My Diesel Suburban won’t turn over. 1995 machine, owned in Florida, then Georgia. I bought it a few weeks ago.
After the first night of 17 degree weather, it is dead. I called Sears, wondering if I might be in need of fresh batts. ( I have no idea how old the 2 batteries currently IN the car are.)
The tech there told me that “Well, you might have Southern Batteries. You need batteries made to crank in the real cold”. Is this total b.s.? Do battery manufacturers really make different batteries for different climates?
I do believe I need new ones anyway, but his answer stunk like yesterday’s diapers, IMHO. ( Even though this is MPSIMS ).
They do make cold-weather batteries. If the betteries were more than 4 years old, the cold probably killed them. Buy new ones, rated for cold weather cranking power.
Well, slow down there just a minute. Now did you just hop in and start crankin’? Because if you did then of course nothing happened. These are southern batteries. You need to sit down, spend some time with them, inquire about them and share something about yourself and what you think you might like to do today. Check to see that they’re topped off with water because a dry cell is the ab-so-lute bane of a car battery. Maybe have a drink of water yourself so as not to make them self-conscious. Bring up your goal for the day again and ask if the batteries might not want to join you in your travels and, if they wouldn’t mind terribly, could they maybe give you a hand in motivating the old diesel motor to starting up nice and civil like.
You can’t just bust into business cold like you do a yankee battery. A Southern battery demands the respect it feels obliged to give to you.
A Southern battery? Go ahead pull the other one. Unless he meant that the existing battery in the car did not meet the CCA requirements for that car, meaning too small a battery CCA wise. A battery that is does not have enough CCAs will start your car for a while, or until it gets cold. Anyway 4 years old is social security time for most batteries.*
To answer the OP to the best of my knowledge, after more than 30 years in the business, battery makers sell the same battery in California that they do in Canada. I can state for a fact that Volvo installs the same battery in their cars that are headed for California as they do for the cars that stay in Sweden.
Over all Sears does a very good job of testing batteries and charging systems. Sounds like you got the store idiot on the phone.
I did run across some batteries in a consumer auto parts store once that were rated in Cranking Amps. WTF? What are cranking amps? Turns out they are rated at 32 degrees F not 0 degrees. Much easier to get a high number. In other words it is a bullshit rating.
Rick, you are unfortunately misinformed on this one. While automakers may not specify a different battery for different climate zones, many aftermarket battery manufacturers do in fact make a warm and a cold climate line. Sears (and any other company that sells batteries made by Johnson Controls) is one example. If I remember correctly, a Southern climate Group 65 Diehard Gold is rated at 650 cold cranking amps, whereas a Northern climate version of the same battery will have over 800 CCA.
This is partly because of how much harder a battery has to work to start an engine in cold weather, but mostly because a battery loses cranking power as the temperature drops. However a battery’s lifespan is much shorter when it is made with a higher CCA rating, because packing in the number of plates to increase the CCA makes the battery vulnerable to small shorts caused by corrosion build up between them. A battery manufacturer will offer the same warranty for both Northen and Southern batteries, but expect the Southern batteries to last longer, and typically budget about double the amount of expected warranty returns for Northern batteries.
This difference leads to a few problems in the marketplace. Consumer Reports-style publications often recommend purchasing the most powerful battery available, and customers typically believe that cranking power is the measure of a quality battery. Therefore if a salesman tries to sell a battery that is “weaker” than the one his competitor is offering, he may have to field some tough questions from the potential buyer, even though his product may in fact be the better choice for consumers in his area. The other main problem is when a car owner moves to a different climate and suddenly finds that their battery, although it will pass a load test, simply won’t start the dang car. When I sold batteries in Sacramento, we had a problem with customers who lived in the mountains. They probably needed a Northern climate battery in the wintertime, but all we had to offer were Southern zone batteries.
To the original poster: Many times a vehicle’s battery(s) may be weak, but the problem won’t show up until the first cold snap. Most autoparts stores (Advance, Kragen, AutoZone, etc) will test and install batteries for free. Sears charges $10, but they do a pretty thorough job of testing the vehicles charging system and pointing out any other problems you may have, so it may be worthwhile. If you do end up replacing your batteries, pick ones with a decent amount of cranking power given that your vehicle is a diesel and you apparently live in a cold climate, and ones that offer a good warranty (bear in mind the difference between the length of the free replacement period and the pro rata period). Save your receipt, because warranty claims on batteries are often a hassle without one.
::: checks Sears.com:::
No shit! :smack: Learn something new every day.
I can see the reasoning, heat kills batteries (They don’t finally expire until stressed cold, but it was the heat that killed them.) fewer thicker plates are less likely to warp and either shed the active material or touch and short out.
However it is impossible to see just how big a difference we are talking about since Sears does not publish CCA listing for their batteries. :wally
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