Need a new car battery

[Nazc0]

anything i should watch out for when buying?never bought a battery so i dont know what to look for.

[Tampa G35 Sedan 6MT]

try to get the right one... and get the newest one you can... (From the back of the shelf)

DJ

[loystock]

The G uses Group 35 battery. The OEM battery is 80D23L, 52AH (Amp-Hour) with a 582 CCA (cold cranking amperes) The minimum CCA is 445 but you don't want to go that low. You can buy the inexpensive Flooded Cell Lead-Acid batteries or the more expensive Gel or AGM (Absorbent Glass Mat), with price ranging from $60-200. Optima used to be very good but the quality has gone south since they moved production south of the border. One of the best rated batteries is Odyssey (AGM) and is still made in the US but it will cost you @ $200.

Flooded cell batteries from Autozone (Duralast), Costco (Krkland), Sears (Die Hard) and WalMart (Everlast) will do the job and with CCA close to OEM battery, priced at $60-100.

[Nazc0]

thanks im going to go to wall mart or autozone tomorrow and get a new battery because this one wont hold a charge overnight, then again it is the original battery almost 6 years of service in the car cant really complain that its dead

[zozoka1212]

Also good idea to think ahead. Are you planning to upgrade your audio?

[Nazc0]

not anytime soon but why?

[pfarmer]

not anytime soon but why?

Assuming you will not have a second battery in the trunk, it does affect what type and size battery you should consider. As far as just operating your car the battery needs to be no larger than a few 15 second or so burst on your starter, but it doesn't hurt to have a little extra capacity.

On the other hand with my other car, it doesn't take long listening to the stereo to compromise starting the car, I monitor this closely using my radar detector for indication.

While I have a Die Hard in the other car my best luck has been with Interstate.

Perry

[SVTCOBRA]

Have had good luck with Duralast & CR likes them too.

[Poyzinous]

The factory replacement battery is a 999M1-NB35C(or MB35c or QB35c depending on location) battery. From Interstate. Good stuff. It has 550 cca and the Infiniti sticker, which by itself adds 3.6 hp to the wheels.

[pippen99]

The factory replacement battery is a 999M1-NB35C(or MB35c or QB35c depending on location) battery. From Interstate. Good stuff. It has 550 cca and the Infiniti sticker, which by itself adds 3.6 hp to the wheels.

Does that mean if I put 30 of those in my trunk I'll have 100 more horsepower and do wheelstands?

[joe603]

I've been a huge fan of Optima batteries for years. They have never let me down. The gel-cell batteries are more reliable if you have an aftermarket stereo.

[kmckis1029]

just changed my batteery last week... i had the original battery the car came with from 2005... it finally craped out after sitting only 4 days during my vegas trip... it was time to replace anyway since the battery was over 4 years old.

replaced it with an Autocraft Titianium with an 800 CCA and 3 year warranty from Advanced Auto Parts.

So i'm over kill for CCA...

[Tampa G35 Sedan 6MT]

1+ for interstate batteries... They last for ever.. The one i have in the jeep is dated May 2002 But it is also on its way out...

The Fla Weather is so damn hot that we can only get 3 years out of a battery down here. I have had the jeep for 2 summers and it has killed the battery!

DJ

[zozoka1212]

not anytime soon but why?

What Perry says. Also if you upgrade to a better audio you might use more juice out of the battery even more and drain it faster.

[pfarmer]

1+ for interstate batteries... They last for ever.. The one i have in the jeep is dated May 2002 But it is also on its way out...

The Fla Weather is so damn hot that we can only get 3 years out of a battery down here. I have had the jeep for 2 summers and it has killed the battery!

DJ

I have have them up to 10 years on a couple of occasions. Most of the time I didn't have the car long enough to have battery problems with them. As far as the others I have had cars long enough to install and replace batteries. Interstates seem to last, not to say that there are not better battery technology, but I have not seen many which give the length of service.

Perry

[pfarmer]

What Perry says. Also if you upgrade to a better audio you might use more juice out of the battery even more and drain it faster.

When sitting still. The rest of the time the charging system should never allow this to occur unless you really have a large enough system to outrun the car battery. If this is the case it is best to have a second battery in the trunk (or other location) that is charged by the car and contains a blocking diode arraignment to prevent the car's battery from being discharged by the sound system.

In my other car there is a cutoff of around 11 volts or so where the car will not stay running, even though you can sometimes crank it. I end up monitoring this, but it would be best to setup a second power source to prevent this.

Perry

[kmckis1029]

i have a Die Hard in my jeep... its at least 4 yrs old... have left the light on over night once and car still cranked the next morning

my jeep started faster than my g35x... but since i went up to 800 cca they are on par now... but in defense of my G, the jeep has way less electronics pulling off it of course...

[Poyzinous]

I have have them up to 10 years on a couple of occasions.

One of my instructors from school Had a rare 97 Hardbody V6 4x4, the fully loaded one, and his original battery lasted him 10 years exactly, to the month he purchased it new. That was amazing to me.

[RichiePoor]

I had my car for a month and the battery died on me and would not hold a charge. I repalced it with an OEM one because it only cost $40 and the dealership installed it for free.

[pfarmer]

i have a Die Hard in my jeep... its at least 4 yrs old... have left the light on over night once and car still cranked the next morning

my jeep started faster than my g35x... but since i went up to 800 cca they are on par now... but in defense of my G, the jeep has way less electronics pulling off it of course...

The lack of electronics in the Jeep probably don't mean a whole bunch as the entire running draw for the 'G' is no greater than about 40 amps max, less once the battery is recharged.

Perry

[Nazc0]

wow wish i saw that sooner i paid $79 for the battery after the $10 discount for turning in my old one

[kmckis1029]

ok but still more than the jeep...

[pfarmer]

ok but still more than the jeep...

I don't know which Jeep you have. I had a 95 Country. I think it would come down to the starter and also how long you can run it. Most starters have a limit of a certain amount of time of crank and how many cranks in a specific time period. I think the Jeep may well require more current to start it.

After starting then it comes down to the on board electronics and how effecient they are. The 95 Jeep most likely has a much less efficient system.

In the case of the 'G' when I measured it, the running amps were about 40 or so right after starting but dropped to around 15 once running with much less than that directed to the battery. An interesting part of this experiment is to measure both the current flow in the negative battery lead and that to the positive. I used a clamp on since I don't have a big enough meter to handle the entire current flow. You will see that the positive current flow will end up much higher than the negative which indicates to me that the battery is pretty much out of the picture with the loads being supplied almost entirely by the charging circuit, the battery is simply floated. This may sound like a no brainer but in some other cars the charging circuit cycles in and out of the picture with the draw connected directly to the battery at all times.

In the second case I would tend to believe that the battery may have a shorter lifespan. In the case of the Jeep there was a very noticable difference when the a/c would cycle on, in fact when I did have a battery go bad it actually left me stranded on the way home from the airport until AAA gave me a jump. The a/c came on, the Jeep came to a stop. It appears that with the headlights on the a/c (which also would bring on the fan) was enough to outrun the alternator long enough to bring the voltage down far enough for the Jeep to come to a halt. I have not measured the 'G' in this regard but I believe it will be less on the cycles.

Perry

[pfarmer]

wow wish i saw that sooner i paid $79 for the battery after the $10 discount for turning in my old one

You may have the much better battery however so you may be the one that got the deal!

Perry

[audtatious]

What Perry says. Also if you upgrade to a better audio you might use more juice out of the battery even more and drain it faster.

OK, here's the deal. If you are planning an audio system then going to a battery with more storage is not the proper solution. The only reason the battery would be used as power reserve with an audio system is if the system is drawing more power than the alternator can supply to the vehicle as a whole. The proper solution is to upgrade the alternator, not the battery. The larger the battery the more strain there is on the alternator in those conditions.

[pfarmer]

OK, here's the deal. If you are planning an audio system then going to a battery with more storage is not the proper solution. The only reason the battery would be used as power reserve with an audio system is if the system is drawing more power than the alternator can supply to the vehicle as a whole. The proper solution is to upgrade the alternator, not the battery. The larger the battery the more strain there is on the alternator in those conditions.

While the alternator upgrade should be the way to go if needed, a larger battery if charged will not cause the alternator to work harder with the slight change of internal resistance. If discharged the alternator should charge at the same rate as a smaller battery. It may actually help a little if the alternator actually can supply the 'average' load to the system. This is one of the concepts of multiple batteries with a blocking diode. The blocking diode (or similar circuit concept) simply keeps the audio system from draining the main battery down to the point of compromising the operation of the vehicle.

About the maximum running amps I have measure was in the area of 40 amps for the car (2008xs). With a 110 amp alternator you should be able to handle an additional load of about 700 watts or so (doesn't directly translate into 700 watts of sound). With a large sound system you probably are still ok especially on 'average' loading with the stock alternator.

Perry

[audtatious]

My response had nothing to do with general charging, just charging when upgrading a stereo system. A sub amp can easily draw 30A+ by itself which makes it easy to start sucking power from a battery when the factory alternator cannot sustain the cars load plus that of the aftermarket stereo. At that point it starts to pull from the battery and the alternator now has the additional load of supplying power to the car, the stereo and recharging the battery. This will lead to battery drain and deep cycling which will lead to battery failure and will also lead to alternator failure due to the load.

After 25+ years of working around car audio I have seen this happen over and over. Hell, if I have the factory Bose system cranked up I can feel the car surging due to the added strain of the alternator, I'd hate to know what running a 500wpc+ amp on top of it would do.

[SVTCOBRA]

wow wish i saw that sooner i paid $79 for the battery after the $10 discount for turning in my old one

Which did you get??

Just bought a Duralast Gold for my daughter's 00 Max yesterday. 3 yr full replacement.Had a 8/09 date.

(Her old battery was over 3 yrs old)

[pfarmer]

My response had nothing to do with general charging, just charging when upgrading a stereo system. A sub amp can easily draw 30A+ by itself which makes it easy to start sucking power from a battery when the factory alternator cannot sustain the cars load plus that of the aftermarket stereo. At that point it starts to pull from the battery and the alternator now has the additional load of supplying power to the car, the stereo and recharging the battery. This will lead to battery drain and deep cycling which will lead to battery failure and will also lead to alternator failure due to the load.

After 25+ years of working around car audio I have seen this happen over and over. Hell, if I have the factory Bose system cranked up I can feel the car surging due to the added strain of the alternator, I'd hate to know what running a 500wpc+ amp on top of it would do.

The point I am making is that the charging circuit should charge at the same basic maximum rate regardless of battery size if drained. If it is not drained then the alternator will not have to work harder since the larger battery will act like a shock absorber for the transients.

The car may in fact respond in a negative way if you outrun the alternator as the battery is most likely out of the picture most of the time when the car is in operation. This is another reason for the dedicated battery in the trunk that many install with larger systems. It keeps the two systems entirely separate.

One of the issues I see with charging systems is they do not actually 'float' the battery like they should. In this case you would always be charging the battery at a minimum rate since the battery is in the circuit at all times, the 'float' would be maybe as little as a half volt or so over the running voltage of the rest of the system depending on load.

When I did some current tests on mine the maximum amp measured to the battery was about 40 amps right after starting the car. What was interesting was checking the amps on both of the battery legs after a few minutes. The positive lead will stay up while the negative will drop to a very low number which indicates that the system is not really floating the battery. If you have a trunk mounted battery for the audio this is exactly how you would want to set it up (floating).

Perry

[audtatious]

The point I am making is that the charging circuit should charge at the same basic maximum rate regardless of battery size if drained. If it is not drained then the alternator will not have to work harder since the larger battery will act like a shock absorber for the transients.

Realize I'm not talking about volts, I'm talking amps. The voltage regulator controls the number of volts that is produced (in the 13.5-14.5 volt range) and this should be regardless of whether the battery has a full charge or not. What changes is the electro-motive force that is produced by the alternator when a low-condition is met. As you use more accessories or start dipping into the battery reserve the elctro-motive force decreases which allows more amps to be sent to compensate for the additional load. There is only so many amps that the alternator can put out so once that is reached then there is no way the alternator can keep up with demands. When the alternator can't keep up with load demands the battery becomes drained and there is the possibility of the alternator itself having issues with the diode pack or regulator being damaged as well.

The car may in fact respond in a negative way if you outrun the alternator as the battery is most likely out of the picture most of the time when the car is in operation. This is another reason for the dedicated battery in the trunk that many install with larger systems. It keeps the two systems entirely separate.

Having a secondary battery can make things worse if not done properly.

One of the issues I see with charging systems is they do not actually 'float' the battery like they should. In this case you would always be charging the battery at a minimum rate since the battery is in the circuit at all times, the 'float' would be maybe as little as a half volt or so over the running voltage of the rest of the system depending on load.

The voltage regulator keeps an eye on the battery by turning current to the field (stator) terminal of the alternator on and off. By design it should not be a constant charge to the battery.

When I did some current tests on mine the maximum amp measured to the battery was about 40 amps right after starting the car. What was interesting was checking the amps on both of the battery legs after a few minutes. The positive lead will stay up while the negative will drop to a very low number which indicates that the system is not really floating the battery. If you have a trunk mounted battery for the audio this is exactly how you would want to set it up (floating).

Perry

Simply adding a second battery can make things worse unless you use a "smart" configuration which will monitor the main battery charge before allowing the secondary battery to be charged while runing (different than using battery isolators). In general, adding a secondary battery is good for allowing the owner to listen to the stereo without the car running while ensuring the main battery is not drained. While driving, the proper solution is to use the properly sized alternator.