Does anybody out there know if there is a way to tell for sure how much life is left in your batteries??????

Mine have been in since day one, and since my truck starts in less than half a crank, I'm not sure how I would ever tell if my batteries are still like new. But a couple posts a while back have me wondering if I should find a way to check. Because if they ended up no good, I don't think I would have any warning.

Anybody got any ideas??? Other than one of those major gizmos' that does a heavy test under a load of a couple hundred amps?/??

 

what year is your truck? I may be in the same situation as you. Still original batteries and starts real quick. I asked the same question last winter and I really didn't get a clear solid response from anyone. Maybe you'll get different.

 

Please fill out your signature so we know what truck you have.

Lead acid batteries last 3-5 years at best.

 

If you want to find out, just have each battery load tested. It takes longer to isolate each one than it does to test them.
Tom

 

I'm going 5+ years on originals. Still seem fine.

 

The way to really test is to load test it. The load testers are not all that expensive. You can also bring the batteries to somewhere like Advance Auto and they have a big "battery tester" there. I think its free to test the batteries (but I am not positive), their hope is if they do check bad, you'll buy new ones there

 

A very good indication of how good your batteries are is the length of time they can run your headlights if you left them on accidentally and still be able to start the engine. If you left your headlights on for a couple of hours and was still able to start the engine then your batteries are probably still good. This is a very rough test and it only measures the overall condition of the two batteries combined. There are some failure modes that it will not detect. All this is assuming that your batteries were fully charged to begin with. No test is as good as a load test. Also leaving your headlights on constitutes a deep discharge of the batteries and it adversely affects the life of the batteries, so I would not recommend that you deliberately do this test. A friend of mine left her Camry headlights on at the mall for half an hour and was not able to start the car. Afterwards I did a conductance test of the battery and it registered 330 CCA which is somewhat low and I replaced the battery. This was an instance where there was no previous indication of a weak battery but the headlight incident gave us a headsup on the condition of the battery.

 

You could always put a wrench between the terminals and see if it turns cherry red.

DO NOT TRY THIS!!!

If it spins the engine well, you probably don't have an issue. What else do they need to do to be good to you. As said you can go to an autoparts store and they'll load test it.

Randy