What do you keep in your car?

[Eldorado2k]

Funny the topic of jump starting and batteries came up. My car has had a very weak battery since Friday. So weak it can’t start the car. Im having my mobile mechanic install a new battery tomorrow. Batteries don’t even last three years down here. Ugh....

My old Cadillac SLS went through 4 new Duralast batteries from Autozone and near the end of the 5th year I sold it with a completely dead battery that took nearly 10 minutes to jumpstart and only when left uninterrupted for 10min. did it finally start. Those Duralast batteries aren’t only too small for the Cadillac, but they flat out suck.

As far as my jumper cables... It’s raining today, and in this bag on the side of the house..



What’s in this trash bag?



It’s my jumper cables! They’ve been out here for months. I intentionally keep them far far away from my car, because god forbid someone asks me to use them to help jumpstart their dead car. No way! Lol.

[Eldorado2k]

On top of that, OEM's are putting in smaller and smaller batteries.

Very true. My old Cadillac SLS was forced to use a smaller battery than it originally came with.. According to Autozone [and everywhere else] they no longer made the proper size battery but they swore this new battery was “more efficient” than the previous larger battery the car came with...

Yea right. 4 new batteries and they all died at exactly 1yr. time. Thank goodness for free replacement warranty but geez what a hassle dealing with weak batteries in a big car.

[Bill D]

The battery I have had a two year warranty so unfortunately I have to buy a new one. That’s so nuts you had to go through so many batteries!

I’m used to replacing batteries at ~3 years. The little drains on them combined with the high heat here really does a number on them.

[Eldorado2k]

The battery I have had a two year warranty so unfortunately I have to buy a new one. That’s so nuts you had to go through so many batteries!

I’m used to replacing batteries at ~3 years. The little drains on them combined with the high heat here really does a number on them.

Autozone warranty states they’ll give you up to 2 free replacements in 3yrs... I showed up with my 3rd bad battery and the guy felt bad so he gave me a 4th battery free of charge. Such a good guy that he wouldn’t even accept the $10 dollar tip I wanted to give him.

[Bill D]

We need more people like him in the world!

[Finick]

Thnip

Well, my company is the one who should require regular maintenance on vehicles. It’s certainly not my priority to pay out of pocket to fix their work vehicle, regardless of whether I drive it or not.

When I inherited the vehicle it had “maintenance” done to it for the year already by the previous driver. So I had to wait. When I took it in this year, the proper way they like it done (people in my company complain and somehow get away with not doing it this way), it needed like 2 grand worth of work. A good bit of stuff on the list could’ve been caught early.

In my personal vehicles if there’s an issue I deal with it same day. Almost no exceptions. I’ll call out of work if I have to.

On the topic of jumping cars, I’ve jumped more cars than I can even count and never had an issue. But I can see how an idiot could cause some damage reversing polarity.

I usually preface any situation with my cables with “have you jumped a car before?” And if the answer is no, or they even seem remotely unsure. I hook the cables up, or I won’t do it. I’ve made a grown man twice my age hold the cables like a child while I walked back and forth to hook them up.

I can’t say I’ve ever been even remotely worried about damaging my vehicle doing something like that, and I’m too nice of a guy to turn someone in need like that away. But, to be fair, as much as I care for and clean my car I honestly care very little about it. No matter my efforts it’ll end up drained and crushed someday. So I really don’t care lol.


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[Farmallluvr]

Very true. My old Cadillac SLS was forced to use a smaller battery than it originally came with.. According to Autozone [and everywhere else] they no longer made the proper size battery but they swore this new battery was “more efficient” than the previous larger battery the car came with...

Yea right. 4 new batteries and they all died at exactly 1yr. time. Thank goodness for free replacement warranty but geez what a hassle dealing with weak batteries in a big car.

if you run out of free replacements from the zone you may want to just suck up the extra cost and get an Interstate or Optima..There was one in my wifes truck when I bought it in 05 and just replaced it last year,,,thats a lot of years of hot summers and a lot of sub zero temps

all my vehicles have Interstates except my Honda which has a Duralast in it

BTW How are you healing up after your crash?,,all better I hope.,,this is the first I've been in here in quite awhile

[Desertnate]

I carry as little as possible in my vehicle because I really hate clutter.

Standard items in my car are a small flashlight, a tire pressure gauge, a cell phone charger, and a cover for the driver seat to protect it when I drive home from the gym. In the fall/winter I'll add a snow brush/ice scraper and that is swapped out with a sun shade in the spring/summer months.

For other activities, like autocross events or fishing I have old milk crates stocked with gear for those activities. I swap them out as needed.

[mariopepper]

I carry as little as possible in my vehicle because I really hate clutter.

Standard items in my car are a small flashlight, a tire pressure gauge, a cell phone charger, and a cover for the driver seat to protect it when I drive home from the gym. In the fall/winter I'll add a snow brush/ice scraper and that is swapped out with a sun shade in the spring/summer months.

For other activities, like autocross events or fishing I have old milk crates stocked with gear for those activities. I swap them out as needed.

Yeah the same. But I also like camping and all my back is full by camping stuff. Too much equipment. Less then fishing at least

[oneheadlite]

New cars have a lot of parasitic/vampire battery drain going on, and if you don't drive them regularly and for more than just short trips to keep the battery well-charged, it can be a problem. On top of that, OEM's are putting in smaller and smaller batteries.

The parasitic draw notion kinda depends on the era/make of the car. I work on Audi’s and BMW’s, and the older cars (especially higher optioned cars) did have a slightly higher acceptable draw. But, as technology advanced, the cars have (theoretically ) gotten more intelligent and are able to both allow non-essential stuff to go to sleep as well as physically shut off power supply to certain branches of the systems. So you can have a car with all the bells and whistles drawing 20mAh when it’s sleeping.

Flip side of that is how true the other part of your statement is - Frequent short trips are hard on the batteries as there are so many consumers in action that the battery may not get replenished from all the energy used to start it.


For my own car- In the rear side compartment, I keep a small ratchet strap for cargo management, tow strap for others just in case. Under the floor I keep a set of jumper cables (as others have mentioned - if I help someone, I’ll be doing the attaching, thank you...), and towels to put down if I carry anything dirty.

During winter months, I also keep a full set of winter wear - snow pants, extra coat, hat/gloves. Used to never worry about it as I was indestructible. Then one day on the way to work I got rear-ended, and my exhaust got folded up so I couldn’t (well, didn’t want to) run the engine to stay warm while I waited for the tow truck. Had I not been able to sit in someone else’s car most of the time I waited, I’d have been in trouble.

Also for winter there’s the default ice scraper/brush (I prefer the super cheap wood handled ones - they just work best for me), and a 6” plastic taping blade (like for painting houses) - that thing is awesome for clearing large amounts of ice. Strong enough to get the job done, but flexible to conform to the glass. Clears a lot more ground than a standard scraper.

Summer months I keep some microfibers and waterless wash for cleaning bird bombs off.