Calmchaos

Hey all!
I got my car through inspection!!
And I got my gauges working correctly too!
SOOOO happy!

BUUUUT My battery died today and will no longer hold a charge for more than 1 start. (Because thats the way my life is. But Ill take 2 good things for one bad).

And then i go to advace auto, they say they have one that will work but do not have it in stock and it will take a week to get. It is $60 and Im not sure of the brand.
Sears has a die hard 700CCA and 110min RC but that is $120!.
Why is there such a big difference in price? Which one would you guys go for?

Thanks
-Brett

Jfrahm

I've gotten a good battery from Wal Mart, for 80's VW and Audi cars. Group 41-4. $40ish and generally in stock. I've managed to kill one after four years but that was due to storing my car for the winter without charging the battery.

-Joel.

Daily944

If you want to go for what will work get a $40 special at Wal-mart. If you want to spend the cash on the Die hard at Sears, don't.. get the Optima battery for the same price and its MUCH better.

Calmchaos

Their website says they dont have an optima that will fit.

-Brett

cjeckert

I fit an optima in but i had to make a custom bracket to hold it down

Calmchaos

What did you have to do to make the bracket work?

-Brett

Calmchaos

hey just used a volt meter and it read 14.7 across my battery what does that indicate?

-brett

AR10

14.7 with engine off? This usually means batt. is junk.

Calmchaos

engine running... sorry

Racer46

14.7 with the engine running means the alternator is working. Should be 13.8 with the engine off. Let it sit for a little while then turn on the headlights and check again, with the engine off. Should be about 12.5. If not the battery is probably bad..

Calmchaos

Yeah I checked the old one before I left. It would not sit at a voltage it fluctuated between 10 and 13.
So i went out... bought one from advance ($60) and now it sits right at 14.50 exactly running. And it was 12.5ish just before i started the engine.

-Brett

KuHL 951

You probably had a cell starting to go bad for whatever reason. Don't laugh but I've used a trick someone showed me many years ago and it's worked 75% of the time. Whenever a battery (non-gel type) would act up I would remove it, make sure the caps were tight and turn it over (upside down) a few times. Sometimes the deposits at the bottom of the case are conductive enough to cause a problem and it acts like a bad cell. It won't restore a bad battery but it will last a bit longer before replacement is needed. Sounds ghetto but it works pretty well. Corroded battery terminals and grounds are the #1 cause of what appears to be low voltage, no charge battery problems.