Good Idea or Bad Idea (re: battery)
 

I was looking under my hood today and when I saw my battery I realized that it looks really old. I don't know what brand it is but judging by the way it looks I do not have much faith in it starting my car on a really cold winter day.

With that in mind I saw some Motomaster eliminator things on the CT website that you can use to start your car if the battery is dead. I was thinking it would be good to get one as insurance, then I realized that they cost as much if not more than a brand new battery. With this in mind is it a good idea for me to buy the battery that I need from CT and just keep it in my garage? Will it lose power or something if it is just sitting there getting no use? What if I don't even need it till next winter (although I doubt that will happen)? Will it be fine in say a year from now? Sorry if this is a really stupid question, I just have no idea about car batteries and thought it might be better for me to buy the actual battery rather than insurance in the form of one of those motomaster things that start your car and get recharaged through the cigarette lighter. What do you think?

Thanks.

my dad bought one of those. We haven't used it yet. I'm pretty sure it works still though. He bought it last fall.

Actually, I think he might of used it once or twice.

Why don't you just buy a new battery? An OEM one from Honda will probably last. Mine is 8 years old and is still good.

yeah, I would go for a new battery using my discount at Parkway Honda. makes no sense to use a band-aid solution to a problem that won't fix itself. if the battery dies in the next say 6 mths, you still need a new battery, and then you still have a peice of crap booster pack that you'll never use again (for at least 5 yrs)

just buy an eliminator battery from canadian tire. 99.99 with more cca then oem and a 9yr total warranty (3 yr free).

you will know when its time for a new battery... your car will begin to turn over slower ect... generally a battery doesnt just die unless you leave a light on in the car or something. if your hard on cash, just wait till you notice your starts getting weaker... if you dont care then just put a new battery in now, its an easy 5 min job.

and to answer your other question no the battery will not get messed up by letting it sit ( granted you dont leave it on a cold cement floor). keep it off the floor in the house/heated garage... somewhere warm. plus you can always give it a quick charge before you install it :shrugs:

another thought is to service your existing battery... remove it from the car, scrub it down all over with a bakingsoda/ water solution to remove all the crud.

Then remove the caps on each cell, carefully clean all the dirt around the openings of each cell (being carefull not to get dirt into the cell. Then add DISTILLED WATER/ or equivilant to each cell... bring the water back up over the tops of the plates inside each of the cells. Then give it a good charge to 100% while the caps are off ( just sit them on each cell so nothing can fall in)...

After the charge is finished, tightly secure each cap, then reinstall the battery in the car. This should extend the life of the battery for some time depending a a few variables which I wont get into...

forgot my safety advice. WARE EYE PROTECTION ...ive gotten a very small drop of acid in my eye before from prying off snap on caps... the cap flew off and splashed alittle in my face. It fuggen scared the hell out of me, my eye closed up and went numb, i spent the next 30 mins with a shower head pressurewashing my eyeball. It suked donky nuts..

no damage tho :D

actually leaving a battery on the floor is a bad thing.
i read it in several places something about it grouding with the floor and it being bad for it or something exploding or some crap.
research into it.

thats what i said... dont leave it on the floor

Ive heard some car batteries cannot be recharged, right?

yea i know i was jus talking about it in general.
:thumbup: moister smarty pants:P

get a new battery... CT or OEM from parkway....
i'm planning to become a paid member and get an OEM at parkway before the winter hits too... just safer to have a new battery before winter if you feels yours is being weak (and its being weak)... don't change it coz you feel its dirty and its old...change it if you feel your car starts weak...

:p

Thanks for the advice, I thought a battery would just give up out of the blue, I never knew that it would be weaker and then die. With that in mind I'm not sure how weak my battery is, what is 'turning over' is that the noise it makes before it starts? Sometimes it makes that noise a three or four times, sometimes only once. I'll see how it responds in colder weather because I heard that affects a battery's effectiveness. Thanks again.

take off the caps, make sure theyre full. if the underside of the caps have black "dirt" on them then something is wrong with the way its charging (ie. alternator is overcharging it) and youll have to get a new one.