drdavidzhang

For some cars, the oil port is much lower thus a short oil funnel may not work well especially for 5-quart jug. So not only this will save you money but also it is a better funnel.

Forester has pretty high clearance. how to DIY an oil drain pan, and customize it to your car, so that it can prevent oil splashes. Not only it is a better oil pan, but also it is free, saving you money.

I think the idea of "the confidence that my vehicle wont leave me stranded" is very compelling, that most people would not want to be stranded. So the question is how do you decide if it needs replacement. If you replace it every 2 years, may be you can cancel your AAA membership, may not be too bad. Or you could lease a new car every 6 months. If I just had jump-cable started and go to autozone, he may tell me to replace it because the battery was not recharged and he does not check with Hydrometer first. The purpose of my experiment is to find a way for those people who don't have a load tester. I am pretty happy with the result, it only involves to take a 10-second video to get a characteristics of the battery, combined with a cheap Hydrometer, I should be able to easily determine if I should replace it. Another advantage is the load used in my method is the real load, not the fixed 100A current, different car should affect battery differently. My 16 sets of sampling data come from different cars/batteries, so it is not just Subaru specific. I am happy to learn that a battery may damage an alternator. Although I think alternators are running all the time (because alternators supply 100% of the electricity needed while running), so it is not alternators running longer time, but rather it could be running harder. During the 300RPM to 500RPM, the alternator can not be damaged because the current generated from alternators is too low. When you have higher RPM, suppose the circuit was designed in such a way to charge a battery quickly, then you will have larger load and potential damage specially at larger RPM. If the circuit is designed to have alternators slowly charge a battery, then it may have little damage.

To me, I will re-charge it and then from my experiments, based on the Fall Rate and Rise/Fall Ratio, with just a 10-second video I can objectively decide whether it should go. I understand other people would have different ways to make decision. Steve Jobs leased a car every six months he traded it in for a new one. People say time is money, my problem is that if I saved time, I can't use the saved hours to make money. This is a different subject: When I showed my friends my time saving and money saving youtube videos, they shrugged "time is money!" How do you respond if you were me? It is obvious if I have choice of either spending an hour saving $20 or spending an hour making $100, I would choose making $100-$20=$80. However since most people don't have a way to use that hour to make $100, then this "time is money!" is not valid to them. So I think my response should be: unless you can figure out a way to use your extra hours to make money, you should not abandon saving/being frugal.

agree that most people would be frustrated at a dead battery when you really need the car. So how do we determine it is the time to replace? Is it the number of years, or based on the autozone employee's recommendation?

I agree a not fully charged battery would have lower resistance than fully charged, thus the BIG WARNING TAG would make sense. But am I correct that a weaker battery would have higher resistance? See my video, I made a point on the specific weight (Hydrometer) as defined whether fully charged or not fully charged. An old battery can be weak(smaller capacity) but fully charged.

good discussion and interesting theory about the life span of alternators, I would be curious to see more data. I only had alternators problem 35 years ago. I have not had any alternators break-down in recent 35 years even though all my batteries lasted more than 6 years, this Subaru is the shortest because I repeated many experiments (re-charging, overcharging, re-conditioning, Epsom salt see many of my videos). I agree the load could be larger with a weaker battery, but I don't know how significant this increase is. There are a few things I can speculate: 1. the alternators work on fixed RPM, thus fixed RPM should produce the same constant power regardless of the load, not working harder. So once the RPM changed from 500 RPM to 1200 RPM, it has little load (I assume the battery does not supply power at 1200 RPM). 2. a weaker battery would have higher resistance, thus less load with respect to the alternator, so if the alternator is charging the battery at 1200 RPM, then alternator is working lighter. At the startup, the starter motor with lower impedance would draw more current because the voltage is fixed. So I assume it is not " It's job is NOT to charge a dead battery", but rather it will need to share more load because the weaker battery does not contribute more than it should. 3. the initial power at 0RPM should be provided by the battery only. Between it is >0 but less than 500RPM, does an alternator provide any power? If it does, an alternator need to work the hardest is only at the very start up ignition when we have max current to raise the voltage. So the start up would require the alternator to generate larger current for 1 seconds. In another word, the alternator "abuse" may happen only 1-second "occasionally". BTW, I let the battery die too many times to perform my experiments. My wife would not have such patience, she did not argue alternators, she made me to stop the experiment +:)

good observation, the chart says 56 months for cold, but 30 months for extreme heat, is that correct?

I took my 4 years old battery to autozone, and I did get the free test. He said: you definitely need to replace your battery. Other than replacing the battery, he did not say any reason. So I did not replace my battery. Now my battery lasted 6 years, I still can re-charge it, but because of the pandemic, no longer driving frequently, from these 16 data point, so I decide replacing it. Another issue of not charging frequently, the sulfation will cause problem:

My Subaru Forester battery 6 years old (14D) with a small CCA=390A lasted 6 years. I noticed the battery problem last year (when it was a 5-year battery). I monitored the engine's start up for a year. With a set of 16 cars/batteries, I now know the characteristics of an old battery. I can analyze more data if other people contribute their data. How To Load Test A Car Battery Without Buying A Load Tester. can we do load test without buying a load tester?

2. When I buy filters made by others, I could not find the PSI number. 3. If I added less oil, then temps would explain it, but the opposite is true, I had to add more oil. It's possible it wasn't level. I parked with the front of the car being higher than rear, do you this would show more oil? This could be a good research top. haha. I am able to change oil for regular sedan cars. As long as your arm is long enough. In case it is too hard, I use this trick: without jackstand

subaru oil change a few questions: 1. a non-dealer garage installed a Metrostreet filter. How bad is this? 2. The owner's manual calls for filter number 15208AA160, when I called the Subaru dealership they said the correct number is now 15208AA15A what is the reason Subaru changed their part number? What exact the difference in turns of spec between 160 and 15A? 3. The manual says 5.1 quarts oil, I did not measure more precisely in the past, but this time it looks like I have to add more more than 5.1 quarts, I don't know why. Does anyone else have similar experience? 4. When I watch other people's video, they all jack up their car first. Do most people jack up their car when changing oil? Even if it were not SUV, I found that I can change the oil without a jackstand.

Thank you for the tip on the discount code, people who could not start their cars are so worried that they usually don't think about this kind of coupon in that kind of state of mind. Are you saying that there's free windshield wiper fluid at gas station? My original post about wiper fluid was meant to say that I can check the battery fluid when I check and add wiper fluid, so there is no waste of time checking battery.

One question is where to buy your $74 battery. My thinking is since big stores such as costco, walmart, homedepot have high volume, they can sell the same quality at lower price. The smaller stores auto specialty stores such as autozone, oreilly, pepboy may give you better service, but higher price for commodity products.

Where did you get your 72 month battery? FYI, Walmart: $50 ValuePower: 12V car battery with 1-year free replacement warranty. $94 EverStart Maxx: An included five-year warranty (three years free replacement and two years prorated) provides peace of mind. homedepot: $89 SPRINTER 12 volts Lead Acid 6-Cell 35 Group Size 550 Cold Cranking Amps (BCI) Auto Battery 2-year free replacement $99 SPRINTER MAX 12 volts Lead Acid 6-Cell 35 Group Size 650 Cold Cranking Amps (BCI) Auto Battery 3-year free replacement Costco: $79 interstate: three years free replacement.

If a cheap one last 5 years, what if the expensive one can only last 6 years or even 4 years? Can the number of years of warranties an reliable indicator the lifespan?

yes, we should avoid the cycling, but what if you passed your specific weight but failed the load test? Is cycling the only option? I think maybe in my case, what I had done may not be defined as "deep cycling". I don't have a professional deep cycle equipment. As shown in the video, after I charged full according to the hydrometer (at this point, if I start the engine, it will start fine,) I use the load tester to see if the 100A discharge would make the dial turn back. I will discharge it if the test fails.I only had to do this one or two cycles, I did not have to do this many times. I did not use the 6A setting, only the 2A setting, I hope it only had minimal abuse. yes, correct the interstate battery is not the original. I experimented with 4 different batteries to study this issue, ruining one with the epsom salt (another story). The Subaru original battery failing is recorded at this timestamp here: original subaru battery failed agree with you some of the points are valid for some people. Another point is that if the original battery can last 5 years, and you plan to sell your car after 10 years, then there is no need to spend more money for those years you may not own the car. I have bought two Walmart batteries in the past, they are fine. I intended to keep my car more than 10 years, after 1 year of putting in a new Walmart battery (a third battery), then this car was crashed: List of new things put in the car before crash I have bought the interstate batteries from Costco $88 with correct size, or Walmart $50 batteries with wrong size, one inconvenience is to add water when the level is low, but then we need to add wiper blade fluid anyway, it is not much time waste. On the other hand, after I cycled the subaru original battery, it does cost my time and caused worry, so the next time it has sign of failing, it will be gone.

Another question I have: many people say the lifespan is 3 to 5 years, should the lifespan be measured as the number of times the charge-discharge cycle? If I don't use the car, does the battery age?

The question is the prediction. You replaced it at your convenience, but what if that old battery could have lasted another 2 years?

did not notice anti-cycling in the article of your link. Anyway last year my Forester could not start at the airport waiting area, I asked a few people to provide a jump, many people did not want to help, only the 5th person I asked agreed to give it a jump. After I could not start at the airport waiting area, I felt I had little choice but to deep cycling. So this is interesting, which choice will provide longer lifespan:1. deep cycling, knowing it will shorten its life2. not deep cycling, knowing it may die next morning. When you are frustrated, you will may a call to replaced it sooner than #1.

if the walmart $50 can last 5 years, then it beats a $100 battery that can last 8 years (because 2*5=10 years). So the cheapest wins. After price, the second factor should be the weights for the same brand and type of batteries, I think.

It would be nice if I could get 8 years. I would like to replace it with a bigger battery because they all cost the same, but it is wrong size, so in the past I did this: youtube Now I am thinking may be a larger outer dimension may not be the optimal. To get the best deal with the same price, see if you agree with my arguments:1. the outer dimension may not be as important.2. as long as CCA is higher, the biggest may not be the optimal. This is because to get a higher CCA, you may just need to increase the effective area, i.e. thinner plates and more plates, this higher CCA may not mean that the lifespan is longer.3. may be it should be the weights. The walmart site lists the $50 battery weight as65: 47.2 lbs24F: 44.4 lbshigher weights mean more lead plates and acid, hopefully this will be a better indicator.

three years does not sound long enough, this is my 4th year, it is possible I can survive another year, I hope I can break a record. What is the longest battery lifespan people got from their original Forester?

I have a 2015 Forester, I already cycled the battery twice, the first time was fine, but when I used the load tester to test this time, the dial did not bounce back to the "OK green area", however the car still starts: "OK green area" Do you think the battery is at its end of life? Compared to batteries from my other cars, I feel like Subaru's battery does not last long. I tested battery based on this: diagnosis