On Mon, 21 Jan 2008 08:20:01 -0500, George
wrote:

professorpaul wrote:
At that age, you are on borrowed time. Replace it. I had a battery on
my Jeep that was OEM, and 6 years old. I simply pre-empted the
situation and got a new one. A new battery is MUCH less than a road
service call/tow.

Also the "maintenance free" batteries seem to fail much differently than
their predecessors. The old batteries used to give a good indication
with slow cranking. The maintenance free versions seem to just quit.
After having 2 fail like that on different vehicles and hearing numerous
friends say the same I now preemptively change batteries. It simply
isn't worth getting stuck trying to get a little more time out of an old
battery.

My battery was 5.5 years old before I replaced it a couple of months
ago. It was getting where it wouldn't hold enough charge to start the
car for more than about 16 hours. I have a battery charger at home for
use when necessary, but the chance of it not starting when I was away
from home was getting serious. Also, I was planning a trip to a colder
area.
--
Mark Lloyd
http://notstupid.laughingsquid.com

"All your western theologies, the whole mythology of them,
are based on the concept of God as a senile delinquent."
-- Tennessee Williams