Time for a new battery and I wanted to know if anyone has any suggestions..... including where they could be bought. Left to my own devices I guess I'd get "Interstate" or an "Optima" . Have SMIC, don't need a small one, but would take one. Suggestions?

 

unless you have some specail needs I dont think it matters what battery you get. Just any regular $50 battery willg et the job done. If you want a better one you can go with the optima and spend a little more.

 

Optima Yellow top DEEP CYCLE. I've had mine for about a year and it has never let me down.

When my 0-rings failed I let the car sit from last spring to the end of the summer. When I finally had time to deal with the car it took a couple hours to spin dry the rear housing, by cranking the motor over w/o the plugs installed, and another 1/2 hour to get the motor started. The yellow top maintained constant cranking speed throughout the whole ordeal.

 

optima yellow top......my car sat for 5mos this year and the bat still has enough juice to crank the car.....if it does die on you, you can trickle charge it back to life.....

 

Optima Yellow top, best battery i ever bought. Never failed, one of the best out there if not THE BEST.

 

not sure about the deep-cycle batteries for street cars. read some threads where it is suggested that its not the best. i'm looking for one too as mine is week and the cold is definitely straining it. maybe a red top...

 

I just bought an Optima Red top. It was only a few less Cold Cranking Amps (720 vs 750 I think), but came with a better warranty (3 year free replacement) and was $109 instead of the $149 for the yellow.

Tim

 

I've had the Optima Red top for just a hair over seven years. NEVER any problems starting. Even with the car only being started up maybe once a month over last winter when we had the coldest winter in many years.

 

The deep cycle batteries (ie yellow top Optima) are designed for applications where they are not reliably charged. They are not optimized (no pun intended) for starting applications, and if used in one it will shorten the battery's life a bit. In a rotary application, the starting current is much lower than a piston engine vehicle, so there will be minimal effect. If you deep cycle a non-deep cycle battery (ie red top Optima) you will shorten its' life by quite a bit.
Look at how you treat your battery and choose. Mine sits for 6 months, but gets properly charged every 2 weeks. I get by with a "normal" inexpensive battery. Mine is also smaller, using Turbojeff's tray.

Because I remove my battery every 6 months and store it inside, I notice that in the hot underhood of the 3rd gen the battery looses a lot of water. I strongly recommend to those with batteries to which you can add distilled water, that you top them up, at least every 6 months.

 

**** OPITMA.

Most of u know that I probably have the record for most amount of miles on a FD at 230k+.

I probably have the record on engines at 6.

I I have been through 3 Optima batteries.

Why?

They are great if u don't drive hard and have a modified suspension with greater stiffness.

Each Optima lasted roughly 20k miles and I was looking for another one.

Naturally the first time I thought it was a defect in the battery. I had all the connections and grounds checked to and everything was A-OK.

So one day I called Optima customer support and told that they had a POS battery not worthy of the modified FD.

The guy I talked to admitted that their battery internals don't last to long with high shock/vibration driving.

Guess what I have now?

Some $37.00 Honda size battery for my Stainless steel battery tray from Costco with such and awesome warranty (that I still have to use) that there is NO receipt required (most people lose their receipts after a year or so).

So IMHO, **** Optima......... it's just for ******* looks.

 

If u have to get an OPTIMA get it at Costco.......... i think the deep cycle was $104......... or was it $140.

not sure though.

 

I think thats how most big autoparts chains work. At autozone you can grab a bettery for about $50 that has an 8 year warranty, and your information is kept in the computer under your phone number, so you dont need a receipts.

 

Then again, they wont look as cool as an optima. lol

 

8 year prorated. IE: You have to pay a percentage of full retail (not sale price) after 1-2 years depending on battery and such.

Read the fine print.
Tim

 

Wrong, 3 year freee replacement 5 years prorated.

anytime in the first 3 years a new battery is free, after that you pay percentage depending on how long u have had the battery.

 

C'mon now, quit beatin' around the bush....tell us what you really think...

 

Thanks for the clarification. I have always found the prorated is pretty much worthless, but the free replacement is the most important. The reason I went with Optima was because it was 3 year free replacement. All other batteries there were prorated after 1 or 2 years.

Tim

 

I may have got the wrong optima red top battery but I couldn't get my positive battery cable to slide onto the post of the battery because of the fuse box that was attached to the cable. How did you guys with the red or yellow top get the cable to reach the post that is in the middle of the battery?

 

Go with a hawker dry cell. They are the best. I have had mine for 4 years or so with 50K of driving and it has been great. Regular batteries seem to leak in my car due to heat/vibration. You can get regular sized dry cells.

 

that actually depends on the battary you get. I was going off of the battaries at autozone. The duralast gold series has 3 year free replacement, then 5 years prorated after that for a total of an 8 year warranty. I also found out that the regular duralast series (the step below the duralast gold) actually comes OEM on hummers, so this batter can't be to shabby.

 

Did you have a red or yellow?

 

2 red and 1 yellow.

never tried the blue.

but after 3 going to ****............ **** 'em.

i know not all of u have modified suspension like me, but i have my koni set to the softest setting and 450 front and 350 rear for ground control and that is reasonable.

there really shouldn't be any reason why I should change my battery when I am not even chipping my teeth.

 

Nope. I bet your $37 dollar battery isn't dry sealed and therefore couldn't be used in my rear bins. I could give a crap less what my battery looks like. Actually, I don't know anyone who does..

Not like there's a lot of choice on the market for dry sealed batteries for those of us who have them inside the car. All I can think of is Optima and Exide, and I don't know anyone who has tried an Exide battery.

 

where does one find the hawker dry cell?

 

Where did I say that my $37 battery was dry sealed?

Placing a batter in the cockpit is probably the dumbest idea.

Here are the reasons:

1. with passenger (especially a tall person) and a tank of gas ur weight bias is more like 48% front and 52% rear. Unless u have some good negative camber and/or staggered tires it serves no purpose, but to suck out ur $$$ for a less than favorable 50/50 weight distribution.

2. Waste of a good bin space

3. Safe? The installations that I have seen......... Nope.

4. Waste of $$$

THe ONLY advantage that I can think of is freeing up space in the engine compartment in light of better air flow in engine compartment for favorable cooling.

That's about it.

My arguement (unless a moderator changed it) was that that brand (nothing to do with sealed batteries) was a POS IMHO and experience.

I do not see the value of spending a fortune on a battery that can't handle a reasonable amount of road shock.