Battery hydrometer

[Plum Ranger XLT]

When I bought my ranger new back in '08, the Motorcraft battery came with a built-in hydrometer. For the first 4 1/2 years, the hydrometer would display a green color. Last week, the hydrometer changed to a red color, so I checked the voltage with the engine off and showed a charge of 12.9 volts. Is this a sign that the battery is going to be replaced soon?

 

[LearjetMinako]

Possibly a new battery. The average life of a flooded lead acid battery is 3 years. Also those built-in hydrometer only monitor 1 of 6 cells. The best way to find out the condition of a battery is to have it load tested at an automotive shop. Or the DIY for those at home, take a voltmeter and measure the battery's voltage with everything off. Then start adding draw loads, mainly the lights. Voltage should stay above 12V, if it drops below, consider getting a new battery. With the help of a friend of neighbor, have someone crank over the engine while you monitor the voltage drop. If it drops below 9V, consider getting a new battery. A healthy charged battery of 550CCA should have a voltage of 10.5V when tested on a load tester. Higher CCA batteries will sustain a lower voltage drop.

 

[shane96ranger]

Is it a serviceable battery? Check your (distilled) water level if it is.

 

[straycat]

Is it a serviceable battery? Check your (distilled) water level if it is.

WOW!! I have not seen a serviceable battery in sometime. I did not know they still are made. Everyone of the batteries I have in the new cars and trucks I bought were all sealed and the last few I bought for the Ranger, Jeeps and the wife's '06 FJ Cruiser were all over 5 years old and just time for new ones. Every one of the new batteries I bought over the past few years were all sealed. Five years is not bad for a battery life. They still worked but were getting just a bit sluggish when starting the vehicle.

 

[shane96ranger]

WOW!! I have not seen a serviceable battery in sometime. I did not know they still are made. Everyone of the batteries I have in the new cars and trucks I bought were all sealed and the last few I bought for the Ranger, Jeeps and the wife's '06 FJ Cruiser were all over 5 years old and just time for new ones. Every one of the new batteries I bought over the past few years were all sealed. Five years is not bad for a battery life. They still worked but were getting just a bit sluggish when starting the vehicle.

That's interesting. All 3 of my vehicles have serviceable batteries. This thread reminds me I need to check the levels again. The AC Delco battery in my F150 was starting to get a bit sluggish just before winter, so I topped it off. It's been fine ever since.

 

[adsm08]

Do me a huge favor. Get some black electrical tape, just a little 1x1 square is enough. Now take it and put it over the battery eye.

Those things are 100% worthless. Even Ford says to ignore them. They are for judging if the battery is OK at the manufacturing plant, and not really supposed to be used for juding battery health in any real world setting after that. It only looks at the one cell anyway.

 

[swynx]

Had a battery that got left on concrete for 3 weeks and it still had a green eye. Wouldn't hold a charge for more than a day and could only get a handful of starts out of it free a 12 hour start. I agree there worthless. Just pop the top(s) and check it

 

[shane96ranger]

Had a battery that got left on concrete for 3 weeks and it still had a green eye.

That's better than a brown eye.

 

[wildbill23c]

The battery in my 08 Toyota Tundra is 5+ years old, and still going just as strong as it was when I bought the truck new in 08, those stupid built in battery level indicators are extremely worthless. The one in my 96 Grand Cherokee was black all the time and in the 6 years I owned the jeep it never failed to start the vehicle, just the starter failed LOL.

The battery in my Tundra is supposedly a maintenance free battery but you can still pop the tops off and check the electrolyte levels. The battery in my B2 is an el-cheapo battery from like Walmart or some place like that and it has the tops you can take off as well. I don't think I've had a vehicle yet that you couldn't check the levels of the electrolyte.

 

[RonD]

Sitting on concrete doesn't effect batteries anymore, that's from 50+ years ago.
No, not even cold concrete, lol.

If you have to "top up" a battery then your charging system is running to "hot", check it.

Car batteries build up a sediment, during discharge/recharge, at some point one of the plates in one of the six cells will short, this will cause a slow discharge, i.e. battery works fine driving around all day but the next morning it barely turns the engine over.
That's a shorted cell, it drains the battery slowly at first but will get worse over time.

Batteries also lose there ability to take a charge, right after driving the battery might show 12.7v-13v which is 100% for a 12v battery, but after sitting an hour if it shows 12.4v that's only 75%, 12.2v is 50%.
If it doesn't drop anymore then it's just not chemically capable of holding 100% voltage, if it continues to drop then see above, shorted cell.

 

[swynx]

That's better than a brown eye.

 

[adsm08]

Don't try to "pop the top" on a non-serviceable battery. Especially a Motorcraft. The cap clips will break and then instead of a serviceable battery you have an open container of hot acid in your engine bay.

 

[straycat]

Don't try to "pop the top" on a non-serviceable battery. Especially a Motorcraft. The cap clips will break and then instead of a serviceable battery you have an open container of hot acid in your engine bay.

^^^What he said. You are never supposed to do that!!

 

[naford]

Well I still have the original battery in my 02 and yes the eye has been showing red for a few years. I always turn everything of before I turn off the motor. I think that helps. I once had a battery that the terminal post fell off. I've never heard of that happening.

 

[adsm08]

Turning off any key-on accessory before killing the engine will do very little if anything to help battery life. They are all running off the same post of the ignition switch and all get killed at the same time.

The only time that might help save the battery is on the newer models with the 10 minute time delay for the radio and windows, but only if you like to turn the car off and then sit in it for 10 minutes, at which point you are probably wanting to listen to the radio.