Has your OEM Battery Ever Died?

Now that Caymans are entering their second winter in the US, the issue of how long OEM batteries last will become more and more important to some owners. There has been a lot of discussion on how long the OEM battery lasts depending upon how long the car has sat without being on a battery tender. So the question becomes, "Has anyone had their battery totally die after the car sat (with no obvious battery drains like leaving something plugged in an aux plug)."? For the purpose of this poll, a "day" is 24 hours. Please do NOT vote if you have not had the car sit at LEAST 5 days. Please do NOT vote if you left the battery on a battery tender.

No, but longer than ten days I will not play the "risk it game" and will plug in the battery tender. I'm not interested in trying for my personal record given the price of replacement batteries. There are so many variables like state of charge, weather, driving habits that one size does not fit all.

I said "yes"...but it was because the key was left in the ignition. Not obvious. Now i know better.

Are dead batteries something new and exclusive to Caymans? A few years ago, when I had my Boxster S it sat for weeks without a charger. I never had a problem. Of course I didn't have a Boxster Forum to refer to back then so maybe I just didn't know I had a problem.

I'm with Santa Fe on this one. If I know that I am going to be out of town and won't be able to drive my car for more than a week, I plug in the battery tender. A little assurance and it's not like it's going to hurt anything in doing so.

I got a chuckle of the "Now that it's winter..." part. here in Phoenix, it isn't winter that kills batteries, it's summer. Expect no car battery to make it through more than 2 summers regardless of how good the battery is and how much you paid for it. Especially on front engined cars with batteries in the engine compartment, the batteries will generally not see even a minute of temperature under 120 degrees and quite often MUCH more than that from the beginning of May to October. This basically kills the batteries. On the bright side, it doesn't matter if you buy a cheap 48 month battery or a big buck 96 month battery, you will be replacing it in 2.5 years or less. At this point I just replace my batteries every second spring. The CS, with the battery being removed from the engine compartment might help but I doubt it. i had a Mercedes that had the battery under the read seats and it only lasted 18 months at a time.

My GMC truck battery lasted 6+years with a bit of TLC (battery tender), but it isn't hot here either.

Was gone for 2 weeks without the battery tender, no problem. So far my battery has never died… Now I am going to CO for 6-7 weeks soon, should I hook it up to the battery tender (which I have), or just take out the battery, since I will change it to a lightweight battery (which I also have) anyway when I am back? Pro & cons?

had mine sit for 3 weeks in December and it started up with no problems.

Just in case someone needs to move the car I'd leave it in and connected to the tender. Better safe than sorry as someone somewhere must have said.

Good to know.

I've been on a couple month long business trips trips where I just kept the CS in the garage at work (so tender is not an option) and I haven't had as issue yet.

I've had the car sitting outside under a cover for eight or nine days and she started right up. Still only have 1400 miles on it since Oct. 13.

my cs has sat in the garage with a tender for 1 to 2 months at a time--no problem

Extend the "like new" performance of your battery for 10 years. Hello EJPhoto, I'm sure many battery owner's (with batteries in cars, trucks, golf carts and etc,) will agree with you that you will need to replace your battery on average every four years and in fact more often in extreme temperatures. I don't know how many of our readers are aware of this fact, but batteries begin their slow death from the moment the acid is introduced to the lead plates and the electrons start flowing. Every moment of a batteries life, it is producing sulfates and it is sulfates that cause the immediate degradation in performance, ultimately shorting out your battery rendering it as "shot" or "dead". Recurring deep discharges or annually allowing your battery's voltage to drop ("get weak" or "go dead") creates much larger amounts of the sulfates to form more quickly on the batteries lead plates and precipitate like a snowfall to the bottom of the battery. This is exacerbated by battery operation in extreme temperatures. If anybody has been driving for a number of years, I'm sure that they have once or twice inadvertently left parking lights, glove box door or etc. energized only to return to their vehicle one or two hours later and be surprised to find a "weak" or "dead" battery. You may have noted that the same battery (when new) would have tolerated such acts of forgetfulness with no problem but now that the battery is aging (sulfate build-up) it is losing its capacity. There is a wonderfully simple to install, inexpensive and peace-of-mind producing product that I use on my families, my business truck and my Cayman S (six vehicles). This device will preserve and extend your "like new" battery performance for double or triple the normal battery life. For just a fraction of the cost of a new battery, you can keep your battery cranking strong at "like new output", prevent the inconvenience of an unexpected battery failure and also protect the environment by saving all of the energy required to recycle/manufacture two additional batteries. For winter storage, just leave the Battery Life Saver installed and use any battery maintenance charger and a conventional household timer that cycles the trickle charger on for a period of time then off for the same period of time repeatedly. This will keep your battery strong as new for maybe a decade. Learn more at Battery Life Saver - Lead Acid Battery Desulfator (I have no affiliation with this manufacturer other than being a satisfied customer). Regards, Joe

Well I am skeptical about the Battery Life Saver simply because they have an extensive website but nowhere do they ever tell you how the technology works. I am simply supposed to believe that clipping something that looks like a voltage regulator to the battery will remove sulfates. As an engineer, if they told me a little bit about how it actually works, I might be a believer but the site is purely designed to sell them and purposely leaves out the details of what it is actually doing to remove sulfates.

Google delsuphating auto batteries. Lots of websites. The Porsche battery tender is a CTEK. See The Sulphated battery and CTEK desulphation Four stage and supposed to do the same thing. How? I guess ask Ctek or see if they have a FAQ but I think in principle, this is common now. The Porsche battery tender works fine.

Thanks for the link. I do use the Porsche unit whenever I am not driving the car for more than a couple of days.

Started my Cayman today. It was idle for 34 days without battery tender or charger. Started instantly. It is stored indoors at a constant 55 degrees.

That's about right. Porsche officially says "remember that a Porsche vehicle has many electronic systems, and is not designed to be stored undriven for more than 30 days." They suggest using a trickle charger for longer periods.