VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND NEWER 1990-Current Battery Life

I am in the process of changing the battery in my 2018 Silverado-5 years and 9 months . Just curious if others are experiencing short battery life on newer vehicles as a neighbor had to replace a 6 year old battery. ( not a Chevy}.

Do you mean 5 years is short battery life?

It is shorter than i am used to-especially with only 28000 miles. I suppose it could be due to mostly short trip driving. My experience has been in the 7-9 year range. My 2009 Silverado still had the original battery when I traded it in 2020. I realize that the newer vehicles have a lot of extra features that the older ones did not have. There is more than the dome light that is activated when the door is opened. When shutting down some items remain active for a period of time-lights-radio. Also noticed that when parked and ignition turned off after a few moments 20-30 seconds say some controls are still active as I can hear them shutting down . One being the transmission park position as the truck moves slightly as if the foot brake was released.

I posted this also on the Silverado/Sierra site and the consensus was that 5-6 years was good and not to expect more than 3-4 years for a replacement battery. Seems to me a little backward as we can now battery power a vehicle .

In my experience here in Aus 4 - 5 years is average life but I have also seen some up to 10 year old and just starting to give trouble. As for battery cars I they are what I refer to as "fire starters", there has been that many catch fire the fire brigade attend and stop the fire spreading to anything else.
Tony

In newer vehicles I would be happy if I could get 5 years battery life. Especially ones with the stupid "stop-start" feature!

My experience is that a good battery maintainer does help for vehicles that are not driven frequently and only for short distances.

In my experience battery life depends mostly on 3 factors.

First, the initial quality of the battery.

Second, the number of times the battery is cycled (discharged and then recharged).

Third, the depth of the cycles (how far it is run down on each cycle).


Initial quality now is horrible compared to the 1980's for example.
Regarding the 2nd and 3rd factors, I usually use the biggest battery I can fit to the application.
That way the depth of each cycle as a proportion of the battery capacity is much less.
Seems to make a big difference for me.

Several times now I've had a new battery almost completely discharged for some reason or other, and when then recharged, they are DONE.
They don't survive even 1 cycle that deep.

On the other hand, I have one battery on the farm from 1985 and 1 from 1997 that are still fine.
But in both cases the engines start scary fast (like 1st compression fast) and hardly cycle at all.

Average battery life today is 5 to 7 years except in areas where temp. goes over 100 deg, for long periods of time.

Average human life goes from 1 to 100 years,

One other factor on the replacement battery is how long it has been on the retailers shelf. Slow moving part numbers and/or poor stock rotation can produce a sulfated battery.

Dave

I am in NY. If you drive your vehicle in the winter the battery generally last 4-5 years. As a general rule U have mine checked in my daily driver each fall to see chat the CCA are at. If they are to low it will fail when it get cold in the winter and I just swap it. If it is a summer only car I go with the rule of if it cranks it works.

Well I had the battery changed and everything was fine until today. The no crank problem has returned so I will update this post once a diagnosis and repair is made. Waiting for the tow truck to arrive and sending it out for repairs. In 62 years this will be the third time getting towed. Once was for a 92 Buick Century that had a failed fuel pump. The second was for the 32 on it's first tour where I had a gummed up gas tank. The shop that did some of the restoration advised that he cleaned the tank but that was not the case.More like attempted and failed.

Update: Starter has been replaced and all seems OK at this time. Not too happy about having to replace a starter on a vehicle with 26000 miles.

By any chance does your Silverado have auto start/stop?

I wouldn't expect to get nearly as many miles out of a starter that has to re-start the engine at every stop light.

No it does not. The repair shop I used said he is seeing a lot of starter replacement on those vehicles though. I did keep the old starter and when time allows will see if I (with help) can determine the failure cause. I have a friend who is pretty talented in that area and he will help check it out. Apparently the newer starters are very different than the ones in our older vehicles. This starter is not much larger than the one on my lawn tractor-has no field windings and is a magnetic induction motor if I have that correct. Actually the same type as in my clothes washing machine . I think the 2019 has the start-stop feature . I have been told it can be bypassed but I don't know what that involves. I am 78 and with only 26000 miles in 6 years it very well may be my last pick-up.