The eye is the plastic thing you can screw out, right? Mine is currently clear. Should I go ahead and pull it out to get it recharged at a place like autozone or should I just preemptively replace it? My car is 4 years and 10 months old with 38,000 miles on it.

 

Huh???

 

The eye only indicates the state of charge. It's not removable. And, you do not need to remove the battery to recharge it. Were I you, before replacing the battery I'd borrow a battery charger, read the instructions, and see if the battery will accept and hold a charge. You, of course, can remove the battery and have it recharged, but that is more work than necessary, and if you remove the battery, you'll lose the ECU & radio codes and have to go through the drill of restoring them. I would at least attempt to recharge the battery in the car to see if it will hold a charge (green eye) before replacing it, unless of course you have $70 burning a hole in your pocket.

JFI, the OEM battery in my '02 hung in there for eight years. In this regard, battery life is a function of the degree of daily discharge and recharging. The more the electrical demand and the "deeper" the daily recycling, and the shorter the life of the battery.

 

Ah, apparently the thing I unscrewed was for the thing to add more water if i needed. I guess I need to take a look at my battery again tomorrow.

 

Well depending on how much use the car gets used if it sits around a lot and doesnt get driven the battery will not hold a charge very well. Car batteries typically last 4-6 years. So if your battery is almost 5 years old it isnt a bad idea in looking for a replacement.