New Car Battery - Cheapest?

mikey72

Varta 027 is listed for the Vauxhall Zafira as well.
Certainly buy a brand that is recognised if you can.

tobybowes

Inactive wrote: »

On the link that you posted above at post #7, there is a link to the Varta equivalent battery.

Cheap batteries are usually cheap for a reason, Varta is a respected brand of manufacturer.

Spotted it now. Thanks, my brain must still be in 'sunday sleep' mode lol

Inactive

tobybowes wrote: »

Spotted it now. Thanks, my brain must still be in 'sunday sleep' mode lol

I was going to suggest Specsavers..;)

Red_Cat

Also check the CCA or Cold Cranking Amps. This gived the Amperage provided by the battery in cold conditions. For a diesel that uses start aids such as glow plugs, the diesel engine will draw a greater current than a petrol engine when starting (especially when cold).
It would probably worth paying extra for a higher CCA, especially if you do not park in a garage during winter.

forgotmyname

Diesels do need good batteries, I found that out whilst programming the new keys for my car and giving it a spring clean.

Ignition on and off so many times to program keys etc. Each time the glowplugs are using 40 - 60 Amps.

The the radio & interiors lights on for abough an hour whilst cleaning the car. End result not enough power left to start it.

Now i drive a dirty car, But at least it starts.

gmm30

I agree - look in your yellow pages for "motor factor" and give a few local ones a call. To make sure you're comparing like with like, ask for a price for an "027 battery" or whatever the 3-digit code is, in case someone has a wrong listing against your car and is quoting you for a smaller battery.

I wouldn't get too excited about a brand name, but if you can get a Varta or similar for a decent price then go for it. The main thing is to have at least a 3 year guarantee - should point to a decent enough battery.

Just a thought on disposal - there's lots of lead in your old battery that's worth a few quid as scrap. If you have a scrap metal dealer anywhere near you, try dropping it in to them, you might get £1 or £2 (this is MSE after all!). But obviously don't take a long journey specially to get there!

Wig

Get one from a scrap yard for £10 to £15. When you get it, it helps to put it on charge overnight before fitting it. The scrap yard should be happy to change it for another one if it fails within 14 - 30 days check before buying and get a receipt, unless they write the date of purchase onto the battery.

I told my friend to get one about 3 months ago, he got one for £15 and mine gave up the ghost about 2 months later, so I got one aswell. We are both still going strong with decent batteries. I'm sure if I'd gone to Cardiff I'd have got one for £10 but as it was the distance, time, and inconvenience of going to Cardiff meant I got one for £15 from a nearby scrapyard.


If you have a mulitimeter check it has atleast 12 volts in the scrap yard, it should then charge up to over 13v, However a volt test is not a good test of condition, it could have 12V and still be useless, like yours is! So you either have to buy it and try it or some (very few) scrap yards have a very serious resistance checker which glows red hot to give a better idea of how good it is.

Dispose in the local civic amenity site.

Being an avid MSE I had a few old batteries saved up, thinking I would salvage the lead from them. I tore one open with an angle grinder and found no lead in any useable condition. It seems they are made from very thin leafs of lead on a supporting lattice/mesh there is a +tve and -tve plate to each sheet, one plate was leadish coloured the other was a dark colour, both were very brittle and had no strength at all they just crumbled like biscuits. It was lead but it was not easily recycled. Just so ya know, don't bother. I doubt a scrappy would be interested in buying old batteries even for a £1

Ebe_Scrooge

Just thought I'd drop in my two penn'orth as I was in exactly the same position a couple of weeks back.

I ended up buying from The Battery Guys, which I'd never heard of but just found on Google. Halfords, Quick-fit etc all quoted around £95 for my battery, the online price was £46 all in. It was delivered the next day.

So, no complaints so far. It says their batteries have a 4 year warranty - obviously I can't vouch for whether of not that will be honoured should I ever need it :-) Also, the battery was a brand I'd never heard of before, and was made in Korea. Don't know if that's necessarily a bad thing or not. But anyway, the battery seems fine so far, I guess you pays your money and takes your chances. Hope this helps.

gmm30

Wig wrote: »

Being an avid MSE I had a few old batteries saved up, thinking I would salvage the lead from them. I tore one open with an angle grinder and found no lead in any useable condition. It seems they are made from very thin leafs of lead on a supporting lattice/mesh there is a +tve and -tve plate to each sheet, one plate was leadish coloured the other was a dark colour, both were very brittle and had no strength at all they just crumbled like biscuits. It was lead but it was not easily recycled. Just so ya know, don't bother. I doubt a scrappy would be interested in buying old batteries even for a £1

I didn't mean take lead to a normal scrap yard - a proper metal salvage/recycling yard will take your old, complete battery and extract the lead themselves. I did this recently and got a few quid. But as I said before, unless you live close to one, it's not worth the trip.

Inactive

Ebe_Scrooge wrote: »

I ended up buying from The Battery Guys, which I'd never heard of but just found on Google. Halfords, Quick-fit etc all quoted around £95 for my battery, the online price was £46 all in. It was delivered the next day.

So, no complaints so far. It says their batteries have a 4 year warranty

So what happens if your battery dies after a few months?

How are you going to get it back to them for warranty claims?

It will probably cost about £20 by special carrier to return it.

Personally I would only buy a car battery locally from a reputable motor factor etc.