Out of nowhere my car wouldn't start the past couple mornings. After giving it a boost it was fine but the battery would discharge again at night...any way to tell if its the battery or a short somewhere..its the orginal battery on a 99, what the average life span for the factory battery? Also I noticed the factory battery has water ports..do these need refilling?

 

open the ports and see if hte batter needs distilled water.

i had that same problem also, the car would be fine and then when i get home by the time i woke up it would die again.

but i had this problem for two reasons.

1) the first battery was dead and was its way out.
2) the battery i replaced it with didn't have enough CA and CCA to support my stereo system. SO i could only play my stereo for long trips and shut it down 10 mins before i got home for the altenator to charge the battery.

i now replaced my battery with an Optima Yellow Top and everything is fine, i can even play the radio for couple mins after shut off and it still starts up fine 3 days later.

FYI: my stock nissan battery lasted from 1999 - 2003.

 

When my battery was dying, I noticed there would be enough power for the radio, lights, power windows even. But when I tried to start the car, all I'd hear is a fast "tic-tic-tic".

On a side note, are any of your 6 cells in your battery low in fluid level? I usually cheeck them every month and top up with distilled water if needed.

 

Same thing...everything works but not enough to turn the engine over more than a couple times..the a tic-tic-tic

 

I just replaced the battery on our 99 maxima a few months ago. Attached a volt meter to the battery and its cranking power was only 6 volts. From your post, sure sounds like the battery need replacing.

 

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Anything to look out for when replacing the battery or is it as simple as it seems.

 

Mine dropped to 5.5V! Ugh. Fortunately for me, a local 5th gen. owner gave me his oem battery when it was on;y a few months old. He swapped it out for an Optima.

Toffy - straight swap the battery. No other issues to watch out for..