Battery life, 406 HDi ?

[Kiwi]

I'm curious as to opinions of battery life; as I spend a lot of time in the colder parts of Europe, I'm wondering if the replace battery every 3 years is sound advice or rather conservative. Useage is split between freeway and medium length trips but lights and often fan / screen heater are in use. Thanks.

[omega]

only replace when it packs in could last 10 + years

[steve_earwig]

Or it might not viewtopic.php?f=3&t=6170&hilit=+dead+battery

I'm guessing you might have read that already, I'm still not sure about the three years, I suspect it might have a lot to do with the quality of battery. I'd suggest 3 years as being on the Conservative side of "oh my fugging god, I'm miles from anywhere, no help is coming and the natives are eyeing me hungrily", while 5 years might be as much as you could generally expect from a decent battery and time to start saving for a replacement. Anything over that and expect a visit from the sudden death fairy. Saying that, the battery for my bike is about 10 years old and, despite being neglected (i.e. not used), the Omtimate still says it's ok. However I will definitely replace it W-H-E-N I get the bike back on the road and think about relying on it. Push start a heavy bike with my back? Fook dat!

[Kiwi]

Many thanks for that Steve, but no, I hadn't read your link before . I 'm now leaning towards a new one, the cost of a battery will always be less than the cost when it dies at the most inconvienient time in the middle of nowhere ............Reading your link, is the 75ah dimensionally the same as the original, or do you need different cables ?

When I had the current battery installed, I had a repair shop do it, as I'd heard all sorts of horror stories about ECU/electronic problems ( needing a reset or...... ? ) when a battery was removed and a new fitted without keeping the system " live ". They just took out the old, put in the new, the clock was all I had to reset.

Are the horror stories just a myth, or was I just lucky ? Thanks.

[lozz]

My citreon is on its original battery, just coming up for 12yrs old,

so iagree with omega, just replace it when it shows sighns of packing in,
altho ithink winter is the killer of batterys,

[leestudd30]

I thought not following these instructions, viewtopic.php?f=10&t=13431, could lead lead to the BSI software corrupting. Mind you, mine turns over fairly slowly and will probably need the battery changing next year. My old vec had the same battery for over 6 years and through all those terrible winters we've had over the last few years it always started first time!