Can a battery with flooded cells and regular removable vent caps be called a .. 'Maintenance Free Battery.."? I have the dreaded 36R battery in a 98 Taurus..Motorcraft BTX-36R Silver Series -Maintenance Free. Rated for 96 months-ie. 8 years. Last week the eye turned red while waiting at the mall with the radio playing(so much for a long reserve-130 minutes when new- I said.) The car would not start, battery was barely 3 years old. Got a jump from Mall security. On the way home I started thinking about what to replace it with...should I go back to Motorcraft, $98 or should I buy something else like Sears Diehard, $90..these have been very good to me in the past. Or, just get a regular battery and some longer cables and save $30. As an after thought I attempted to pop open the vent covers and was shocked to find 1) they were just regular vent covers, and, 2) The battery fluid was so low that the plates were just about getting ready to break the surface, actually one cell did have some plates breaking the surface.I was pissed. What the damn does .." Maintenance Free.." supposed to mean? I take it to be, never needing to add water...assuming the charging system is working properly. I filled the cells with distilled water to the mark, as I have always done with regular batteries. What did I have to lose..?Overnight the red-eye went away and the battery appears to be fine once more. I have never had a battery failed so soon in its rated life. This is my first Maintenance Free Battery. Are we being shammed on these batteries. Should these have called Low Maintenance Batteries, instead of Maintenance Free Batteries. I guess many people have had to replace these batteries prematurely because they are labeled incorrectly and as such have never been maintained. For reference, I have repeatedly gotten up to 6 to 9 months service beyond the rated life of regular flooded cell batteries in the past.
- posted
20 years ago