Hi,

Just a simple query on Battery Choice:

After the battery that came with the car died and several other 2nd hand batteries have given up it's time to finally purchase a new one.

At the moment the car is not used very often, so was wondering if it's worth buying a decent battery or just pick up a basic EXIDE or similar from Kmart ?

What are people using in their 105's ?

Thanks

Hi Ash,
Funny you mention it my 105 battery just cacked itself this week, its an Exide maintence free (my ar*e) model no. P460D (I think). My car doesnt get driven very often and the last 2 batteries have lasted 2 years or so and just out of warranty.  Ive pinched the battery out of my company car  to get the 105 going and just about to buy one, Century with a 2 Year warranty and is similar size to the Exide which fits perfectly.   

Havent had much luck with batteries lately, first my vespa then the 105 and just tonite my 06 Honda Accord Euro battery died just when some bloke had come to check out the car as its for sale !!!
Agree very much with Garys comment on quality and $ 100 ish is the go

Thanks for the info.

Sounds like I need to do some searching to see what is available.

I have been recommended a Yuasa battery ( 57 or 67 ) which seem to be either owned / distributed under Century Batteries. Any ideas on availability & price?

I recently had to replace the "Maintenance Free" battery in our daily car (VW Golf) and walked out $170 worse off 

OK. Lets stop the old wives tales. Australian made batteries are exceptionally good. There are 2 manufacturers - Exide & Century. In worked for Exide for 10 years, but I still admire Century. Century are part owned by Yuasa & some Yuasa batteries are made here and some imported. I think Centrury now make Bosch too. Exide make Dunlop, Marshall, and a few others that I forget. The RACV / NRMA etc batteries are made by whichever of Century or Exide currently has the contract.

Low maintenance means that you don't need to add water - nothing else. This is due to the lead alloy that is used. Typically low maintenance batteries use a calcium alloy. Exide have an exceptional alloy that includes traces of gold which helps its shelf life.

The shelf life of a bettery is about 10 - 12 weeks. After that its self discharged to the point that it needs charging. In my GTV6 with its clock drain, I need to recharge every 3 weeks. If you let a bettery get fully flat it will never recover to full health - never. A car alternator will never fully charge a battery (once agian repeat never). If you've let a battery get really flat, it should be bench charged. If you let a battery get really flat and leave it that way, it will be cactus. Lead sulphate crystals grow through the separator material and effectively short it out internally. Buy a good battery charger.

A battery should give you about 3 years life. After that you're on bonus time. If you get less than that the reason (about 95% of the time) will be that its been let get flat and left flat by someone. This is the reason that its important to buy your battery from an outlet that has high turnover. BigW & K-Mart are good. So are most autoelectricians and some tyre stores. I'd view all others with suspician. There is a manufacture date code hot stamped into the plastic top that can be interpreted without too much imagination. From memory Exide use numbers for days, a letter code for the month and the last 2 digits of the year.

Batteries are largely sold on Cold Cranking Amps (CCA) capacity. This is largely following the trend in the US. Once you're into the 400's you should be OK, although the most demanding engine for a battety to start is a high compression 4 cylinder. CCA is dependant on the lead surface area (no of plates) and reseve capcity is dependant on lead paste mass (thickness of plates).

The new Optima / Orbital type batteries are really really good and have much better shelf life. But they are obscenely expensive and less tolerant of being left flat or being overcharged. They are still conventional lead-acid batteries, but have different separator technology, a slightly different lead alloy and different construction.  For my money, I'm sticking with ordinary flooded lead acid. And I face up to replacing them because I let them go flat. And I blame myself and not the battery.

If you want to be scared, look at the price graph of lead over about the last 3 years. Batteries, after a decade long period of price stability, have gone up massively. Face up to it.

European cars take DIN batteries, although if height is not limited they can sometimes fit a Holden / Falcon  size (I think the 105 fits this category). Despite OE stickers on the front, these batteries will have (almost certainly) been made in either Taiwan or Korea. I've been to the factories, they are good. Although my preference is the current crop of either Century or Exide.

Personally, I usually get Century from the local tyre store where I have an account. Sometimes I use the local Auto Electrician (especially for DIN sizes) and if I'm feeling cheap I go to Big W where I have to carry it out. The big question is what the price difference between somewhere cheap & somewhere convenient is compared with the cost of being stuck on the side of the road on a night like tonight. When I was about 20 and an engineering student, I was trying to eek out a few extra weeks life from a battery. I ended up trying to push start a Twin Cam Cortina in a dinner suit after the med ball. Since then I always replace batteries at the first hint of trouble.

Doug

Update...

Kmart are over priced !  $157 for an Exide 52D which I believe is a standard Holden / Ford size battery. ( 2yr Warranty)

The local Auto shop on North Rd has the same battery for $128.. 

Anyhow so I did a little more calling around and for a little extra $ you can pick up either a Century with a three year Warranty for similar $.

Battery World - Century 57 for about $137  or Century 67 for $179  less the $15 Trade in if you got the flyer in the post ...

I'm pretty sure that Battery World is the retail chain that Century set up to compete with Marshall Batteries. If that's the case they will be focussing on service and not price.

The thing that gets batteries in the end is that eventually the acid eats through the plates. In the olden days the internal intercell welds between the busbars that join all the plates used to fail and ne a source of premature failure. But that mode of failure is pretty much a thing of the past. Unless you're using a standard battery in a high vibration application. The 4WD batteries do actually have a different internal contrstruction to cope with vibration better.

Doug

Hey Ash,

Bought the same battery for my 105 today, didnt realise you had the same one till I re read your post just now. Got it from Beaurepaires in Pt Melb and dropped it tonite, took the 105 for a squirt to guess what - put air in the tyres!, its been sitting around for a while. They had Century 56/7 as well but in the end the 3 yr warranty extra reserve capacity (105RC) won me over.

Now to buy a decent battery charger, did the CTEK charger have a trickle function? and how much was it?

Managed to salvage the Honda battery and sold the car, now need to charge the Yuasa in the Vespa so not a bad result in the end.
and yes the 105 is a beauty to drive, dont know why i didnt do this sooner
 

Thanks Ash cheers mate much appreciated