My Car Wouldnt Start After Having Left the Lights on by Accident. When I Drove It Back Home After Jump?

starting my car for about 2 miles distance, turned off the car for a couple hours, then tried starting the car back up again, I heard a clicking sound, so I had to jump start it again. After driving about 10-15 miles to another city taking a freeway and streets, I didn't have any more problems starting my car. Its as if driving my car a longer distance helped recharge my battery better. But my question is, based on everything I mentioned, how much time do you think it will be before I will need to buy a new car battery? Ive had this battery for about 1.5-2 years now.

Answer:

Your battery should last for another year or so. You have to drive about 8 to 10 miles in order to replace the energy you took out of the battery to start your vehicle. When yo jumped the battery and then only drove a couple of miles, that likely only took 5 or 10 minutes before you shut the vehicle off again. That wasn't enough time for the alternator to charge you battery sufficiently for another start. Many, many short trips every day are hard on a battery. When you drove the 10 to 15 miles that probably took about 15 minutes or more, and was sufficient time for the alternator to put a charge back into your battery. A good battery of average cost should last about 3 to 4 years. The more expensive batteries that are guaranteed for 5 to 6 years usually have more "Cold Cranking Amps" than the less expensive batteries. Cold Cranking Amps are a battery's ability to start a vehicle at 0 degrees. A fully charged battery only has about half the advertised CCA at 0 degrees! That's why a cheaper battery with say 500 CCA may turn over slowly when its 0 degrees outdoors, while a 800 CCA battery at 0 degrees should start the vehicle easily.