scrap yard batteries

[RustyNuts]

I can't believe i'm even thinking of it...

 

the renault has a battery that holds about as much charge as an AA battery. i'm skint but i know a local scrap metal yard that collects car batteries to sell them on for recycling.

 

Anyone ever bought a scrappy battery and had any luck? - any signs of a good battery? - presumably voltage alone isn't going to be a good indicator...

 

Thanks

[For Fiats Sake]

My mate has a reconditioner and has had much success in getting batteries going again.

Presumably if you buy a battery from a scrappy it will be tested and charged though?  

Plus there will be a date of manufacture stamped on it somewhere.

[doug]

I bought one last year. Looked pretty new. Got it for £25. Suppose its just your luck wether you get a good one or not.

[fordperv]

Years back when I was skint I bought a couple for a couple of different cars and they were Fine, they got tested there before I took them away and came with a 28 day warranty

 

I still have one of the batteries and it's still going strong

[PiperCub]

Bought a couple in the past for cars I'm not keeping for too long so can't really comment on long-term life expectancy but they've served their purpose for as long as I've had them & for the price I paid (<£10).

 

You're right in saying voltage across the terminals isn't a great guide but it's a start, if it's not 12V (nearer 10V) then it's lost a cell so is u/s. The problem is that a DVM/voltmeter doesn't put any load on the battery and that's when you need to test it - under load (ie: what a starter motor would pull). The only real way to check it is with a drop-tester which most won't have but the place selling the battery might.

 

A guarantee would be nice too even if it's only a month or so. 

[tooSavvy]

MotorHog take 'em in after an RTA, while the blood still pools/motor is warm......

 

Brand new 'white goods' got to b worth a punt

 

 

TS

[Kiltox]

If it's less than a tenner and works then I suppose it's alright but a brand new warranted shitty Lion from ECP is pretty cheap

[tooSavvy]

Oi! Why t fkk we not all abed? Hmm..

 

TS

[PiperCub]

'Cos some of us is at work!!!!

 

(At work - doesn't necessarily equate to doing work......) 

[tooSavvy]

[/facepalm] Doh!

 

TS

 

*nytol

[billyboy406v6]

Oi! Why t fkk we not all abed? Hmm..

 

TS

Big Brother stalking these pages ?

[nigel bickle]

I bulk buy a dozen or so, 2 or 3 times a year.

 

I can pick/ choose, reject if the tester shows yellow or worse, return within 2 weeks if shafted and pay between £8-12, dependant on size/ numbers purchased.

 

What's not to like?

[skattrd]

The scrappy down the road from me, Browns at Waddington have a battery tester and were testing batteries out of their pile in front of me when I went for one. I was then charged £20 for a new looking tested battery.

[stripped fred]

Bought one for £10 from my local scrappy for my mr2 2 years ago and it's still going strong.

[tapir]

Yeah bought one worked fine and looked new ish, TBH with an ECP discount code new isn't that much more expensive, depends if your keeping the car longer term I guess,

[fatharris]

Bought one for the MG and it didn't work. Worse still, the place I bought it from was 75 miles away, so it was money pissed away.

[rainagain]

I've had mixed success, however the price of a new one from ebay/carparts4less/eurocarparts means its not really worth the effort. The last one I bought the scrappy tested it said it was fine but after fitting it I found it wasn't. Luckily they gave me a credit note even though they told me it had no guarantee.

[rainagain]

Try and see if a another size will fit your car. The most popular batteries are cheaper than the rarer ones. I fitted a slightly taller but shorter battery to my Alfa and saved about a third on the cost of the recommended battery.

[castros_bro]

You need to charge it then  leave it "resting" for a couple of days  then test it with one of these discharge testers (other types are available) which will tell you if it has chance of holding enough electrons to wang your starter motor over. If not then it's duff.

 

[mercrocker]

My Cowley (which itself came from a salvage yard) is still running on a battery out of another scrapper - three and a half years of infrequent activity followed by long bursts of use and its been turning over the engine quite regularly this winter without the ignition to keep the oil moving.  Never been near a charger. 

 

Its lasted longer than some of the 3 year guaranteed ones from the motor factors....

[PhillipM]

If it's 5-10 quid, maybe, but when you can get a new battery with 3 year warranty for 25 quid....

[bub2006]

I paid 20 quid for one from Albert looms for the Volvo. Cheapest New I could find was 70 quid. 30 day guarantee too

[saucedoctor]

I got a newish 096 out of a crashed Skud Octy for a tenner. Still doing the job in a Peugeot 406 HDi a couple of years on.

 

I have a £20 eBay spesh battery load tester. You can get ones that look like an EOBD reader for about 30 clams. A mate has an Snap-On one that does a printout, but I think it cost about £34856736245153.

[CortinaDave]

Bought loads at various times! Girlfriend got a £15 battery from Overton's scrappy on Aberdeen five years ago and it's still going strong.

 

My Saab 9-3 was running on a scrapyard battery too for a good couple of years and still absolutely fine when sold.

 

I usually just look in the pile of batteries for one that looks recentish, then check it for a date code. If it's only a couple of years old I'm in!

[Dick Cheeseburger]

I started a thread on this very topic a while back. I've bought s/h batteries for a number of years, and normally paid £20-25 tops for them. When I bought one from my local breaker a couple of months back, they wanted 30 notes for it, which made me question whether it was worth dicking around with an unknown quantity. Yes, they test them and have a limited warranty, but you never know just how good or bad it really is. In hindsight, I still did the right thing in buying it, as I sold the car shortly afterwards!

[PhillipM]

Yep, to test a battery properly takes hours, nobody bothers with that. So it's still a risk even if they've banged a load meter over it.

£27 for ECP's own brand delivered to the door....

[Hertz]

Ditto on the buy new. I just got a brand new (via ebay) battery for my wife's Polo £25 delivered to my door and with a 4 year warranty. No brainer really.

[SiC]

Anyone got any links for these mega cheap new batteries?

 

Cheapest ECP battery I can see is http://www.eurocarparts.com/ecp/p/car-batteries/battery/most-popular-car-battery/063-car-batteries/?444770631&0&cc5_993

 

With MARCHMAD it makes it £30.

[Kiltox]

Anyone got any links for these mega cheap new batteries?

 

Cheapest ECP battery I can see is http://www.eurocarparts.com/ecp/p/car-batteries/battery/most-popular-car-battery/063-car-batteries/?444770631&0&cc5_993

 

With MARCHMAD it makes it £30.

Try Carparts4less - sometimes slightly cheaper

 

I pay a few pennies under £27 for that from ECP (trade)

[matty879]

If it's less than a tenner and works then I suppose it's alright but a brand new warranted shitty Lion from ECP is pretty cheap

I would take my chances at the scrappy before buying a ecp lion battery,i must of returned at least 8 in the last year out of around 30 fitted,last one I took back was 2 months old off a vivaro and fecked,but I got an exide as a replacement at no extra cost