batteries: a commodity?

[zoomie]

Best battery I ever used was an Optima Gel Cell. Had that battery for 9 years and in 6 different vehicles before I let it go with a car I got rid of. Last time I talked to the guy it was still working! You'd have to pay more for one of those though, about $130-$140. Worst is probably those wal-mart-fall-a-part batteries, but they work in a pinch.

i have one of those "fall apart batteries" but i have had mine for 5 yrs now,a nd it has seen life in 4 vehicles and numerous jumpstarts no issues with it. but maybe the 1000 amp rating might have soemthign to do with that. this battery rocks!

[GoodSamaritan]

I went through walmart neverstarts, in 7 different vehicles. I had to get replacements in every single one of them. Some of them multiple times.
It finally got so bad that the local walmart noticed, and started getting snooty about replacing them. They'd want to keep them overnight to charge and test them. Then when they failed, they'd want another day...
Also they always insisted in putting the receipt in a little plastic envelope on the side of the battery where it would promptly disintegrate. When I'd bring one back with the receipt all brown and crumbling, still sealed in it's little packet of doom, they'd give ME crap about not having a legible receipt!

Hellooooo, check the date code, that's what it's there for!

Anyway, I brought 4 batteries back on a particularly cold day when 4 different vehicles failed to start. (My families cars, my work truck, and my mom's car, which we tried to borrow, only to find it was dead as well. Before someone says I should have got the 1000 amp version, 2 or 3 of these were the 1000, and the rest were as big as I could get, and still get them to physically fit in the car. I'm the kind of guy who modified the battery tray in a festiva I once owned so I could put my 1300 amp battery under the hood.) The manager started giving me the 24 hour crap again. I went home and came back with every one of the &^%$#$% things we had, and took them all back. (ever get 7 large car batteries in a metal shopping cart? LOL, they droop... a LOT) After a bit of a disagreement with the manager, I demanded either batteries in another brand, or else a complete refund. I think she did it just to get rid of me, but they eventually came out of the office with a wad of cash.

I went to autozone and bought 7 batteries. Of those I think only one has failed and it was in a car that sits for months at a time.

The moral of this story?
nEverstart is junk. I'm not going to say that you might get lucky, and get a really good one, but my experience has been that they are absolute junk.

Go with what other posters have said above. Spend a little extra for the Duralasts golds, or the interstate, (buddy of mine has a set on his diesel that are 12 years old and still going strong) or Die hard, or some other reputable brand. Only buy a neverstart if you can't afford anything else, and you don't mind getting stranded by the ^%$# thing every year or so.

[87gtVIC]

I have a duralast Gold. Had to make up a new battery hold down as well as widen the battery tray (just chopped off a plastic stop) but I have not had a problem yet since I installed the battery in November or so.

[1987cp]

Oh... where does the + cable go to? I had idly tried to trace it once, seemed to go a bit deep: but if it just connects under the front of the car and is easy to get to, I'll replace the whole cable.

Uh, the positive lead goes all the way straight back about 8 inches and connects to the forward post of the starter solenoid .....

The negative lead disappears down toward the framerail. I don't remember where they're connected originally, but I usually run mine to a mounting point on the forward part of the engine block, and run a grounding lead from there to the chassis.


Last battery cable I bought, a 30" one for a negative lead (longer than absolutely necessary, it turned out, but I don't keep a catalog of lengths of battery cables), was like $7.


Interestingly, the only battery I've had go flat as Thain describes (measures 12V but won't actually do anything) was a huge Motorcraft that cost $85 back in 2003! I currently own one plain Duralast (came with a car), one DieHard (bought new), one Interstate (walked myself to a tire store and bought it new when the Motorcraft quit in the Lowe's parking lot), one tiny Everstart (came with a car) that I use for testing, a tiny dual-terminal thingy that came with yet another car, and a side-terminal Autocraft that came with my mom's last car and got swapped out for a Napa Gold she already had.

[gadget73]

1990 may have the smaller new starter, in which case it goes to the relay and directly to the starter. I was thinking he had an older model with the really short little cable.

[BerniniCaCO3]

no, you were right: positive goes directly to the solenoid, small black box mounted on the far right (passenger side), maybe 15" at most.

I was thinking of the negative lead, which is the one that showed more corrosion (and some cracking of the insulation). But given that the whole car is the ground, seems it shouldn't matter as much.

[gadget73]

well, the negative cable also needs to be in good shape. It goes to the engine under the AC compressor, to the ECM via a small wire with a connector, and sometimes to the fender or rad support. If thats green and nasty, you won't do yourself any harm by replacing it.

[1987cp]

+100,000 - neat thing about removing the "negative power coupling" (as Han Solo would put it) is that then the chassis is no longer grounded. That negative battery cable is the only thing maintaining your chassis as a viable ground.

[91waggin]

The batteries that Costco sells are relabeled Interstates. I think the 1000 amp battery that's in my car was $70.

[BerniniCaCO3]

Oh, I know I need the negative connected
I guess what I meant to say: it doesn't matter if it's cracking or fraying, or not half as much; because anything it touches will also be grounded with it. The insulation isn't as critical.
Whereas a positive terminal with compromised insulation, is problem.

I'm not a member of costco, the nearest is 20 miles away and I would never go there otherwise; so I'd be tacking on $50 to the price of the battery But otherwise, reviews of kirkland, on other forums too, are all flattering.

What do you think of Deka? There's a distributor downtown, and they're maybe $10 more than autozone's batteries.

[Lincolnmania]

deka is good, they make those in lyons pa near tim marks

[Piece-it pete]

Andy, broken motor mount? Powerbraking?

Pete

[pantera77]

Neverstart sucks. You couldn't pay me to buy one. I learned my lesson to stay away from those.

[BerniniCaCO3]

alright, went with deka. $112 for a group 65. My old battery was a smaller group 58. 1040 (880 cold crank).
It was a tough decision, over autozone or advance auto, which have 3yr warranty "gold" level batteries for $90. But people seemed to more consistently praise deka.

[1987cp]

:jawdrop: That's one expensive battery! Even my DieHard truck battery was $100. My excellent Interstate was more like $75.

Still, with luck it'll perform very well and have an excellent warranty and you won't have to worry about it for a very long time.