Battery suggestions

7595R? that baby is huge.

I have had good luck with the batteries from WalMart. Most have a 24 month replacement warranty. I just bought 2 for the motorhome @ $98 each.

7595R - yes, it's huge. Rated at 950 CCA, weighs 64 lbs. Apparently this is one power-hungry car.

Interesting note. I just took a close look at the battery, and it's got a MADE IN GERMANY sticker. There's also a VW/Audi logo stamped in the top of the case. So whatever provenance this thing has, it's obviously outside the normal NAPA supply chain.

In a couple of weeks (!), my warranty replacement will be in stock. We haven't had the discussion yet about the pro-rated warranty, as my 20-month battery is juuuust outside the 18-month free replacement schedule and they're going to pro-rate all 20 months. But we'll have that discussion. We already had one about whether this battery is dead or not based on their little load tester. Sorry, but when I have a battery that won't even turn on the trunk light and it hits "100% charge" in 5 minutes - it's not healthy. My offer to call the manager at home the next time I had to have my car towed at 10 pm with a "good battery" was declined.

Interesting write up. Apparently the e92 335i requires the exact factory battery. Apparently the computer system must be programmed with the new battery information or it will over/ undercharge or cause other issues. This seemed fishy to me but the bummer forums are littered with stories of exploding aftermarket batteries that were incorrect and or not programmed. More research to follow but seems par for the course with power hungry techy cars...

Interesting write up, thankfully it sounds like the E39 is simpler than the newer stuff. Apparently the e92 335i requires the exact factory battery. The computer system must be programmed with the new battery information or it will over/ undercharge or cause other issues. This seemed fishy to me but the bummer forums are littered with stories of exploding aftermarket batteries that were incorrect and or not programmed. More research to follow but seems par for the course with power hungry techy cars...

Put an aftermarket battery in my daughter's 2006 BMW 325 a couple of years ago. Did not have the 'programming' done because I'm cheap and it seemed like a scam to me. So far, so good.

Don49 wrote: I have had good luck with the batteries from WalMart. Most have a 24 month replacement warranty. I just bought 2 for the motorhome @ $98 each.

I second the walmart batties, I had one sit for 6 months straight unused. It stopped holding a charge after that time but it was still under warranty. Their tester took all day to diagnose that it wasn't holding charge but they swapped it out in the end.

If you are looking for a sealed lightweight battery I would get a discount one from here . Basically the same as the hawker genesis just costs less

Radical thought, but what about one of the tiny R/C batteries like some racers use?
There have been a couple of threads here on the subject.
It would certainly fit, and from the prices you've seen, would likely be cost effective too.
Lifetime?
If cheap enough, who cares? Keep a whole spare battery in the trunk (or your briefcase).

Can you get 950 CCA out of an R/C battery? This is a Real Car, not a weekend autocross toy.

I've heard the newer BMWs are even more of a hassle when you have to change the batteries. Luckily, the E39 is not that fussy. Although the low voltage situation when the previous battery went out also managed to spike the main airbag controller, which does need to be programmed upon installation. Total bill for that one's going to be about $450 and I have to drive to Denver (4 hours) to get it done...

I've had good luck picking up cosmetic "blems" at an interstate distributor - $20 a pop. Techy cars may not be as forgiving as my old junk.

I dont understand the napa store saying itll take weeks to get. Maybe their store chooses not to stock that number, but nearly every distribution center in the U.S. had several on hand when i checked. Meaning they ought to be able to get it in their regular daily stock shipment no problem. Are they messing with you?

Keith,

I don't know if you need a special application battery, so this may not apply. But I've had great success for years now with the Walmart batteries. They are also about 1/2 the cost of what Napa and Advance and such want for their comparable batteries.

belteshazzar wrote: I dont understand the napa store saying itll take weeks to get. Maybe their store chooses not to stock that number, but nearly every distribution center in the U.S. had several on hand when i checked. Meaning they ought to be able to get it in their regular daily stock shipment no problem. Are they messing with you?

If NAPA ships batteries like Advance, you only can get them with a stocking truck shipment. I knew working the commercial desk, batteries couldn't be shipped with the daily totes. If you didn't have it, you had to wait until the truck arrived with your pallets of bling bling. I was told it is because it is considered hazmat.

I was a product manager for NAPA (Balkamp, actually, but we worked directly with the guys at NAPA HQ) when Exide filed for bankruptcy about 10 years ago. NAPA decided to stick with Exide (now Exide Technologies,) but they couldn't supply the entire NAPA system due to their financial difficulties, so East Penn (Deka) supplied about half the country while Exide supplied the other half (divided amongst the 60-odd NAPA distribution centers.) Your NAPA battery may have come from either supplier, depending where you purchased it. However, supply and demand trumped geographics, so if Exide couldn't supply certain batteries to NAPA's demanding standards (98% order fill,) then East Penn filled the void.

However, keep this in mind, no supplier supplies 100% of their items to any of the auto parts chains. There is too much parts proliferation for this to be economically feasible (I guess with the exception of small lines, such as wiper blades, etc.) So every manufacturer buys from from their competition in order to fill out their line and have the coverage demanded by the auto parts store. If a part is in low demand, and the tooling costs are high, it makes better sense for a supplier to purchase that part from their competition, relabel it as their own, and sell it, even if at a loss. Trust me, it happens more often than you think.

Ranger50 wrote:

belteshazzar wrote: I dont understand the napa store saying itll take weeks to get. Maybe their store chooses not to stock that number, but nearly every distribution center in the U.S. had several on hand when i checked. Meaning they ought to be able to get it in their regular daily stock shipment no problem. Are they messing with you?

If NAPA ships batteries like Advance, you only can get them with a stocking truck shipment. I knew working the commercial desk, batteries couldn't be shipped with the daily totes. If you didn't have it, you had to wait until the truck arrived with your pallets of bling bling. I was told it is because it is considered hazmat.

My store gets parts on a shuttle three times a day of things we specifically need, but the shuttle driver's won't haul batteries. Additionally, every night a truck brings us things that we didn't get on those shuttles, and anything our computer orders automatically(this would be Keith's battery). Lastly, East Penn drops off a pallet of batteries directly about once a week.

Kramer wrote: I was a product manager for NAPA (Balkamp, actually, but we worked directly with the guys at NAPA HQ) when Exide filed for bankruptcy about 10 years ago. NAPA decided to stick with Exide (now Exide Technologies,) but they couldn't supply the entire NAPA system due to their financial difficulties, so East Penn (Deka) supplied about half the country while Exide supplied the other half (divided amongst the 60-odd NAPA distribution centers.) Your NAPA battery may have come from either supplier, depending where you purchased it. However, supply and demand trumped geographics, so if Exide couldn't supply certain batteries to NAPA's demanding standards (98% order fill,) then East Penn filled the void.

i concur, but it was my understanding that we moved away from exide entirely at this point.

What about something like this?

http://shop.advanceautoparts.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_-rv-12-volt-deep-cycle-service-battery-800-cca-autocraft-marine_16940017-p?searchTerm=battery

800CCA, 1000 cranking amps above 32F.

I bought one and returned it because it was berkeleying HUGE. Wasn't exactly what i was looking for for the application at the time, but it's a bad motherberkeleyer.

Kenny_McCormic wrote: I've only frozen a few batteries, but the Delco is the only one that worked afterwards.

I know of a Delco battery that was frozen, recharged, and worked for ten more years (!!!).

The NAPA battery in my Mazda died this summer. It "only" lasted 7 years. We deal with NAPA and we rarely have to warranty a battery, maybe one a year. We must be getting them from the "good" supplier...

Optimas, however, do indeed suck, which is unfortunate since they don't need boxes for in-cab install.

Kramer wrote: If a part is in low demand, and the tooling costs are high, it makes better sense for a supplier to purchase that part from their competition, relabel it as their own, and sell it, even if at a loss. Trust me, it happens more often than you think.

I've opened NAPA part boxes to find OEM-bagged parts inside. One sticks in my mind was a Mopar wheel speed sensor, because it was nearly half the cost as from the dealer.

About that shipping time - it was an eye-opener for the NAPA manager too. Keep in mind that I'm in a small market here, there's no local warehousing other than the big store in town. There aren't any of these in Denver or SLC, the usual warehouses for our area. And he kept muttering about how UPS wouldn't ship batteries as they're hazmat. So it's coming by slow boat. This is a pretty unusual application, I believe it's only found in a few high-end German cars.

I'll see how the warranty conversation works out. If NAPA wants a ridiculous amount of money to replace a 20-month-old battery instead of a free 18-month replacement, I might go elsewhere. But if the pro-rating is reasonable, I've already got a fair bit of cash sunk into this particular one.

Swank Force, you might think that particular Autozone battery is big. But it's smaller than the BMW one - although slightly taller. This thing looks like it belongs in a truck. And interestingly, there are reports of the Autozone battery for this application also having the VAG markings, so it's the same one.

Keith Tanner wrote: About that shipping time - it was an eye-opener for the NAPA manager too. Keep in mind that I'm in a small market here, there's no local warehousing other than the big store in town. There aren't any of these in Denver or SLC, the usual warehouses for our area. And he kept muttering about how UPS wouldn't ship batteries as they're hazmat. So it's coming by slow boat. This is a pretty unusual application, I believe it's only found in a few high-end German cars. I'll see how the warranty conversation works out. If NAPA wants a ridiculous amount of money to replace a 20-month-old battery instead of a free 18-month replacement, I might go elsewhere. But if the pro-rating is reasonable, I've already got a fair bit of cash sunk into this particular one. Swank Force, you might think that particular Autozone battery is big. But it's smaller than the BMW one - although slightly taller. This thing looks like it belongs in a truck. And interestingly, there are reports of the Autozone battery for this application also having the VAG markings, so it's the same one.

It may have just looked big because it was sitting in the back of an Escort when i stepped back and wondered "What in the utter berkeley am i doing?"

oldtin wrote: I've had good luck picking up cosmetic "blems" at an interstate distributor - $20 a pop. Techy cars may not be as forgiving as my old junk.

This is great info. I buy a lot of batteries, so will look into this. thanks!