LlBr

Excellent point! DOES EVERYBODY KNOW?

Look under the label and see that MAYBE your battery is NOT maintenance free.

Am I wrong to assume those electrolyte access plugs are there for routine maintenance purposes?

Hella-Buggin'

I'm about to replace my battery as well. My cars an 06 and I have a maintainer on it but it's still acting a little lathargic and I figure it's worth a couple of hndred bucks to not be stranded.

Any recommendations? I've heard interstate is good.

LlBr

They're "all the same;" different labels. There're only two or three lead-acid battery manufacturers on Earth.

IMO, get the Porsche battery, it's made in Germany and is pretty. LOL. I'm not sure of the price difference.

Oh! Just thought of this. Grab the hair dryer and take the Porsche labels off the old Porsche battery! LOL Re-stick them on the new non-Porsche one! See photo a few posts up.

larrytrk

Factory Porsche battery is rediculously expensive, even my dealer recommended an Interstate for my 06S replacement!

Hella-Buggin'

I just called my dealer and they said $200 installed.

ajayabb

Save yourself 100 bucks and install an Interstate MTP H7 in about 10 minutes

Edgy01

Mine was about $238 and I installed it myself so that I could clean out the battery tray and wax it before putting the new one in.

You don't need to try and maintain power on the vehicle when you pull the cables off the battery. The only things that needed to adjust were the clock (ultimately in synch with GPS), the PSE, and then I had to retrain the door windows on where "up" is. It did not toss out any other codes.

Edgy01

You are not wrong. Peel off the stickers and keep the cells at their proper levels.

atr911

So I happen to sell car batteries for a living.

The batteries are maintenance free as long as they don't boil over as a result of overcharging. Make sure you add distilled water if you insist on topping it up.

Don't waste your money on the Porsche battery. The Audi one is IDENTICAL and just over $100. Buy it and install it your self.

If there is any question as tothe health of your battery, take the car or battery to a shop. Doesn't have to be Porsche, any shop that can do an AVR will give you a proper test on your battery. It needs to be tested under load to see how much the voltage drops.

Lastly, aftermarket batteries fail sooner because of the general health of the charging system. Resistance brought on by corossion at the grounds and between connections put alot of stress on the battery and electrical components in general. As a rule of thumb, the battery takes the brunt of this abuse. Always clean all electrical connections when working on the vehicle and don't be affraid of dielectric grease, it's wonderful stuff.

atr911

I should note, Porsche and most German manufacturers do an incredible job of protecting ground points from corossion. On my BMW, every ground is incased in a plastic cover and bathed in grease. You'd fall over laughing if you could see the types of grounds found on chevs and fords. Just asking for **** to fail as usual...

LlBr

Gotta love the Germans.

I think my Bimmer has an "explosive bolt" on the positive battery terminal so if there's a crash the electrical system is out of the picture as far as causing any sparks for spilled gas is concerned.

I use this stuff on "delicate" terminals and what-have-you. Also on battery terminals but maybe the "grease" is better. Made by Boeing and apparently sprayed on everything from rivets to avionics so it's gotta be good stuff (i.e. it hasn't caused any crashes ) FWIW.