gomarlins3

^That's service!!

dlq04

I should qualify my rant a little. With the expense today I've spent a grand total of $500 for the entire year on the Audi. My rant isn't so much against Audi as just the fact that technology has made a simple task of changing a battery way too complicated. But heck, it has only taken me 9 years to figure out how to reset the clock for daylight savings without pulling out the owner's manual.

Emil St-Hilaire

Getting old is not for wimps...

robb

Having just bought a new car Dave I get the point you are making. My car is just a base model and I'm amazed at all the bells and whistles it has and just keep thinking that it will just cause headaches down the road. I bought my previous 03 Tacoma in 06 and had it until August of 16 and never replaced the battery and it was still good when I got rid of it of course it had no power options to run it down. Previous to that I had my 94 Toyota pickup for roughly 10 years and never had to replace the battery on that. On my current Subie
I'm figuring to be lucky to get 4 years out of it. And speaking of programming the clock I wimped out when I had to do mine and went right to the owners manual and it still took me a bit!

dlq04

At the dealership the service writer said the batteries are good for 3 to 5 years! I was thinking WHAT, 3 years!

boltonblue

Batteries are doing a heck of a lot more nowadays than ever before.
example: the computer in your car never actually shuts down fully. There is always a trickle drain.
a lot of cars today's have start/stop engines to conserve fuel.
Totally changes our concepts of abttery use.

Dave wait another few years when you can't buy the magic control module for you ABS or
dash display or digital dashboard temperature/ environmental control assembly anymore.
Then you'll truly hate new cars.
and because of ROHS ( Reduction Of Hazardous Substances) the likelihood of failure is much higher.
ad for the record ROHS was not an EPA thing, it was an EU initiative.

skunkworks

Could be worse…Remember when my son had an MG B Roadster that needed a jump start. In the dark I removed the battery access panel to discover two batteries. Thought I knew what I was doing, but didn’t, and short happened (just an instantaneous arc) when attaching the charging clamps. The car wouldn’t charge afterwards and required a tow home (have you ever tried to tow a person who had no clues of how to be towed nor had the presence of mind to understand the dynamics of such?). From that small mistake I needed to hire a towing truck, replace the diodes in his alternator, and do believe something else electrical related (can’t remember). A rebuilt alternator wasn’t available, but the diodes were, and I owned a soldering pencil.

Time of repair: two days.
Profanities: Lots of them.

As I remember this MG had a very unique electrical system.


Gary

dlq04

Two 6-volt batteries in series. It's an easy swap to one small 12-volt battery (26R). I don't recall if early MGB were positive ground; all the MGA's were. That too is an easy two or three step conversion with proper instructions to switch to a more normal negative ground system. All part of the fun of driving fur'n cars.

robb

I've been thinking that the time has come to trade my daily driver in every 3 or so years it may make more financial sense to keep cars in warranty. Have to run the numbers in a couple of years and see what it will cost to trade in for a newer model.
As for mg's and batteries that is a whole different ball of wax! I had a 73 b that had been converted to 12 volt the battery was mounted behind the seat I had a 77 midget and that came factory with a 12 volt that was mounted right by the firewall in the engine compartment.

zeroptzero

Sorry to hear this , that was highway robbery for a batter and installation. That is an Audi problem not a new car problem. My 2016 Honda Civic can have it's battery replaced without me having to tell the car it's a new battery. That is the dumbest thing I have ever heard where a car needs to know that the battery is new ? Leave it to the Germans to come up with this stuff, one reason I stopped driving BMW's years ago.