replace a car battery without a jump starter?

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invest123
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replace a car battery without a jump starter?

Post by invest123 »

I am going to replace the 5 year old original battery in my 2017 Camry, as preventative maintenance. Do you need to use a jump starter in order to not lose information from the car's computer, as shown in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ay7u12npKLY&t=1s

What exactly is lost--just radio presets and clock?
Makefile
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Re: replace a car battery without a jump starter?

Post by Makefile »

The OBD-II related data can get cleared too. And I remember reading once in a car manual that certain calibration information for an automatic transmission was lost when changing the battery also.
CharacterCounts
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Re: replace a car battery without a jump starter?

Post by CharacterCounts »

I recently replaced the battery in my 2016 Subaru Outback. The owners manual indicated that I would loose power window settings and explained how to easily reset them using the up and down window switch. Radio stations were not effected. I imagine each type car could be different.
neilpilot
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Re: replace a car battery without a jump starter?

Post by neilpilot »

If you have a 12v charger, or a trickle charger, that will work fine. I think that even a 9v battery can be used to retain settings.
andypanda
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Re: replace a car battery without a jump starter?

Post by andypanda »

I wouldn't bother.
We have a 2016 Avalon Touring and a 2016 4Runner Trail Premium. A year ago I decided to replace the batteries just because I didn't want to go another winter and batteries are cheap enough. I've had cars that lost the radio presets and figured if that's the worst thing that would happen it would be no big deal.

I ordered 2 batteries on line from Batteries Plus to get the 10% discount. I took the battery out of the Avalon and drove across town - call it 30 minutes or a little more. When I got there I pulled the battery out of my 4Runner and took it in along with her battery. After I was back on the road the radio worked and I don't think I reset the shift points or any of that stuff.

Back at the house I installed her battery and the presets were all there and the shift points were unchanged afaik. Iirc, the '87 Camry and the '92 Camry would lose the presets. Some do, some don't. Computer memory is cheap these days, maybe they've fixed the problem.
tibbitts
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Re: replace a car battery without a jump starter?

Post by tibbitts »

invest123 wrote: Sun Nov 28, 2021 8:24 pm I am going to replace the 5 year old original battery in my 2017 Camry, as preventative maintenance. Do you need to use a jump starter in order to not lose information from the car's computer, as shown in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ay7u12npKLY&t=1s

What exactly is lost--just radio presets and clock?
I've only heard of using a memory minder device, not a jump starter, but in theory any roughly 12v power source would work, I guess. With newer cars I might let someone else change my battery unless I was familiar with any programming required, etc.
bradinsky
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Re: replace a car battery without a jump starter?

Post by bradinsky »

Changed the battery in DW’s MB GLK350. Pulled out the old battery & replaced it with the new one. Based on the location of the battery, it was a bit difficult to change, but no presets or settings were lost.
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tetractys
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Re: replace a car battery without a jump starter?

Post by tetractys »

Doesn’t sound like it’s worth the trouble. And it’s actually kind of nice to reset things.
Doctor Rhythm
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Re: replace a car battery without a jump starter?

Post by Doctor Rhythm »

Data needed for smog checks (if you’re in a state that requires them) can also be lost - which is the biggest hassle we’ve encountered. This data can be re-gathered, but it requires some driving time, so you don’t want to lose it right before your registration renewal is due.
marcopolo
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Re: replace a car battery without a jump starter?

Post by marcopolo »

I would imagine most modern cars have flash memory these days for anything that needs to be remembered.
I suspect the advice to keep car powered is a relic from the past.
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Re: replace a car battery without a jump starter?

Post by nisiprius »

Our previous car, 2006 vintage: as the owner's manual warned, the car ran just a bit odd for about a day, hard to put a finger on it but the engine just acted a little differently. There are apparently some timing or other "tuning-like" adjustments that it makes adaptively, and it takes it a short time to re-establish them. It drove and everything. Radio stations were lost. I don't remember if the clock needed to be re-set.

Our current car has a whole bunch of unimportant settings, like the audio volume of the NAV system or what screen comes up initially when the car is turned on. It is also possible to set the car to disable things I would never want to disable, like whether the lane departure alert will actually activate the steering or just sound a warnings, or to set the following distance in adaptive cruise control to farther-medium-closer. I don't know but I imagine they might get lost, i.e. reset to factory defaults, but that would be at most a minor nuisance.
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wallygator
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Re: replace a car battery without a jump starter?

Post by wallygator »

https://www.amazon.com/ALLOSUN-GK504-Au ... 186&sr=8-5

Used this for last 20 years and probably 20 battery changes.

I loosen the bolts and connect the battery. I typically have the new battery reconnected in less than a minute. Radio, radar everything off, still don't know how long a 9 volt battery will run run the dash lights as you need to have the cigarette lighter power on....
Silverado
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Re: replace a car battery without a jump starter?

Post by Silverado »

2013 Jeep, unhooked battery twice in the last year (alternator and battery replacement). Both times nothing lost. Battery swap was fast, but alternator swap had it disconnected for about 10 minutes. I was mildly interested to see what would happen, but nothing did.

I wouldn’t worry about it. You are more likely to short the leads and cause some damage than lose something important, not counting potential smog stuff as noted.

Please report back your action and result, for the record.
NoblesvilleIN
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Re: replace a car battery without a jump starter?

Post by NoblesvilleIN »

Have you checked to see if the local autoparts store(s) offer a replacement service? Last year we drove wife's 2016 Outback to a local Advance Autoparts store, purchased the battery and had them install it. It was the same price as if I had changed it myself and no need to make a second trip to turn in the old battery. The person at the store hooked up a device to the port under the dash and then swapped the battery. Nothing was lost.
tibbitts
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Re: replace a car battery without a jump starter?

Post by tibbitts »

NoblesvilleIN wrote: Mon Nov 29, 2021 7:59 am Have you checked to see if the local autoparts store(s) offer a replacement service? Last year we drove wife's 2016 Outback to a local Advance Autoparts store, purchased the battery and had them install it. It was the same price as if I had changed it myself and no need to make a second trip to turn in the old battery. The person at the store hooked up a device to the port under the dash and then swapped the battery. Nothing was lost.
As evidenced by this thread people can debate the importance of retaining settings, but beware that not all stores use the memory-retention devices. And probably many of them can't reprogram the car for the new battery on models where that's required.
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illumination
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Re: replace a car battery without a jump starter?

Post by illumination »

It's changed all the time without this extra step, but a little powered trickle charger with alligator clips connected to the car's battery cables while the swap is made can have the same effect if you don't want to lose any settings.

The 9v battery powered ones that plug into the 12v cigarette lighter port never worked for me, I'm guessing because when the car is shut off the power is disconnected to that port on my model. Some cars, the port is powered even when the car is turned off.
Chuck
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Re: replace a car battery without a jump starter?

Post by Chuck »

I feel dumb for having never thought of doing this. :(
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Watty
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Re: replace a car battery without a jump starter?

Post by Watty »

invest123 wrote: Sun Nov 28, 2021 8:24 pm What exactly is lost--just radio presets and clock?
Some cars have a security code that you have to enter into the car stereo after the power is lost. This is to make the stereo useless if it is stolen. This is of course a problem if you lost it or did not get the code when you bought a used car.

The last few batteries I have replaced I have just waited until the weather was nice then had them replaced in the parking lot of an auto parts store where they would install it for free and use something to keep the power from being lost. I do this partly because battery is heavy and can be awkward to lift in and out of the car, that and I am a bit lazy. :D

At some auto part stores the batteries will be cheaper if you buy them on line for pickup since they will often have a code for something like a 15% discount.
Topic Author
invest123
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Re: replace a car battery without a jump starter?

Post by invest123 »

Here's a follow up to my original post: I replaced the car battery without any accessory power source. There was no battery connected for about 5 hours. I did not lose any information as far as I can tell (radio presets, etc. was still there).
Chuck
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Re: replace a car battery without a jump starter?

Post by Chuck »

invest123 wrote: Sun Nov 28, 2021 8:24 pm What exactly is lost--just radio presets and clock?
The ECU will forget all the trouble codes and readiness monitors. If you live in a state like mine that uses ECU data to perform the annual emissions inspection, you will fail the inspection. It takes about 50-100 miles of driving to accumulate enough data to restore readiness.
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