Not replacing car batteries

[Capitol]

I decided to replace the Calcium battery in the US built people carrier on Monday. Went to Halfords as they offered a fitting service. The computer said that the car needed an 096 battery. Battery obtained, just fitted into carrier and I pointed out that the terminals were reversed! Much head shaking and muttering about computers and we finally put the original battery back in! So, today, went to Euro car spares who provided the Calcium battery I wanted to replace. They had an Exide 082 battery available, so ordered this, picked it up and attempted to fit battery. Battery 5mm too long, but terminals in correct position at least. Tossed up whether to carve 5mm off the base of the battery and decided that returning the battery was the best option. So cursed and refitted original battery and settled down to determine where the problem is. Found out that the US battery size is 10.75inches long (27.3cm, but all the UK batteries specified are quoted at 28mm long (including Lion). However the Lion battery installed measures up at

27.5cm and it fits! The 096 I reckon was 27.7cm and just went in. So all the computers specifying this car's battery are wrong as no one has bothered to check what the dimensions required actually are! Can't believe how much time I wasted on this exercise.

[Graham.]

You're not giving away much.

It reminds me of those 1970s American detective shows where they didn't like to advertise or date the show, so vehicles were "Late model sedan" or something equally non specific.

[Davey]

At one time while working in the US, I had a company Ford Fairmont, not Ford's finest achievement. One winter morning in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, it failed to start, because the temperature was -22 F [1], and even the hotel's garden tractor, which was driving around looking for raised car bonnets, could not get it going. I returned to the hotel at lunchtime, after a 2 deg. rise in temperature, and we managed to get the car running. I drove straight to a battery shop for a bigger battery, as there was plenty of room in the battery tray, and the mechanic brought out what he thought would be the best one. But it wouldn?t fit, in fact every standard-sized battery he tried would not fit for one reason or another. Thank you, Mr. Ford. Eventually, he installed one that sat with one end raised on the edge of the battery tray. It was designed to only take FOMOCO batteries, and none other.

[1] It might have been -24 F, but it was bloody cold, whichever it was.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Even two different makes of the same basic type - 069 or whatever - can have slightly different dimensions. But the terminal orientation shouldn't change.

Did the original battery have an 0** number on it? Not all do.

This site is quite useful:-

[Brian Gaff]

This fitting of batteries issue is surely not a new problem as I can well recall around the very early 70s trying to get the replacement battery for our car. My father was pulling his hair out, and this was a Ford. It seems to me that nobody has learned from the past, they go on their merry ways making mounting and wiring systems that fit the batteries available that year without a thought for variations and being able to fit a compatible battery. could this be some kind of market protection? After all if they change the size every year this has to make new batteries expensive merely from the new tooling required by the battery maker to make said battery. Brian

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Batteries ain't normally made by the car maker. They may be branded Ford, or whatever. But you can always find a non maker one if you try hard enough. But that doesn't mean every accessory shop will stock or list them all.

The one on my BMW is a bit odd - long and thin to fit sort of inside the rear wing without taking up boot floor space. Halfords didn't list a replacement for that. But found one at a Bosch dealer. Looked identical to the BMW badged one.

Bosch batteries don't use the standard 0** code. They rearrange it in some way. Something like an 069 becomes a 096, or whatever.

The sort of thing the EU could sort out easily. But that would be restricting the freedom of the individual.

[Capitol]

Having looked into this a bit more, there seems to be a proliferation of battery troubles which seem related to the switch over to Calcium batteries and the increased current drain of the in car attached devices. Calcium batteries are apparently never fully charged, normally 50% AIUI and don't like being deep cycled, unlike the traditional Antimony batteries(still used for leisure AIUI). This is showing up in the Screwfix catalogue as a wide selection of battery chargers/conditioners which I guess are now needed as the flat battery problem is becoming common. I have had to design a new easy connect/disconnect system for the car in order to keep the battery nearly fully charged.

[Clive George]

Car batteries have never liked being deep cycled. They're designed to give a high current to the starter motor.

That 50% seems unlikely to me - unless one is being put in a car designed for a slightly different battery chemistry.

[Lee]

Modern cars tend to have charge monitoring built into the ECU these days. I know Ford cars with "smart" ecu-controlled alternators are not too kind to non-calcium batteries.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

IMHO, there is a lot of rubbish talked about modern car batteries. Mainly that they won't get fully charged in an older car. But just why would you want it charged to the absolute brim? Most cars only need a fraction of the battery capacity even for a cold start in winter.

And that 50% bit is rubbish. I have an ACT battery tester. A very expensive device that gives you a direct read out of the actual capacity, by using a high current short duration discharge, and measuring battery voltage and ambient temperature, etc. And on the 30 year old Rover, it will show near enough full capacity when the battery is as full as it will get from the car's alternator. If it showed 50% under those conditions, it would be well overdue for replacement.

No car battery likes being deep cycled. They ain't designed for that. But in normal service, will have a longer life than a leisure battery used in a car.

There is a huge amount of misinformation out there about batteries in general. 'Vaping' (electronic cigarette) batteries are Li-Ion. Ones I have use Sony cells. They would last me about 2 days - but I generally re-charge each night. The charger switches off when full, and takes about

5 hours from empty. And they are lucky to do 100 cycles.

[Dave Liquorice]

I shall have to cross check that my pages agree. Pages that enable you to find the BCI number given the battery size (with a configurable tolerance).