[Tomko]

My Cruze TD has about 60,000 on it, and was manufactured in late 14. However, I get issues where the lights dim when turning and the HVAC fan speed fluctuates. All symptoms of a bad battery. Do the OEM batteries die early?

CTD known to be tough on the factory battery. More info here:

http://www.cruzetalk.com/forum/64-g...scussion/155881-factory-battery-replaced.html

 

[Tomko]

I think almost anyone can make good batteries if they want. The decision on the quality and durability comes from what market segment they want to be in, therefore reflecting the amount they spend on construction and QA of the batteries.

Probably true of pretty much any other product. I'd love to have mil-spec but my pockets aren't that deep.

 

[Tomko]

still on OG battery

tests perfect

If I remeber correctly you use your CTD to go from home to work - a couple hundred miles each way - but don't use the car otherwise. So it would be a rare occurrence when the car is started more than once a day - or not given a 100 miles or so of runtime before being asked to start the engine again.

 

[Tomko]

Never lived in cold climate before...how does cold affect battery longevity?

Here in the desert southwest the 115-120 degree summers are absolutely brutal on car batteries.

Cold is not good either. I'm not sure who's colder - me or Boraz - but in the days before the sealed freedom batteries people would get stranded all the time.

I have a vivid memory of my boss driving me home around Christmas 1981, and at a traffic light he stalled his Chevette. He grabbed a set of booster cables from the back hatch and motioned to the car stopped next to us at the light. That motorist stayed inside his car and simply popped his hood while my boss affected a jump start of his chevette. In the space of probably 60 seconds he got all this done, disconnected the cables, closed the hoods on both cars and with a wave of thanks to that random motorist we were on our way again.

They say that being Canadian means knowing how to make love in a canoe - but being able to jump start a car in less than a minute in the freezing cold has got to be right up there.