I had an oil change today, which cost $150 (although that did include an air filter) and they told me that I “needed a new battery.” I just bought one last year! They said it was “charging at 510 when it should be at least 640, and it’s running off the alternator.” Google didn’t tell me much, so I’m going to ask those of you who may have forgotten more about this than I will ever know if this is correct, or if they were just trying to upsell me.
Of course it’s “running off the alternator.” The alternator has two jobs: power the car’s electrical system/electronics and charge the battery. As for 510 vs. 640, I’ll leave those numbers to someone who actually knows what they might mean.
Sounds like BS.
But did you buy a new one last year because the battery failed prematurely or was very old? If premature failure, then you may have a problem that a battery won’t solve. If just because it was old and died a natural death, then your system is likely fine. As well as the battery.
The numbers are odd. They seem to refer to cranking Amps, not charging rate. Cranking Amps as advertised are seldom real. 510 is okay.
$150 seems awfully expensive for an oil change and a place that’s going to helpfully check your battery just in case the 1 year old battery needs a really expensive replacement seems like they’re just upselling you.
Batteries also have a warranty, if you know where you bought it from.
Many auto parts stores will do a battery test for free. They test how well your battery is taking and holding a charge. I do that whenever starting my car seems harder than normal or my battery dies from something like leaving the lights on. You might want to take your car to the place which sold you your battery and ask them to do a battery test. If they say it’s bad, they would be the ones to honor the warranty.
I generally don’t like having quiky-lube places do work on my car. I feel they are overly aggressive with upselling additional work and recommend maintenance that’s not always needed. Plus, I don’t really trust those mechanics for doing anything other than an oil change. If they messed up something with a battery swap–like fried the electronics–they wouldn’t be qualified to fix it. Oil changes are simple enough that I’m not too worried, but I use an actual mechanic shop for any other maintenance.
CCA, am guessing?
At any rate, if the car is starting O.K., and there isn’t a light or message on the dash indicating a charging problem, then it’s very likely O.K.
I hate ripoff artists.
And that 510 vs. 640 is why I started this thread.
I’ve use this oil change place for several years, and trust them. The air filter DID need to be replaced. FWIW, it’s a Jiffy Lube.
There was another oil change place (a chain; don’t remember off the top of my head which one) that had over $1,000 in upsells. I used my discount coupon and never went back there.
I agree, and I don’t have any flashing dash lights.
Jiffy Lube is notorious for upselling. It’s usually your coolant needs changing or your transmission oil has metal particles in it (no shit?) or your wipers need to be replaced. I agree with the above about getting your battery tested by the place where you bought it (if possible). AAA will also check it for you. So will AutoZone, for free.
Then you have more faith in the quiky-lube places than me. Because I would never trust them to do an oil change. I would never even trust them to put air in my tires.
Battery testers are really cheap nowadays. I think anyone who does any amount of work on their vehicles should have one. I have this one. Only $30 and it has paid for itself many times over. (The only problem I’ve found is that it does not compensate for temperature; it assumes the battery is at room temperature.)
Some years ago I was having my oil changed at one of those places and I ran into an old college friend who had become a nun. She was wearing her nun clothes and also having her (I guess it was her convent’s car) oil changed. We had a nice chat and they finished my car first. I wish I had hung around to see if they had the nerve to try to upsell a nun.
I was paying over $200 at the dealership for my truck’s oil change. I started a thread here about the “boutique” oils that I encountered once I started buying my own oil (and changing it myself). I went to some quick-change places but they didn’t have the unique viscosity mine requires, and in some cases tried to convince me it wasn’t really that important as long as it was “close”. I decided to trust the design engineers instead of “some guy at Jiffy Lube”.
Even if they don’t screw it up, you’re likely to lose all your presets and mode choices once the system is deprived of 12V power. I bought a cheap 12V maintainer that plugs into the OBD and it worked great. It only had to supply power for about 10 minutes while we maneuvered the new battery into position, but everything was normal and nothing was lost during the swap.
What! You mean that cabin air filter with bugs and cigarette butts they’re showing me isn’t really mine?
A number of years ago, I had a friend who had an old car that was having electrical problems. Since that is often a bad battery, and since his battery was several years old, he purchased a new one and installed it himself. The problems continued, however, and just a week later he took it to a repair shop.
They called him and said he needed a new alternator and a new battery. The battery was only a week old! Did they not notice it was spanking new? LOL
Go to AutoZone or Advance or whatever your closest auto parts store is and ask them to please check your battery. They will go out to your car and do the test for free with no need to pull into a bay or take the battery out.
My air filter was full of tree pollen, which in my neighborhood made sense, especially in recent days.
For how much though? It’s a DIY of $15 and 5 minutes of time. Did they lube ya for a $60 filter and an hour of labor because many do.
Just as bad as a lube shop. Has AAA ever tested a battery that didn’t need replaced for 50% more than you could buy an equivalent at an auto parts store?
Sir, we used the nitro-oxy specialty blend. 80% Nitro - you know that stuff that makes your car go fast at the drag strip and 20% oxygen like what makes OxyClean make your detergent better. Along with super-secret Dr. Xavier trace chemicals that lead to top-ranked operations.
That’ll be $400.
per tire.
It is possible that a bad alternator killed the new battery to the point it needed replacing. Not common, but possible.
Very timely, they latest Project Farm video is on car battery testers. The headline for the video is “This Tool Stopped a Car Dealership Scam.”
His recommendation is this one, for under $40.
I have changed my own oil exclusively since I was about 18 years old (I’m 52 now), until recently, when I started working remotely and oil change frequency dropped to about once a year. I figured a once-a-year visit to a mechanic (a real mechanic, not an oil change place), was worthwhile to keep my car well maintained.
For my car, a Volvo, to be serviced by a volvo mechanic, it used synthetic oil plus a volvo-branded filter and was about $100 for the oil change. My wife’s jeep gets done by a local garage and is about $80.
A cabin air filter will cost between $10 and $15 and in most cars takes < 5 minutes to change. Bottom line, you should not be paying $150 for people who are NOT mechanics to be delivering that service.
My dad’s friend opened an oil change shop after he retired. He sold the location to someone else a few years later, telling my dad that the markup on oil and filters wasn’t enough to stay in business, he barely scraped by because he didn’t upsell people on things they didn’t need. He finally sold the location to someone else because he wasn’t enjoying working for minimum wage as the owner of the shop.
It really is worth the time to find a quality local mechanic (not the dealership) and have them do the work. It’s not as convenient, but it’s better for your car.
The only purpose of the battery is to start the car. CCA or cold cranking amps is the power to start the car under adverse conditions like cold weather. After the car is started the whole thing runs off the alternator. Always. You can literally take the battery out of the car once it is started. If it is running off the battery you have a serious problem that won’t last long.
Adding on accesories like dash-cams, radar detectors, etc. may cause a slow power drain. Your stock battery is enough to start the car but little more. Car companies are saving money on power and weight. Adding anything that draws power beyond what the vehicle came with originally is going to cause power drain, As will poor connections, grounds, old battery, etc.
A good solution is a more ‘deep cycle’ battery. Less CCA but thicker main plates in the battery. It will last longer and can be re-charged often if needed. I had to add a deep cycle when I put in a dash camera, issue solved. Best alteration I ever made. Can run the radio in the yard for hours if having a picnic.
The standard battery that came with your car, even if it is brand new, is for starting the vehicle ONLY.