can a battery just up and die?

[Coldjensens]

Originally Posted by turkey-head

Usually a battery will give a little warning, but it's subtle. If you're not a Mechanical God like myself, you could easily overlook it. So yeah, for all pracfical purposes batteries can and often do die suddenly.

Personally my ears are well calibrated so I can detect the slightest variation in cranking RPM. First time it cranks a little slow, I check the date on the battery. If it's 5 years old or more, I replace it before really checking anything else.

I had a battery last 7 years once. But reliability is iffy at 5 years.

I had one last for 14 years. And it was the POS battery from the MFG. Mostly warm climate though. It only lasted about six years after we moved to a cold climate.

At the same time, my daughter's expensive interstate battery was only 17 months old.

Anything can fail, anything can last way beyond expectations. You just never know (unless you do something dumb and cause it to fail).

[unit731]

On your new battery.
Place a date label when new.

Begin to think about replacing at the 5 year mark.

Extreme heat and extreme cold do affect batteries.

There is only 3 major manufacturers of car batteries. With a multitude of brand names.

Some do like to squeeze the maximum out of battery and wait for a failure. As long as one has a backup plan for such immediate failures - go for it.

[turkey-head]

Originally Posted by Coldjensens

I had one last for 14 years. And it was the POS battery from the MFG. Mostly warm climate though. It only lasted about six years after we moved to a cold climate.

At the same time, my daughter's expensive interstate battery was only 17 months old.

Anything can fail, anything can last way beyond expectations. You just never know (unless you do something dumb and cause it to fail).

Nobody seems to believe me when I say so... but cheap batteries often last longer. The expensive high-CCA batteries with thin, closely packed plates fail sooner, because those thin plates can warp/sulfate/short more easily.