn into a killing machine in less than a heartbeat......

Jim Warman wondering if it's a full moon tonight snipped-for-privacy@telusplanet.net

omething -

Ignoring top post..... and the full moon comment (can't reasonable people disagree with out name calling?)

Jim, you know as well as I or anyone else on this list that his/her 5 or 6 year old battery is no good, if only due to its age. That being the case, a new battery will cure his problem. I do not disagree that all things being equal, it would not hurt things a bit to get the charging system checked out. However, it sounded like the original poster may have money concerns and in this case, he/she could very well dispense with a $30 charging system test. It is not like he/she is not doing the required maintaince.

I suppose the next thing you will say is it is unsafe or unwise or something if the poster buys the battery from anyplace other than the Ford dealer you work at.

Flame away if you must....

Steve

Interesting concept.... I'm sure our partsmonger would love the idea....... however, I will say that saving a few bucks by buying a battery that doesn't fit the hold downs could possibly create an unsafe condition.

Now.... we have the same thing up here.... a 3 year old battery has "paid for itself". That doesn't necessarily mean it is a goner. I've had batteries last much longer than 3 years..... much, much longer. I've also seen perfectly good 3 year old batteries under the same hood as a not so good alternator..... many times. Your blanket statement could very well have someone with tight financial constraints spend his/her alternator money on a battery that wont help their problem. Additionally, the problem may even be a faulty starter leaving both alternator and battery quite healthy..... yep, more stuff from experience...

Onto your "name calling" statement..... I've reread my post a few times.... Apparently, the name calling pixels seem to have fallen out of my copy of the message. Perhaps you could enlighten me to their content or arrangement.

Lastly... I've top-posted in NGs since the early '90s. If you don't like top-posted replies, don't read them.

For God's sake, don't offer bogus information to those who may not be able to afford "shotgunning" repairs....

Jim Warman snipped-for-privacy@telsplanet.net

I saw nothing bogus in his suggestion. He pretty clearly said that if a free test of the alternator was convenient then go ahead and get it tested. My, and everyone I knows experience is that if the alternator light has not come on it's about a 95% (guesstimated) certainty that you need a new battery, particularly if the battery over 3 to 4 years old. Given that, if my battery is 3+ years old and seems to be having problems, and I don't have time to screw around getting things tested up at the corner shop or wherever, I just throw a new battery in. In the last thirty+ years I've never found out later that the alternator was the problem. It has ALWAYS been the battery. Have I had alternators go bad? Sure, and the warning light has come on when that's been the case. Some people play their probabilities different then others. You choose to always assume the customer/poster is a near idiot and/or that nothing is as it seems.. Others see it differently. Doesn't make either viewpoint bogus, just makes them different.

-- Elbridge Gerry, of Massachusetts:

"What, sir, is the use of militia? It is to prevent the establishment of a standing army, the bane of liberty. . . Whenever Government means to invade the rights and liberties of the people, they always attempt to destroy the militia, in order to raise a standing army upon its ruins." -- Debate, U.S. House of Representatives, August 17, 1789

I actually think all posts should be top post...I like them. No really, I do. That way you don't have to scroll down through all the question when you know it, and if you do need to, then it is there on the bottom. Bill V.

I would prefer to see 90% of all posts being top posted for this very reason. For anyone that has been following a very long thread, it is quite inconvenient to scroll down several pages, looking for the new reply. The only people that it might make more sense to bottom post for are the people that are only reading the very last reply to the thread (that way they can read it from top to bottom). I suspect though that the number of first time readers to a thread are vastly outnumbered by the amount of people that have been following the thread along for a while.

The only other situation that I can think of that doesn't make sense to top post is when someone is responding to several questions/issues in a thread. In that case, I would prefer to see their response to each point after the point.

To me it doesn't really matter, in that I'm not going to yell at someone because they bottom posted. If the thread is interesting enough to me then I am usually willing to go ahead and scroll to the bottom to find the new info. For the threads that aren't quite as interesting or if I am in a hurry, I'll just skip on to the next message.

I've been doing it this way since I first began reading this Newsgroup in

-- Elbridge Gerry, of Massachusetts:

"What, sir, is the use of militia? It is to prevent the establishment of a standing army, the bane of liberty. . . Whenever Government means to invade the rights and liberties of the people, they always attempt to destroy the militia, in order to raise a standing army upon its ruins." -- Debate, U.S. House of Representatives, August 17, 1789

Agreed...

Bottom posting originated because of the lack of features on early "dumb" terminals.

They worked basically like a teletype. it WASN'T POSSIBLE to top post then!

But, since we have advanced a bit and have the ability to to top post, That's what I do !!

Bottom post or top post..... who gives a damn. How about changing the subject line to reflect what you are talking about so that the rest of the group can skip all this non-automotive chatter?