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W reg 2.0 Hdi

My battery died.

Anyone know the cheapest place for a car battery?

I've looked at Euro (£50 Lion) and Gsf (£60 Vetech). I presume these must be up to the job?
Halfords seems expensive at £70.
Is there anywhere else to look?

I'm guessing I need 56AH and over, and CCA 480A?

Thanks in advance

Steve
Exide are usually the best value for money in my experience. Unless there's a sale on at ECP use carparts4less, same products, cheaper prices.
If you've a local ECP, using "Click and Collect" from the website usually works out just as cheap as CP4L and makes for far less hassle with warranty/exchanges (not to mention not having to wait for delivery)

If you know someone with a trade card, you can knock quite a lot off the Halfords retail prices too.
I like the look of the Exide now (I know that name)
Did not know about CP4L until now!
CP4L is £4 cheaper than ECP on the 2 Exide batteries I looked at. Now you mention it, I think I prefer to pay a little more at ECP, as they are right nearby and it reduces the hassle if I have to return stuff.
My mate has some type of Halfords card, I'll phone him later and see what the score is with that.

Thank you most kindly gentlemen. Any other comments welcome.
Get an exide and get one as powerful as your wallet allows, i'd be looking for 600/60 minimum myself. It's worth the extra few quid for the lifespan imo.
(27-05-2015, 05:37 PM)Poodle Wrote: [ -> ]Get an exide and get one as powerful as your wallet allows, i'd be looking for 600/60 minimum myself. It's worth the extra few quid for the lifespan imo.

Thanks Poodle.

Earlier today I was all for 'get the cheapest I can find'. I'm now at the point where I agree with you. The extra £20 or more will be worth it in the long term.

Am I right in thinking that a 600/60 will suffer less stress than a 540/53? Bigger is best?

Steve
I'm inclined to think so, especially in winter when there's a lot of load on it from the moment you get in the car.
I'm not entirely convinced.

Sure, a higher capacity (Ah) and more powerful (CCA) battery won't do any harm, but remember that you're only starting a 4 pot diesel in a comparative mild climate and thus there's a case of diminishing returns what benefits you'll get from a higher rated battery.

For what it's worth, both my current and last HDi's are/were using an 065 battery which is well down on Ah and CCA compared to a 027 that it's meant to have - without checking I'd guess maybe 50Ah and 450CCA. Despite that and the fact that the battery is atleast 6 years old, it's always cranked over strongly even in the harshest winter temperatures that we've seen.
Pretty sure the number just denotes the physical size of the battery, you can get various options of cca/ah for each... carcass? body? Don't know the proper terms, but you know what i mean. The size only vaguely relates to the power and capacity, just means it won't quite fit your battery tray perfectly.

Tbf i've seen 540/52 batteries last a few years on HDis, but then i've also seen a few fail way quicker than they should. Perhaps it is just down to the manufacturer and user care, but i would rather just spend the extra few quid and know i've got something that is well within it's limits. You're probably right about it being overkill, just a matter of personal preference really.
You're correct to a point, but the physical size of the battery limits the size of the plates inside and thus a given battery type will usually have broadly similar ratings regardless of manufacturer. Some premium offerings will have higher ratings for a given size, but usually they'll still be lower than a typical budget offering of the next size up.

User care is unquestionable a large issue with battery life, and one of the easiest ways to kill a battery is to leave it in a discharged state - often, they'll never properly recover even if you only discharge it once for a short period. One of the reasons why I think daily used cars that do high miles tend to suffer less battery related woe that occasionally used cars that only pop into town and back.

Ironically, the only batteries I've ever had issues with have been Bosch Silver's - unquestionably a premium offering, but I had three die within the space less than a year and a fourth die on another car that I think was barely a year old. Just about anything else, even unbranded budget batteries, have lasted years and never given a hint of trouble, even on cars that have sat around for months on end.... go figure.
So many people have had issues with Bosch silvers. Halfords have now started using Yuasa batteries as their premium line which I think is a good call. I use Yuasa batteries at work all the time and they never let me down!
Had a bosch s5 on my hdi for two years now and no problems.
powerandtorque is spot on about a discharged battery dying quicker (having a shorter life). It's a chemical reaction called sulphation and occurs when the battery is under 100% charge. The lower the charge level the quicker it occurs. Eventually it becomes so bad that the battery won't hold a charge sufficient enough to start the car. So if you don't use the car often or plan not to use it for a while it's best to disconnect the battery to save it discharging.
(29-05-2015, 11:09 AM)andywhy Wrote: [ -> ]powerandtorque is spot on about a discharged battery dying quicker (having a shorter life). It's a chemical reaction called sulphation and occurs when the battery is under 100% charge. The lower the charge level the quicker it occurs. Eventually it becomes so bad that the battery won't hold a charge sufficient enough to start the car. So if you don't use the car often or plan not to use it for a while it's best to disconnect the battery to save it discharging.

andywhy.  That's the reason I needed a new battery. I left the car parked in the road, unmoved for 5 months. I did not know. How stupid am I!

Anyway, I got the £59.99 Exide 62Ah 540CCA from ECP and am back in business. Will definitely disconnect when I am not using it in future, now that I am a battery expert.

Next on the agenda, replace Alternator bearings!

Thanks guys.

Steve