Dead Battery After 1 Year

[Mikey D]

I bought a 2005 Corolla LE in June 2005. It has performed beautifully since I purchased it. I just had it inspected. The next day, the car would not start. After having it jumped, I took it back to the inspection shop and they said the battery was only holding about 350 amps and that was not enough for a cold start. I have 37,000 miles on the car which means the delar won't cover the battery since mileage is over warramty. I drive to and from work on the highway each day. This was an OEM Delphi Battery. I have replaced it with an Exide battery and everything seems to ve fine.

Has anyone else eperienced this problem? The car is taken in for its regularly scheduled maintenance and no lights or other power drain occurred to weaken the battery. The weather conditions have also not been very extreme. I have never had a new battery fail in just one year of operation before.

I welcome any comments. Thanks,

[punter]

It does happen, normally its only cheap batteries that fail so soon. But there is an exception to every rule.

[cuzman]

as above but remember some batteries may sit around on the shelf for a long time aswell

[thespud]

350 Amps? new cars have too many fan-dangled features. I still got a 260CCA in my '95

But yes - batteries can fail after bugger all time. I had a $200 Maintainance free Deep cycle fail on my folks van after 1 month (Deep Cycle should be much much better on a van but still dropped 3 cells), had one on the 'rolla fail after 6 months and had a couple that have failed after 13 months (1 month out of warranty!).

So it does happen, but not too often... Even the expensive ones have some problems.

[daniel2002p]

i have a 05 S and its cranking slower and slower with the stock 550CCA battery, had it tested at auto zone and it only supplies 440CCA, which the car still starts but the starter is waaaaaaay slower than when I bought the car brand new, I am looking at a red top from Optima 880CCA should do the trick.

D

[ToyotaMan1281]

well my dodge neon battery died after 4 yrs, but never after 1 year.

[02whiteLE]

My '02 Camry still has the OEM battery, and not had a single problem out of it, except for some corrosion.
I would think that on a car that new, the dealer would take care of your battery if it's only 1K over warranty mileage.

[rosiye]

I bought an '05 in June also. The battery went kaput last month. I called Toyota and they said it was covered (only 25K miles) but then the dealer tried to charge me. Good thing I called.

[toyomoho]

Could be just a fluke, the “normal” lifetime is around 5 years. Make sure the charging system is working OK, not under or overcharging. The cables are not corroded; the battery is bolted down secure and no patristic drains.

[PhatRoyale]

My OEM Delco Freedom battery lasted over 7 years before I replaced it, guess the life of components depends on quality, level of maintenance and luck to some extent.

[cuzman]

If a batt is only deepleted with in its ability it will last a long time
If its sucked low often it will send it to an early grave!