I've been thinking lately that my car battery probably won't last the winter. Since working from home starting last March, my car has given the low battery light over 50 times when it's cold outside. But each time it starts and the light goes away after driving a while and recharging the battery.

I can't help but wonder how many times this will happen before it just doesn't start one day. Id say the car can't sit more than 3 days when it's cold before the low battery light comes on. I have a 4 year old battery. It hasn't been that cold either. Only a few days below 0.

So after telling this story to a friend, he gave me a solar trickle charger he had laying around. I'll see in the coming weeks if it helps at all.

 

Your 4 year old battery is no good. Buy a new battery and it wont happen any more, bypassing the need for the trickle charger

 

I agree it's on its way out. But 4 years isn't very old. I think if it can make it through the winter it could last at least another year. Especially if I get brought back to the office.

I keep telling myself that I'm not buying a new battery until this one actually dies. Hopefully it dies at home and not somewhere else lol.

 

OEM batteries are typically dead at 4 years. The 2nd OEM was covered under warranty so I got 2 OEMS in 8 years. I have upgraded to AGM battery so we will see how long that will last.

 

Battery tender keeps batteries alive for years to come, especially with minimal driving

 

Agreed - I have a NOCO Genius G3500 and have used it for years. Works great on my lawn tractor battery as well as car batteries. I like that it does 6V and 12V batteries and is pretty much idiot proof. Set it and forget it. I typically don't leave it hooked up for more than half a day just to top off the battery. I recently had a stretch where I didn't use my car for 3+weeks and even though the battery would have likely started the car (charger led me to believe it was at about 50% charge), I just hooked up the charger and left it connected overnight. I've only used my car once in the past 10 days so may need to do again, but again use it as general maintenance when it doesn't get charged by normal use.

 

It does sound like your battery is on its way out, but if you can make it through the winter and buy another year or so then I think it's worth it.

 

unless that solar charger can put out 12+ volts and and at least 100 milliamps continuously it may work.

 

Cold weather demands a lot from the battery and will push the battery to the limit. If your battery on on its last leg, be prepare to deal with a dead battery when you try to start the vehicle on a frigid morning.

 

This is what it comes down to - your decision. Get a new battery now and know you are safe or take your chances of where you are when your battery actually dies.

 

A lot of good points from everyone and a lot of reasonable solutions. I'm going to at least wait a couple of weeks to give the solar charger a chance.

I'll report back to see if it does anything. I'm certainly not very confident in it. Partially because it's not very sunny.

We will see how long I can resist getting a new battery. Fortunately I have no where important to go and it's not my only car.

 

why not bring the battery inside and charge it to 100% or so. Put the battery in the car and don't hook up the negative terminal. Hook it up when you need to drive! Problem solved

 

My Original Battery lasted 7 Years but when it went out, it happened suddenly. The car is Stored every Winter and hooked up to a CTEK Battery Maintainer.

The CTEK is 10 Years old and has performed flawlessly, it's a great little Unit.

 

If you have keyless entry it could be your fobe battery, mine did this to me for so long until I realized it was dead but started everytime. Mine was low due to someone putting normal batteries in it so the battery did not charge.

 

Same exact thing happening to my battery date stamped 2018. Not driving into work on a regular basis and the trips I do take are pretty short lately. I've even gone so far as to take the long way to get takeout, hopping on the interstate for a few exits and then turning around just to charge up the battery. I miss driving this beast, so I don't mind occasionally burning the extra fuel.I also have a NOCO genius10, which works perfect for overnight trickling. Unfortunately my old EP3 is currently in the garage to trace down an electrical issue, so I have to remove the TL's battery anytime I want to charge it.

Interested to hear how the solar panel goes!

 

why not leave the negative terminal loose enough to pull off and hand tighten so it won't drain ?

 

The one downside I can think of is having to key the security code for the radio and nav (if so equipped) every time you reconnect the battery. I get that this might be easier than having to deal with a potentially dead battery but something to be aware of.

I'm going about two weeks between starting and driving my car and so far it has been okay. Each time I take it out I'm putting about 30 miles on it 90% highway and again seems to be working.

 

This.
Yes, unhooking is an option. I'd also be resetting my computers learned data and mpg numbers etc. Not the end of the world, but I don't like resetting the computer unless I have to, like after fixing a fault code.
First world problems not worth complaining about really. I appreciate the suggestion though!

 

I ended up buying a new battery from Costco because I got tired of driving it just for the sake of charging the battery. Afterwards I only drove it a small amount once a week. After 2 weeks the low battery light started flashing again after I turn the car off. It's a little surprising considering it's a new battery.

 

So now I believe it's more a problem with the car liking to eat batteries rather than a bad/old battery.

 

Plug it in everynight to keep the battery topped up if your car has a parasitic drain this is the easiest solution rather than diagnosing the problem remember in the winter your battery loses about 60% of its power due to the cold using one of these you will never worry about a dead battery ever.

 

so safe to say that the solar panel didn't do the trick?

 

Well there was one instance where the low battery light was on, plugged in the solar charger, next day was very sunny, day after that I started the car and the light was not on. Also the car has always started so far. So it must be doing something.

I think if it ever doesn't start then I'll just get that trickle charger. Otherwise for now I don't drive it far or often and the low battery light is on but it's still starting fine. Temperatures are supposed to increase soon too.