Battery Choice for 105 1750

[Ash Gordon]

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

[Gary Pearce]

There is not much quality about batteries in Australia at present. They are all made to a price it seems. It won't be hard to find one that fits and looks reasonably neat in your 1750 for under $100

[pep105]

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

[Davidm1600]

Hi Ash

Ditto, I would agree with the others comments.  I think the other thing to consder if you are not going to use your car much, as is the case for me, then it is als possibly worth inversting in a trickle battery charger.  That way your battery will remain on charge for when you wish to use it.  Obviously, if you are using it daily or at least very regularly than this perhaps is not an issue.  I too need to give some thought as to what battery to get, but $100 seems about right.  A cheap battery from K-mart, I would skip.  Dave

[Ash Gordon]

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 

[pep105]

Yeah Ash I put a Yuasa in my Vespa as it came highly recommended and like you might investigate for the 105. The bloody Honda battery for our Euro (its for sale anyone?) is $180 and the warranty overs 50% which brings it back to almost the price of an aftermarket one!
As Dave recommends good to invest in a trickle charger.

[Doug Gould]

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

[Ash Gordon]

Thanks Doug,

I had a look at the Exide battery choice at both the local Kmart and Big W. Very poor range available at Big W.

I couldn't remember off the top of my head the CCA you recommended and the Vehicle lists at both obviously only cater for current makes / models.     

The good news is Kmart have 15% off Exide batteries, and I will be heading back up there tomorrow.

cheers Ash

[Ash Gordon]

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 ...

[alfagtv58]

Thanks Ash and Doug.

I was thinking about this post last night while stuck for an hour and a half in the 4WD with a dead battery 

I think maybe its time for a change, the battery is now 4 1/2 years old, so going on Doug's advice I have got a bonus 18 months.  Ash, its interesting you mention Battery World, I was wondering about their batterys last night also.  Any thoughts Doug?

[Doug Gould]

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

[Ash Gordon]

Job done..

Went down to Mentone Battery World and picked up a Century 67 for $155. 3 yr Warranty.  (CCA 480) & a CTEK auto charger .

Did a quick check at both Autobarn and Supercheap on the way through. Supercheap stock Bosch which look mighty similar to the Centrury,  ( possibly out of the same factory ??  as Doug mentioned). Autobarn stock Century and were very helpful, if only they had the same $15 trade in I would have purchased there...  Prices were pretty much withing a dollar or two...

Dropped the new battery in and got the car running after about 6 attempts, not too bad considering she hasn't run for awhile.. took a few pumps of the clutch & brakes just to get some pressure back.. another task to add to the list...

I had almost forgotten what a joy    the old alfa is to drive, even is it was just the servo to put some air in the tyres !

[pep105]

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

[Ash Gordon]

I bought the CTEK XS 800 Battery Charger which cost about $90.  (Try ebay for cheaper again, but wouldn't be too confident on the warranty) There were cheaper options but CTEK was recommended and comes with a 5 year warranty.

If you were purely charging a flat battery the Ctek website recommends higher end models. I believe the XS 800 is more suited to charging smaller batteries, vespas, motorbike jet skis etc... From a maintenance perspective it appears to be ideal.
Will need to use it for awhile before I can give my own opinion on that though...

It has a Maintenance "pulse" function. Below is from the manual / web.   Cheers Ash 

Four step, fully automatic switch mode model.
Charges lead-acid batteries (Wet, MF, GEL and AGM) from 1.2Ah to 32Ah, 1.2-100Ah maintenance charging.
Maintenance pulse charging increases battery life and gives superb performance.
Charges even drained batteries.
Pulse recover of slightly sulphated batteries.
Low back current drain, low ripple and input voltage independent (170-260V).
High efficiency: 85%
Delivered with two interchangeable connection leads, one with clamps, and one with eyelet terminals.
The charger can be connected for months, ideal for seasonal vehicles.
Compact design with mounting holes for permanent assembly.
5 year warranty.
The XS 800 has a fully automatic, four step charge:



Desulphation
Runs a complete charge cycle within a fraction of a second. The cycle repeats during the whole desulphation phase. Every cycle recovers some lead sulphate into useful material.

Bulk
Charging where 80% of the energy is returned. The charger delivers a constant current until the battery voltage has reached the set level.

Absorption
Final part of the charge up to 100%. The battery voltage is kept constant at the set level, during which time the current drops gradually.

Pulse
Maintenance charging. The state of charge varies between 95% and 100%. A pulse is sent out to the battery if the voltage drops. This keeps the battery in trim when not in use. The charger can be connected for months at a time.
Using the XS 800 gives your battery an optimum service life and operational reliability.

[pep105]

Thanks Ash cheers mate much appreciated