Anybody checked the price of a battery?

[Rooboy]

I think those of us that learned to drive in cars with "armstrong" steering (ie no power assist) got into the habit of only turning the steering wheel when the car was moving - it was next to impossible to do otherwise!

I can vouch for that ! Especially in a HZ Kingswood wagon with the obligatory 8.5in dragways and small SAAS steering wheel! That steering wheel didn't last very long lol.

[k_rider]

I can vouch for that ! Especially in a HZ Kingswood wagon with the obligatory 8.5in dragways and small SAAS steering wheel! That steering wheel didn't last very long lol.

[brad]

Battery went flat last weekend while I was faffing about with the lights on. I charged it up & it seemed fine but between starting this morning, doing the 45km commute & leaving this arvo it died.

Got a jump start & drove home without issue. Battery is on charge now but at 6+ years old I think I've had my moneys worth.

The local Autobarn want $150 for a Supercharge Gold MF44 but I think it's the wrong partno & MF66 is the right one.

Will try Batteries Direct at Peakhurst tomorrow morning unless anyone has a better solution in the Hurstville area.

[brad]

Battery still at 11v this morning after charging all night - must be a dead cell.

Batteries Direct sold me a Varta Silver Dynamic model E44. 77aH 780CCA for $251. Warranty is 2 years

They had cheaper (and pricier) options but when i saw they had Varta & I'd had such a great run out of the OEM unit I was happy to pay extra.

Other Options were:
Century 580CCA (aH unknown) $165
Supercharge MF66H 680CCA $175
Exide DIN66 610CCA $175

They also could get several other brands around the same prices.

Here's to (hopefully) another 6 years of battery life.

[Martin]

I had a Varta battery in my Fiat Regatta (years ago) - it was 5 years old and still going stong when I sold the car

[brad]

I assume varta was OEM in the Skoda.

Build on mine was Sept 2007 & then the vehicle sat in the holding yard until July 2008 (not ideal IMO). So it was 6yrs 4mths until I killed it - I'm sure it would still be going if I hadn't have flattened it last weekend.

[Martin]

Indeed - a lot of people are unaware that if you leave a car battery flat over night, even if it does recharge you will only get ~50% of it's capacity back - start of the end really

[K1W1]

Batteries fitted in cars are a five year design life unit which does NOT mean that they will last 5 years.
If your battery is older than 4 years in Australia in Australian heat conditions it's living on borrowed time so at the first sign that it's failing it should be replaced as modern electronic components in cars simply won't work correctly with a dodgy battery.
Brad, you were wasting your time even trying to recharge your battery. It's life is over take it to the recycler and get a new one.

[K1W1]

Indeed - a lot of people are unaware that if you leave a car battery flat over night, even if it does recharge you will only get ~50% of it's capacity back - start of the end really

Sorry but that is crap.
If the battery is stuffed yes you are correct but it won't recharge because it was stuffed in the first place not because it was allowed to be flat for 12 hours. If you have a perfectly normal fully functioning battery and you flatten it, wait 12 hours and recharge it it will come up as good as new.

[Hillbilly]

Had same instance last week. My sons car wouldn't even open with the remote. Went down and got it open and put a meter on the battery

0.01 V Took terminals off and it came up to 2.8V Took it around to Battery World and it was at 3.7V He charged it slowly from Sat morning till Wednesday. Came up to 13.6 and CCA was down from 540 to 522. He said it load tested fine.

We will see but so far so good. Battery is under 2 years old

Problem was stuffed brake switch which also affected cruise control.