By
bhp02, July 3, 2014
First time I did this, did not have enough distilled water so I dumped tap water which is hard in my area into
the battery. Now how much of the lifespan did I just kill ??
I've always been careful all my life about distilled water, and today I got careless.
It all depends on how hard the water is, and how much you put in... You'll eventually find out how long it lasts, but you'll never know how long it could've lasted. How old is the battery, what kind is it, and which car model and year is it in?
2003 corolla ce, the battery is aprox 3-5 yrs old I think, not less than 3 yrs.
Its a motomaster, Canadian tire one, eliminator its called.
Don't worry - should be OK.
You are close to approaching the lifespan limit on that battery anyways (4 year replacement, 72 month battery?) - no sense worrying about it at this point.
As dom pointed out - depends on how much water you added. Unless your water is exceptionally high in minerals / hard water - tap water won't adversely hurt battery life. Even if you've added a considerable amount of water, you won't hurt the battery badly.
