jcar2012

I have a Honda accord 2000 se. The battery died a week ago. I had AutoZone to charge it, and they told me it can be charged to 89% full. When I put in back and car started and have been working since then. I also had AutoZone tested alternator and the test was good (> 14v). They told me that I had a bad battery. It was from WalMart 3.5 years ago which is 2-years battery. My question is - is this battery bad and I should get a new one?

-jc

jdowen2

If it's 3 1/2 years old it's had a good, hard life. Time to replace.

holmesnmanny

The good thing about autozone is that they warranty their gold batteries for something like 7 years and prorate the difference. That's what I got. Plus you don't have to worry about a receipt when you get in their system.

The problem with autozone is their alternator testers don't know how to test Honda alternators when in low output mode. Honda alternators have two modes...low and high output. I bought a reman from them and it was bad out of the box even though it was testing fine on their tester. The problem was that when the alternator is in low output mode for some reason it wasn't charging enough. When I took the first one back and got the second one, the problem went away.

0Steve@Spreen

AZ has since changed their battery warranty program...no more pro-rates, just a 2 or 3 year warranty, with no additional time (ie: you bought the battery 12/12 and it's a three year battery, it dies on 10/14, you have just over 1 year left on the warranty). My son works there and he says they are getting really tight on their warranties. I believe this will be industry wide soon enough. Here at Honda (so far) our batteries are warranted for 100 months, first 3 years free, pro-rated after that. Hard to beat that deal (price should be around $110, depending on dealer). HTH

Also, testers are not gospel. An alternator (or battery) can test fine on the bench, cold, but be a completely different animal when hot. My Prelude would bench test fine, but when it got hot, it would quit charging and drain my battery. It took several trips before I could convince them to replace my alternator. Also, holmesnmanny is correct, once you're in the AZ system, no receipt is necessary (good thing too, as their receipts usually fade into obscurity and you cannot read them).

Hidenplanvew

Well your never start has actually done pretty good, Most dont last a year. They Are made by johnson and johnson. They are garbage, the batterys sold at Napa, Autozone, sears are not made by J&J and will usally last alot longer. Interstate, and Energizer are some of the better ones I have seen. I have one (Energizer) thats over 8 years old and not a single problem, just check the water level in it every few months.

holmesnmanny

Interesting. I guess they must have changed their program recently.

I figured out the issue with the first alternator I bought from them because when I had it loaded..or even fully loaded...it would charge fine. It would only light up when the thing was in low output mode....no loads at all and cruising.

halfkoreanboy

My battery was getting weak in my 97 and i bought a wal mart everstart maxx it has 750 cold cranking amps and was like 95 bucks after core and 3 year free replacement cant beat that and car actually feels like its running smoother and accelerates better id recommend getting a new battery it beats getting stranded in the cold winter and less strain on your alternator

djkurious

The previous owner of my car had a walmart battery that was purchased in 2003 and I finally replaced it Nov 2011. The receipt was still attached in the plastic pocket on the battery. I figured if it lasted 8 years might as well go with what lasted so I purchased another Walmart Everstart Maxx battery.