Well, I just replaced the Platinum P4s. All my former Bruce Willis talk of Die Hard, Die Harder fell a little short of the mark. In the words of the late Gary Coleman... "what choo tawkin bout Willis?"
2008: Installed two Platinums
These batteries had an 8 year warranty, with 4 years free replacement. I thought I wouldn't be touching batteries in this vehicle for at least 4 years, if not 7 or 8. I was wrong. I installed two batteries, but I postponed completion of the OEM charge relay trigger wiring integration, due to the complexity of removing both the underhood and the mid body electrical centers to pull apart the multi terminal connectors and replicate GM's RPO TP2 exactly like factory.
Because of this wiring installation delay, my 2nd P4 functioned entirely as an independent back up battery. I would plug in charge it about every 6 months or so, because it came in handy quite often to give myself my own jump starts, as the main battery was dying all the time (yes a Platinum P4... dying).
2011: Removed Main Platinum P4
After 3.5 years, I finally got fed up giving myself jumpstarts, and set about really diagnosing the root cause of why the main P4 was dead as far as starting the car was concerned, but alive and well as far as my meter was concerned. I had to buckle down and get it done at this time, as the 4 year guaranteed full replacment was set to expire in a few months.
As it turned out, the reason why the meter was showing full voltage (12.7v), and yet the battery appeared dead to the car, was because the meter probes were always placed across the top posts, and the car was always hooked up to the side posts. When I finally removed the battery altogether and metered the side posts, I found the same problem that the car did. One of the externally mounted side posts of the battery had an intermittant connection internally.
An internet research binge confirmed this problem with the Odeyssey PC1500 34/78DT as well as the Sears Platinum P4 Group 34/78DT equivalent. A phone call to Enersys, the manufacturer, confirmed that there was a batch of the 34/78DT size batteries with externally mounted side posts that had this problem a few years earlier (circa 2007-
but the problem had since been corrected (circa 2009-2010). A series of reviews for the P4 found on Sear's Online confirmed that this issues was widespread, and not unique.
2011: Replaced Main P4 Platinum
Just a few months before free replacment would turn into proration, I was able to exchange the faulty P4 with a new one. The 2nd P4, that had always reliably performed as a back up battery, did not have any faults. I tried wriggling and wrangling the external side post to produce a fault under a meter, but the voltage remained steady, so only one battery was replaced.
The new battery had a different label (Sears revised the label to all the Platinum line), and of course, was manufactured several years after the first pair of batteries. It bothered me to have two otherwise twin batteries to be of dissimilar age greater than the replacement warranty period, with different labels to boot.
2012: Removed the 2nd P4 battery
I sold the original and and always reliable back up P4 battery at a steep discount, intending to apply the funds towards a new P4 to match the replaced P4 from 2011. In hindsight, I wondered if that was a good decision, as I later learned that I probably sold the best battery I had. In the meantime, I postponed the repurchase of the second battery until finishing the relay wiring circuit to enable both batteries to charge off of the alternator, and to be able to manually parallel the batteries via a separate switch. So during this period of time, the vehicle was back to one battery... which was the replacement to the original failed battery.
2012: Removed replacement P4 battery.
Turns out, the replacement P4 battery wandered it's way down to 3.94 volts. A battery is considered "dead" at 11.4 volts, and on it's way to being "unrecoverable" if it falls below 10 volts. Below 9 volts, ruined cells are suspected, and below 6 volts, multiple ruined cells. This battery was under 4 volts. Yes, the mighty Platimum P4, with the reported 2 year non recharged shelf life while still remaining at useable charge on it's own, was down to 3.94 volts after less than one year.
Result:
I've exchanged the main P4 battery for the second time, and purchased another second P4 battery (making it actually the 5th P4 battery I've had to handle in the 4 years since thinking I wouldn't have to touch a battery again for 8 years).
I've spent approximately $650.00 on P4 batteries in the past 4 years. (including taxes, but not considering the $100 I received for the good P4 that I sold, and not including the additional $550 spent on wiring, relays, trays, fusible links, hardware, etc, for mounting the second battery).
I've installed, removed, reinstalled, removed etc batteries 5 times in the past 4 years.
Just offering some real life experience on what it means to install the so called "be all end all" of car batteries. Not quite the experience I was expecting when Consumer Reports rated this battery as the highest battery they've ever rated, with solid red full circles on every parameter. No other battery they've tested has rated higher.
All things considered, if I could return back to 2008 and start over, would I go with P4's again?
Absolutely. After removing and installing batteries these past 5 times, and having ZERO corrosion to clean up out of the battery trays... ZERO white powder... ZERO tray removal for repainting... ZERO rust... that is worth the expense right there. I will never go back to flooded wet cell batteries. Been there, done that battery corrosion clean up BS all through the 70's, 80's and 90's. Regardless of the ampacity, longevity, and reliability of the P4, it is so nice not to have to deal with that corrosion crud anymore.
