Nissan Latio Car Battery Replacement

Gonna keep this short..just for the sake of my own records and general knowledge for those looking out to buy a similar car.  Bear in mind that I'm not out to file a complain about Nissan cars..all these are based on my own personal experience with the car and after sales experience.

Here goes..

Car is 15 months old as of July this year.
It refused to start for two mornings in a row, I had to change it.

Called the Auto Assist  attached to the Tan Chong Insurance Business Stream on the first morning and help arrived within 30-40 mins. Main task was to jump start the car but there was no strong advice to change the battery on the spot unlike AAM.  I was advised to drive to work first and try to start it after a few hours of idle.

Did that.  Car could start at about 5pm.
Drove to the gym in the late evening.  Car could start around 9ish.

Next morning..as I suspected it failed to start again.

I called the mechanic who came yesterday direct ..he agreed to rush over but later on advised me to contact the call centre to officially report the case so that they have a record.  His visits are paid by the insurance, so proper procedure have to be in place.  The call centre representative also adviced that I should actually call the centre direct.  As for battery replacement, it is also more adviceable to get it done at the service centre to ensure that a genuine part  is supplied and warranty is available.

I can drop by the service centre anytime (without appointment) to get it done.  A maintenance free battery will cost about RM230.  Brand unknown.

I opted to check out outside prices first  :)  

I was referred to a shop.  Location and name of shop can't be revealed for industry confidentiality reasons..cos I got a very very special price.

The brand of battery that came with the car was Yuasa - suppsoe to be a good brand but I was told that battery is dated back in 2008 although I got the car in 2009.  It's quite normal apparently to get an older battery, it's just my luck cos manufacturers had to do stock rotation on all the new cars waiting to go out to consumers like us. Something like that la...I was lucky as I said (in previous post).

Ideally a car battery should last about for years according to HERE but this same article also says :

But due to the nature of the chemical cocktail inside any battery, it may give out before the four year mark, or maybe it will last for several more years. So you have to ask yourself, "Do you feel lucky?"


So ..I was LUCKY indeed....I was told it's also quite normal for battery to wear out in a year or so.  even if it doesn't go dead it is advisable to change after two years max...in order not to risk spoiling the alternator < can't find any related article to substantiate this claim.  So..not sure how true it is though.



 
Ermm....end of story.