⚡🔋 Maintaining Your Car Battery! How to look after and maximise the life of lead-acid batteries
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 9 ก.พ. 2025
- Want to know the secret to car battery longevity? Keep them charged! Car batteries last their longest when kept at full charge, so if you have a vehicle which sits dormant for long periods of time, it pays to get a battery charger & maintainer to keep the battery topped up when its not being used. For the past 5 years I've used a Century CC1206 charger to maintain batteries in my fleet of cars, and in this video I'll show you how it works.
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Century CC1206-XLi battery charger: ebay.us/bgZ0DN
As an eBay Partner, I may be compensated if you make a purchase.
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MotoringBox is an Australian based TH-cam channel run independently by Sean McKellar since 2019. It focuses on quality content about Australian car culture and some of the incredibly unique vehicles we manufactured here. I work a day job and publish videos in my spare time, so thank you for your patience and I hope you enjoy my videos.
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Please note: I enjoy working on cars but I can't promise that what I do will work for your particular car, or that you won't harm yourself, someone else, your car, or your warranty doing it. Please be safe, be responsible and if you're not sure what you're doing, get a qualified mechanic to help you out.
I know you work for and are sponsored by Century but I personally use CTek MXS 5.0 chargers/tenders and they are great. I have a FGX XR8 that I drive only every few months and I have one of those maintaining the Century battery I have in it and works great.
I love the people who buy a car and have to replace a battery, brakes, globes etc and call the car a lemon...maintenance is always key to a healthy reliable car. Yes, it does cost money and if you can't afford to maintain a vehicle, can you really afford to own one?
The amount of different batteries by dimension alone is truly staggering. Pity there isn't an industry standard like disposables AAA, AA, C, D etc. Would make life far easier and probably cheaper.
I've often thought of that too. You could take the current range of 70+ sizes and simplify them down to less than 10. Unfortunately we're at the mercy of car manufacturers, and what they've been upto for the past 30+ years.
Off topic.. I needed a battery that was of some oddball code number that cost a small fortune, after a lot of pouring through battery specs I found it was a common garden variety but the deck was 7mm taller for some bizarre reason. So put in the 'normal' battery for a quarter the price and all good. Why car makers get these bespoke batteries custom made baffles me no end.
I saw something on TH-cam the other day that when they developed the Barra Turbo to compete with the LS
Ford developers referred to the project as the seagull or “the gull” for short because they said in the corridors the barra with a turbo on it is just gonna “sh!t on everything”
th-cam.com/video/u_ac07Cwdjg/w-d-xo.htmlsi=P52OlUyCl1yNOb93&t=859
@@MotoringBoxTV Ahhhhhh - Good Job - Yes I saw the reference to the Gull on another video - cant seem to find it in my history now.....
Excellent video Sean, thanks for sharing it with us.
i have a similar setup on my weekender plus i use the Century BM12V Bluetooth Battery Monitor as well to keep an eye on things
Funny thats the first time Ive ever heard them called crocodile clips - Ive only ever heard them being called alligator clips. Being in Australia crocodile clips makes much more sense so Im suprised ive never heard it before 😂
No alligators here mate!!
Went and bought one this morning thanks
My father-in-law has one of the Century maintainers for his TBird. He's a real Ford man. I bought him your Tshirt, but he's never worn it. No top pocket lol.
Great stuff Sean, thanks for sharing. 🙂
On sale at supercheap right now for $152 just fyi! Thanks Sean!
Great job with this, glad to see you get this out there
Thanks for telling me not to throw car batteries into the ocean, I was literally just about to do that.
You and me both 😅👌🏽
Great info Sean. Keeping batteries maintained is super important. 👍
I like how you sponsor century batteries
I love my battery as it starts my ' 380 ' a great combination.😅
I know going bigger isn't always better. But there's one model of my car that recommends a bigger battery vs all the others. I got a different battery retainer clamp and it fit, found it lasted quite a bit longer than the smaller one. Likely the bigger capacity helped keep it at a higher overall state of charge.
As a few others here have mentioned, just the vast range of sizes and designs of battery is amazing. My wife's 2017 Kia Sportage needed a replacement from the factory fitted battery a couple of years ago, and the Century recommended replacement turned out to be very very sightly taller which made getting the air intake pipe back on a bit of a mission. Like there's only a couple of mm in it but the intake pipe goes over that snugly, it actually makes about 8mm of difference at the mounting point. I just "made it work".
A dremel would fix it (it feeds the filter so it's not filtered air) but I don't have one and I'm not allowed to modify that car..... it is a Kia after all.
It's also a good idea to start unused cars often, as it's good for the battery, and the car in general
The trick there is you probably need to idle them for a good 15mins or so to get the charge back that is lost from starting it.
@MotoringBoxTV Yep true... I notice that my XR5T Focus doesn't really start properly when sitting around for about 2 weeks, which is why I try to drive it every week...
Though it's running a battery which I don't even know how old, or what brand it is (some cheap Chinese brand), and the voltage is a bit low too, but still functional... If it fails, I'll definitely put a high quality battery from a good brand...
Think some need to find the vampiric drains, assisted with another that would have the battery dead in a week.
3:56 Wait, what? When I had the E36 with the same original battery for 21 years, I had the car.
As for the Falcons, having the proper sized battery in the first place, so many had 450CCA batteries, just the bear minimum to get them running, put a nice 610-640CCA, and several issues went away and with added battery capacity, even if it does not hold the peak output would still be higher then that original lower battery.
I might need to convince my dad to invest in one of these chargers for his 2002 HSV GTO as it only gets driven a few times a year, and it has only done barely 31,000 km. We've had the issue of the car sitting for a few weeks not started, and the battery wasn't completely flat, but didn't have enough amps to turn it over.
Either that, or he'll be replacing the battery every year or so.
I just replaced my battery last week with a Century battery :)
Hi Sean, when charging your batteries do you leave the terminals on or disconnect them before commencing the charge.
I have the same problem even using battery maintainers etc as my cars can go months without being driven
Edit: I've got a permanent connector under the hood so I just pull up and plug her/them in
I have an FGX XR6 when you change the battery do you have to use a special tool to keep the dash alive
I was sick of replacing batteries in my FG XR6 once I got the Optima yellow top battery never had to replace it 😊
I have a Forester that I take outback/offroad. My battery is on the way out, for reliability is there much of a difference between the HP and the UHP?
Thanks for the tip, it's been on my going to do list for awhile now. I have a 2007 BF2 XR8 Ute that I have parked up and maybe use it once every couple of months, any other tips on long term storage would be greatly appreciated. Thanks 🙂🙂
Disconnect when not in use.
@adrianzmajla4844 yeah been doing that for a few years now but every so often it's dead flat
I've got a 2007 bf2 xr8 sedan and a 2007 bf2 ghia sedan 👍
Both have battery maintainers with "quick" connection points under the hood
Interesting video Sean. Have you ever though of adding a isolator for the cars on the battery terminals?
I don't see the need. Even an isolated battery still loses charge over time, just at a slower rate because you've cut off parasitic loss from the car.
Fair enough buddy. I'm still looking forward to the video that you were going to do about headlight changing and the head light cover installation @MotoringBoxTV
I'll be comin' in Queensland next year.....I was wondering if you are keen to meet and i could help you with a camera operator for your future videos@MotoringBoxTV
3 out of the 4 cars my dad had are on trickle chargers as they're not driven every day. One hasn't been on the road in 12 months, and the other 2 are driven once a month
After seeing this video I checked the electrolyte level in my ND2 and it was only a smidge below the upper level, which I don't think is too bad for the OEM 5 year old battery. I checked it with my battery tester and it reported a 100% state of health but only had 64% of total charge, probably because it's not a daily any more. Just hooked it up to my old Projecta battery charger to top it off (and now ensure the battery isn't overfilled once charged), but I might look into one of those Century chargers.
Not sure why I just watched a 6 minute ad for the brand of battery I've been using for years, but ok
I don't know if I am right about this but I swear in the old days the batteries lasted far longer. My Escort battery was like 20 years old, never died. My VK had a really old battery too, and in both cases ended up selling therm with the cars after owning them for many years. This was in the early 90s. Now I get around 5 years. Actually it might be because the electrical systems are far more demanding these days. Bit like when phone screens got much bigger?🤔 I dunno, I am not an electrician. hahahaha. Thanks for the info.
I think it is the electrical system demands have gone up 10 fold, but the battery sizes haven't.
@@MotoringBoxTV Makes a lot of sense for sure. Cheers
Two things to consider.
1 stand-by demands of vehicles are greater these days on batteries. So when there parked up there's some sort of drain.
2 Alternator faults. That is where the battery is discharging back through the alternator. Feel the case of the alternator when the engine is cold, and if it is slightly warm there is a problem. It's not usually noticeably when the vehicle has a decent daily drive, but the battery goes flat over a couple of days when the vehicle is parked up.
Further more you can set up a solar panel charger for vehicles that aren't used very often. They offer charging throughout the day and the battery is relaxing over nights. Great if you work away from home or are away for a month or two.
Had the same battery in my 02 BA Xr6t that's mostly in the Barrage for 5 years only connected when I drive it stays fully charged when disconnected. It's the cheapest battery repco had at the time probably go flat tomorrow Murphy's Law.
I have the older centry trickle charger about 3 years old to keep my 300c srt8 charged up
Very informative 👏 I have had my battery in my car for 7 years since I bought it new, it gets long running most days. But I feel like I am playing Russian Roulette with it as the engine hasn't start/stop for a long time.... I am enjoying the fact that start/ stop doesn't work. Is 7 years to long as it still cranking over really well... ?
It's a stop/start vehicle? If so the BMS probably realises the battery isn't strong enough to keep that feature active. If you're worried, most battery shops will throw a battery tester on it for free which will print out a health report. 7 years is impressive, but keep an eye on it. Going into Winter is usually the time it'll fail.
@MotoringBoxTV thanks mate 👍
Just something to add, get the battery looked at ASAP, and expect to replace it once you get it tested. Problem is that stop/start batteries (EFB or AGM) can 'dig deeper' than a regular battery so they'll start it just fine even when they're practically dead, they'll still have the power to get the engine running. Until they don't, and there's no warning. It'll start fine, you head out for your day, and next start nothing.
It's quite embarrassing to get 'that' phone call when the car won't start and the ice cream is melting from the weekly shop. An order of magnitude worse when you work at a battery shop...
Read a surprising article on how many car batteries fail within the first 12 months due manufacturing defects. I've never had any issues but obviously pays to avoid certain manufacturers / brands.
From what I've seen manufacturing defects usually arise within the first month or two of usage, any longer and it becomes more ambiguous to work out why it failed.
Hi Sean, will the charger work on a 6 volt gel battery?
This one is only for 12V, but there is a 1.2A charger in the range which can be switched to 6V. It may be suitable depending on the Ah rating on your battery.
@ thanks Sean!
lol ive been using my century charger wrong this whole time. Ive had it on lead acid instead of SMF ☠️
Hi Sean, another great vid thanks 👍. Was wondering about how safe it is to leave the battery charging while unattended?
Have been thinking of buying a battery charger to maintain the voltage on my xr but have always been afraid of potentially starting a fire due to an electrical fault/problem. I know your probably thinking I'm a worry wart but it's a real concern of mine & would like to know your thoughts on how safe it is to leave it unattended especially overnight?. Once again great content looking forward to seeing more in the near future. Thanks David
There's always a risk, so officially charger manufactures tell you not to leave them unattended. But realistically so long as the charger crocodile clips are firmly attached to the terminals and can't short out on anything, the risk of anything happening is extremely low. The charger has protection modes to detect short circuits or other problems like if one of the clips isn't connected - and it'll turn off. My record for leaving a charger connected is probably a good 5 months or so!
The 6-amp charger is nice and safe too for car batteries. If you had a charger with higher outputs that opens up a whole other can of worms - overcharging batteries and boiling electrolyte etc.
@MotoringBoxTV Thanks for the reply Sean cheers 🍻
I'll also mention you can drop the charger back to the 3 or even 1-amp charge mode if you know the battery is already full, or if the car was driven regularly right up to that point. The lower charge rates will still be more than enough to keep it topped up.
Can you please push for one series of battery in black?
Century manufacturers Yuasa batteries too if you're after black!
Just bought a new battery from sca it is a Century brand one. Your face was all over the videos on their website
Hey Sean, I have a question mate. Ive been in the market for a charger to maintain the batteries not being used in the project cars. What would you say this has over say the Noco Genius 5?
Thanks for any advice mate!
I'm not very familiar with it, but from a glance the Century has selectable charge rates and the Noco doesn't. Not a huge deal unless you want to use it to charge motorcycle or powersports batteries - where the 1 & 3amp modes are useful.
@@MotoringBoxTV I do need that, have a dormant motorbike. Thank you legend and much appreciated for you looking.
Hi Shaun just wondering, I have a Yuasa NS70LX MF (made by century) and a century charger model 1206 (a few years old) everything Everything points it to being a lead acid battery. In your video you mentioned using the calcium setting. Is that the same for this battery
Aside from lithium, all battery types on this charger are lead-acid. Calcium batteries are lead-acid batteries that have calcium added to the lead of the plates. This increases the plates’ corrosion resistance and also decreases the amount of self-discharge, meaning that calcium batteries can go for longer without needing to be charged.
@@MotoringBoxTV so it doesn’t really make much difference which one I choose?
There's differences in the charging profiles, so you'd want to be choosing the right one - Calcium SMF for your car battery, Flooded (pretty much any maintainable lead-acid battery with caps across the top), AGM for AGM, EFB for EFB, GEL for GEL etc.
@ thanks for your help. I changed it to calcium
Excuse me while i whip this out.....😂
I can take 1 off u sean😂
first
First to recharge your battery…? How long did it take?