Battery quality?

[Bren]

Despite being less than two years old the vectras' battery appears to be dying. I had it on charge overnight one day last week - this morning it only just started - it was below freezing overnight.

Car has a mixture of local trips but longer runs to North Wales. I will get it tested before taking it back.

Is everything crap these days?

[MJK 24]

You may have a faulty one.  I spent a lot of money on a pair of genuine MAN batteries for one of our trucks and it failed inside a year.  They replaced it no bother.

Is it a good brand or a cheapo such as Lion?

I have found Yuasa Silver to be superb on cars that are used infrequently, or used only for very short journeys.  They’re a lot of money though.

I also rate Exide and Varta.  I did have a Bosch years ago that didn’t last as long as I would have hoped for.

[mitsisigma01]

Lion battery and replaced under warranty ....those are words you never see in a sentence ....apart from just now 💩💩💩

[Barry Cade]

Going on breakdown experience,  I'd say Yuasa were the worst, surprisingly.  GM or AC Delco batteries always surprised me, and were surprisingly cheap from dealers.. this was some time ago though. I always suggested Halfords or Kwik Fit, as they are open 7 days and if your battery dies, they will replace it there and then under warranty anywhere... sounds daft but probably 4 years minimum of no hassle.

[stuboy]

the duracell one on my mondeo was 5 years old and it only ust failed, i replaced with an exide one, i got a lion one on the galaxy and it drains over few days of unuse, but there is a battery drain but cannot find it.

[Rusty_Rocket]

The Varta one on my Kia Ceed is original to the car.  That means it's 13 years and 180,000 miles old.  Good going in my book.  It's a stop-start one, too.

The Lion ones we had at work from ECP were hopeless.  50% failed within a month or so.  We currently use Exide ones from a different supplier, and they are lasting well so far.

[Andyrew]

7 hours ago, Bren said:

Is everything crap these days?

Pretty much, 

From what im seeing in the motor parts flogging trade m8, is now the name is irrelevant to be honest, trusted names now stuck on cheaper brands product etc etc.  The money you pay just seems to reflect what colour box you get the part in. 

I know for sure that some Large battery brands if they cant keep up with one particular size or model of battery they just buy them from another producer and label it up as theirs, so depending on who it was outsourced to that month depends on the quality of battery you actually get. Pot luck really.

[AnnoyingPentium]

I've got a Yuasa in the Fabia if memory serves. The car does the school run (I drive aimlessly around the village after dropping my brother off in order to warm up the engine), or my commute at nearly 25 miles in a day. Only ever had issues if I've been a fuckwit and sat with the engine off and kept the heating running at full bung, the radio on, heated mirrors etc, where it'll require a second turn of the key. The battery has a date code of 2019 IIRC.

Hope this helps you somewhat.

[DavidB]

I have to agree, the ECP Lion batteries aren’t that good, they seem to drain easily, deffo the Poundland Kodak of car batteries.

You would have better luck clamping jump leads to the testicles of an actual lion than depend on one of those!

[richardmorris]

Try tayna.co.uk 

 

[Spottedlaurel]

I'm pondering this matter with a big, not cheap Varta battery I bought for the LS400. It was just before FOTU, so six months ago or so. Unfortunately it's gone flat several times in the last month or two due to lack of use and it now won't take enough charge to get it started, even after the best part of a weekend on my smart charger.

Taking it back tomorrow, will see what they say.....

[UltraWomble]

5 hours ago, Barry Cade said:

Going on breakdown experience,  I'd say Yuasa were the worst, surprisingly.  

Ooops.

Still, its supposed to have a 4 year guarantee.

[Joey spud]

Wearing my old RAC Patrol hat i found that batteries dont seem to slowly fade away over a few weeks like in the old days now they just die on their arse with little warning.

It's wise to look at a batteries Ah and cranking amp ratings (that's conveniently printed on their labels) their generic part number might be the same but the specs do vary massively.

Take a boggo 063 Corsa battery a £33 Lion one will be rated as something like 36Ah and 340 cranking amps (far less than the OE Vauxhall part).

But for £40 you can buy a 47Ah / 450A Exide 063 battery so that's a big increase in reserve capacity and cranking amps for £7.00

When a battery starts to age if it only had 340 cranking amps to start with it will really struggle spinning over a cold engine with thick oil in the sump more so if the car is only doing short runs with lights,wipers and heater on and it's not having a chance to recover.

And then there's the charging system itself is the alternator on its last legs,is its belt worn and are all the battery,starter and earth cables in good order with no excessive volt drop anywhere ?

Another thing that is a big  give away as to the quality of a battery is its weight some of the budget ones would struggle to hold open a garden gate in a slight breeze.

[Barry Cade]

28 minutes ago, UltraWomble said:

Ooops.

Still, its supposed to have a 4 year guarantee.

Was always the black ones....

[sierraman]

I’ve had good and bad experiences with Lion batteries, I’ve had several that’s lasted years but one that fucked up within 18 months. I mean if I was fitting one to a four year old car I’d be thinking Exide or Yuasa but on an old banger that’s got 2-3 years left then I’d fit one no bother. It’s like when you see someone fitting Lemforder arms on an ‘05 200k 320d, bloody good parts but seriously, it’s on deaths door. In reality some FAI would see it out. 

[SiC]

51 minutes ago, Barry Cade said:

Was always the black ones....

FFS. I bought one of these yesterday for the Civic.

https://www.tayna.co.uk/car-batteries/yuasa/ybx7027/

 

Was going to get the Exide but the Yuasa had a year longer warranty for a quid extra.

[mitsisigma01]

Massively pissed myself laughing ...

ECP recommended retail price for a Lion battery for a Micra k11 1.0l ...

£96.99 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 and that is the cheap one 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 £110.99  both 45ah 330cca ......

Lucky they've quoted a discount code .... Now only £58 or £66 

FFFFFFFFFSAKE why do their marketing pricks bother 🤔

More chance of starting your car on a cold morning with a sack of boiled potatoes 

[Zelandeth]

I think around 18 months is the most I've ever got out of a Lion battery.  Aside from anything else, they never seem to recover if they go flat.  So in something like a Pug 107 with a starter the size of a pencil sharpener that's used every day, probably okay.  In a car that sits unused for a couple of weeks at a time, not so much.

Bosch are my go to choice, mainly because I can get them usually as cheap at Costco as most online retailers.  Only had one fail that I can remember, a couple of years ago after about a year in the car.  Was replaced without any drama whatsoever.

Slightly alarmed to see that the battery in the Caddy is a Lion one and it looks older than dirt...

[AnnoyingPentium]

8 hours ago, SiC said:

FFS. I bought one of these yesterday for the Civic.

That has the same colouring on the casing as the one for my Fabia does.

[Skcat]

I use a lot of the little Yuasa batteries for my job (7ah, 2.2ah, 1.2ah) and those live much longer lives then other cheaper brands. So I've fitted Yuasa car batteries, I've never had a issue with them. maybe it's something to do with me fitting the much larger capacity diesel battery to petrol cars.

Sometimes the larger diesel capacity is cheaper if the smaller one is a oddball size ones. Always worth physically checking the space under the bonnet before you buy though! 

[goosey]

Yesterday I had a Bosch S4 fail after just a year,

just got the hassle of dealing with Euros now to replace it under warranty 🙄

[DaveDorson]

the Varta that's been sat on the CRX I just collected was reading 2v, it's taken a charge to 12/13v and held it for a few days now so I don't think it's goosed.. it's been on the car since 2018 when it was last rolled under the carport that I had it collected from.

[Fat_Pirate]

Another downvote for Yuasa - I've had premature failure on both car and bike batteries.  I'm using Varta now, been OK... so far.

[bigfella2]

13 hours ago, UltraWomble said:

Ooops.

Still, its supposed to have a 4 year guarantee.

Is it me, or does that battery look massively too small. It doesn't even look like its anywhere near big enough to fill the tray.

Always go for the physically biggest battery that will fit in the space.

 

[NorfolkNWeigh]

 As with most things, batteries are so cheap now it doesn’t really matter. But a couple of years,ago I got so fed up with Cheap ECP Lion stuff failing after a year, I started putting the receipt in a sandwich bag and taping it to the battery , intending to actually see if they’d honour the “ guarantee”. Since then I haven’t had one fail, obviously!

[Rod/b]

22 hours ago, Bren said:

Despite being less than two years old the vectras' battery appears to be dying. I had it on charge overnight one day last week - this morning it only just started - it was below freezing overnight.

Car has a mixture of local trips but longer runs to North Wales. I will get it tested before taking it back.

Is everything crap these days?

Yes

[Zelandeth]

32 minutes ago, bigfella2 said:

Is it me, or does that battery look massively too small. It doesn't even look like its anywhere near big enough to fill the tray.

Always go for the physically biggest battery that will fit in the space.

 

There's a 1.4 diesel variant of that car which is what the larger tray is for.  There's even a stamping in it with a line that says diesel/petrol if I remember rightly.

[goosey]

A company I worked for years ago used to sell batteries labelled “U.K. POWER BATTERY” which were pretty crap 

[sierraman]

Best battery by a country mile if you found them at the breakers were the AC Delco Freedom batteries you got on Vauxhalls. The OEM ones are usually good, I recently skipped a 10 year old Ford factory fit one which had a good innings. Dread to think what the retail would have been on that, might have been surprised, at one point Fords own brand oil/coolant were as cheap as you’d find anywhere, I was paying £19 for 5 litres of Motorcraft 5W30 Formula F at one point which I didn’t think was bad at all for the bloke in the street buying a small quantity like that. 

[Spurious]

Any opinions on the Halfords 4 year calcium batteries? The Audis Yasua has finally bitten the dust, losing a volt per hour when at 12v. It's got a date stamp of 2015 on it, so it's done okay to get this far. 

Looking at the Safety Sheet, it seems Halfords ones are made by Yasua. Which aren't brilliant but don't seem crap. Or is it all a crapshoot and I just buy whatevers the cheapest? 

ie this one which is about £70 after discount. 

https://www.halfords.com/motoring/batteries/car-batteries/halfords-hcb075-calcium-12v-car-battery-4-year-guarantee-950600.html