A Few Surprises from US 2018 Mazda CX-5

That's pretty standard practice. With the Previous Fords and VW I owned they would check the battery with their diagnostic tool at each maintenance. If it tests into the poor health category it's just replaced. I however will preemptively replace anyway at 5 years as I'd rather not wait until it fails as that will likely happen at an inconvenient time.
 
In the USA most if not all cars come with maintenance free batteries. All the cars I’ve owned did. I think the problem is people here won’t check them and might take them to a drive through oil change place that won’t know to do it either.... which will probably result in more failures. What’s the advantage to the EFB if you don’t have ieloop? I got 5 years out of the battery I just replaced on my St. It actually wasn’t testing bad yet but at 5 years I figured replacement was a good idea. Average is about 3-5 years from my experience.
Only cars with i-stop and/or i-eloop comes with an EFB
for all other Japanese built cars (not just Mazdas), they come with a low maintenance Panasonic or Yuasa regular battery (not EFB)... either with the screw caps, or twist off caps

in either case, they just be maintained for longevity, especially in hot climates (southern US)
batteries are expensive these days because lead is expensive because the chinese are buying them up for their own uses, thus high demand... between the inconvenience of having to change the battery, high cost, and environmental impact of battery disposal/recycling/manufacturing, it makes better sense to get as many days you can out of your car battery as much as possible

invest in a smart battery charger (Battery Tender is affordable, but very basic and good) and a battery tester (Solar BA5 is the cheapest halfway decent tester available, or if you have an EFB, Solar BA9)... you will keep reusing both of these for years to come over many cars that you will own... they'll quickly pay for themselves after a couple of years when you manage to extend the life of your car battery... if you're tight on money, start with just a good smart charger first as battery testing can be done at the parts store, dealer, independent garages, etc... just having your own is a lot more convenient, though

Among the most popular and known good smart chargers are:
NOCO
Battery Tender
CTEK

Although NOCO claims EFB compatibility, their lack of details/information about how they handle EFBs is not confidence inspiring, so of the 3, only CTEK has models that are verifiably EFB compatible... if you don't have EFB (all CX-5s), or don't plan to have car with it, then any brand is fine... otherwise, get the CTEK (only MXS 5.0 is EFB compatible in the US... European versions have more models that are EFB compatible)
 
That's pretty standard practice. With the Previous Fords and VW I owned they would check the battery with their diagnostic tool at each maintenance. If it tests into the poor health category it's just replaced. I however will preemptively replace anyway at 5 years as I'd rather not wait until it fails as that will likely happen at an inconvenient time.

if you owned a battery tester and a smart charger that has a "recondition" function, you wouldn't be blindly replacing the batteries after 5 years
those tools will let you first desulfate the battery, recharge it, and equalize the electrolyte, then you can validate the performance/health of the battery during your own at home periodic check ups... saves you a lot of money in the long term
 
So you're getting 6 years out of a battery? 8?

Depends. My Miata went into service November '09. Still using the original battery. Still using the original battery for my '13 CX-5. Original battery in the '77 Mercury Bobcat only lasted 3 years. The '90 Mazda 626 went 7, while the '99 Volvo's was replaced after 9. Generally I expect at least 6 years from a battery here in The Great White North.

Brian
 
I’d rather not have a dead battery at the airport after a trip and I can’t leave it on a maintainer there. Also a new battery doesn’t cost that much....... maybe $150. I probably won’t keep the car long enough to replace the battery twice unless I get premature failures so it just doesn’t seem worth all the hassle to extend a little bit.
 
Bought my '17 CX5 in April. I'll probably replace the battery in the Fall of 2020. Anything over 3 years in Oklahoma is Russian Roulette.
 
Why do batteries fail so early in Oklahoma?

I have never changed a battery in a new car, and i usually keep them around 4.5 years. In the UK the battery is covered against failure for three years.
The stop start battery i have has a completely different construction, more plates closer together among other things, and not cheap, so we shall see.
 
My guess is heat. I don’t think you guys get the hot weather in the UK that the southern US gets.
 
Heat is murder on all types of batteries. I’ve spent a lot of time in SouthEast Asia. Batteries don’t last long at all.
 
Yup, this is why most hybrids and electric vehicles have some form of active cooling for their batteries. The ones that don’t like the Nissan Leaf has issues in hot climates like Phoenix.
 
We get on average decent weather for around a month, thats summer in the UK.
Yes we might see 30 degrees for a couple of days but that's it.

Now and then we might see more like in 1976?, and 1986?
Down south is usually 2 or 3 degrees warmer than where i live, my son up north see's around 2 degrees lower temperatures than we do where i live.

Some days you might crack 30C right (uhm)
 
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We get on average decent weather for around a month, thats summer in the UK.
Yes we might see 30 degrees for a couple of days but that's it.

Now and then we might see more like in 1976?, and 1986?
Down south is usually 2 or 3 degrees warmer than where i live, my son up north see's around 2 degrees lower temperatures than we do where i live.

So basically your CX-5 resides in mild weather most of the time
 
It’s 10 F here today. We can get up to 100 F in the summer as well. But neither of these are typically sustained for long periods of time. This weekend for example it should be in the 40’s which will surely feel like a heat wave.
 
Surprising little facts: Corporate help desk number US confirms battery does not require ANY service. Then asked the same question to UK Corporate help desk: battery requires regular maint.
Question: Does the CX5 @ UK have a different altogether battery in comparison to US? My guess is NO.
 

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