How to Check a Car Battery with Scotty Kilmer 

Make sure you clean the top of battery well (baking soda in water works great) before pulling the caps. You don't want any crud falling in there. Use only distilled water and always wear safety glasses.

Scotty Kilmer brought me here from Twitter. I subscribed because of Scotty. Post more of his videos. Great 2-Stroke video today Mr. Kilmer!!

Im a retired fleet mechanic. The longest I recall any battery lasting was 6 years. They were oems installed in Ford F150 pickups. That is until I purchased a 2008 Hyundai Elantra SE in July 2008. Its December 2019 and the original battery is still going. Thats almost 11 1/2 years and it still tests 13.2 volts. I know, you dont believe me, no one else does either. Been carrying a rechargeable booster pack for 3 years in my trunk waiting for the battery to kick. Never have cleaned the terminals either. Not to mention I lived in bitter cold upstate NY until Dec 2017. Now live in the hot humid state of SC. Haven't hit 62000 miles yet and most of those miles are from commuting between NY and SC. Car has been babied, but still, batteries just don't last this long.

I'll test my own battery thank you.

Thanks Scotty always short and sweet 👍🏻

I turn my battery in 4 years from the date on the sticker. Yes, I'm wasting $20 or whatever every four years. But my alternator lasts over 200,000 miles and I never get stuck and I never need a jump start. Do you run your tires until they pop? If not, you're wasting money! LOL. $20 every four years is nothing. You can use the $40 off $100 advance auto coupon and get a gold battery for $100 for most cars. It has a three year replacement warranty so there is only a year where it would be pro rated before i turn it in anyway. Plus, some worker there or friend of a worker gets a battery to use for free or maybe farm use. That battery might go another couple years if monitored. It's all good in my opinion. I don't screw around with batteries, even the fuel injection needs 9.6 volts to work. Everything runs off the battery and that's a lot of stuff in newer cars. Off a $100 lead acid battery with technology from 1972. So there is no point in pushing it.

So basically, to test your battery, go to a mechanic. Brilliant

Where do you get an unsealed battery? I haven't see one of these in over 20 years. The problem I've had with sealed batteries is that they used to cost less and were warranted for 4-6 years. Now they're usually 3 years and cost much more. I suspect that manufacturers just don't want to deal with prorating. But, every battery I've bought in the last 20 years has always failed around the expiration and then no good. Works good one day, dead the next. With the old batteries, you could usually get enough charge in them to get to the store and buy another but with the newer sealed batteries they either work or don't work and unless you take them to a qualified shop for testing, you have no idea how much life is still in the battery.

I learned something new today. Great video, thanks Scotty!

Awesome! You get a like for video under 3minutes.

maint free batteries are a ploy to sell more batteries.

Hello Scotty, Occasionally my car has a problem where it would lose all electrical power when I crank it. It comes back on eventually. Battery voltage isn't low, 12.7. I've been told to check the solenoid connections checked, I did, it was tight. Battery terminals have no corrosion. But one of my buddies load tested the battery and I remember the voltage dropped to about 8 or 9 when cranking. Could it be possible that when I replaced the battery that I received a defective one. This problem came on after replacing the battery, never happened on the original battery

Another channel I can find Scotty on?!

Yesterday, the battery light came on and the van died 30 minutes later. The alternator was removed and replaced. The battery was recharged. We completed our trip without an issue. Total distance was about 350 miles after the repair. The battery light came on again with a new alternator. The same thing happened again. So what could it be?

nice tips, these things really help

Nice..

i believe my toyota dealer was not honest. i bought a battery from them like about 2 years ago. they said the battery had 5 years warranty. but recently my car has pretty weak start, even in 90 degree weather. so i brought the car to the dealer to check, they said the battery health was good. either they are not honest or maybe my spark plugs need to be replaced.

I beg to differ on the maint. free battery comment about them being sealed completely, the battery I have currently looks very much like Scotty's, one half of the top section will usually hinge open to reveal six sealing caps which can be undone with a coin or flat washer, they have an O-ring seal fitted to them to seal in the acid. Just unscrew them and you can check and top up as needed any "MF" type car battery I've ever seen around. Your local parts shops won't tell you anything about this feature as they don't want to reduce their battery sales.

Walmart sells serviceable batteries for around $45

I wanted to know your thoughts on the new duracell car batteries. I have only been able to find a few reviews and none positive.

There is no reason you can't check that your battery won't strand you, with a $15 voltmeter. You just hook the voltmeter up to the battery. Got 11.5 volts? So far so good. Now watch the voltmeter while starting the car. If the voltage does not dip below 9 volts your battery still has a few more starts left in it. If you forgot your voltmeter, and if you have incandescent headlights, you can also do this test without a voltmeter! Turn on your headlights. Are they bright? So far so good. Now watch the headlights while you start the car. If they get dim, but not very dim, your battery still has a few more starts left in it. You learn from experience with various batteries, in various cars, with various starters, how dim is too dim. Yes it is better to use a voltmeter. Some cars have both ammeters and voltmeters in the dashboard gauge cluster. These are not usually very accurate enough to tell if the battery is dropping below 9 volts.

hey Scotty I just change my starter but when I turn my car on it kinda struggles to turn on and the lights on the dash bored kinda loose power what can that be?

can removing a parking light bulb in the front of 03 silverado cause batery to go ded? its exactly wat i did took the bulb off 8hrs later the batery was ded wat the ef?

Hello Scotty, my battery light came on a few days ago, turned out i had a bad alternator which i had bought in October, replaced it 2 days ago (Christmas eve) and my trucks only putting out 10v, put in a new battery and its still putting out 10 volts, any idea of why its only putting out 10 volts on a new alternator and battery that were put in 2 days ago? thanks!

My wife drives Honda CRV 3-4 times a week with 3-4 days interval sometimes (in the city only) can battery be weak for that reason? When charged with charger it cranks easily

was amazing

Doesn't a weak battery make the alternator work harder?

Hello, is it possible for a bad alternator and/or battery to cause the Check Engine Light to start flashing cause the car to drive badly like a misfire? I've been having an issue with a weak battery. Car ran just fine, but suddenly now this started happen

how of often should da terminal be sprayed?

please..anyone know the location of map sensor of lumina LTZ 2007 v6 3.6L alloytic engine ??

He must had inhaled a line before the video

Is this your shelby.

I am with you go have it tested by a professional no diy that the reason I am here is not pay professional nice job lol

how the fuck did that battery fail already? he barely put it on this year. Either that $900 tester is extremely shitty or the battery was.

well that was a waste of time

So your telling people to pay $40-$50 for a 1 minute test when this is all about diy videos lol