What Battery? AH etc

[wrighty]

I suspect this will have been covered before but please may someone tell me what battery I should get?

The one I have that came in my car is a 32ah one and is not up to the job. Halfords has suggested a 42ah one but a search I have done states 55ah is standard and suggests aiming toward 64ah?

Thanks for any help, Paul

[Brealbags]

i would like to know this as well. Cant beat having a solid battery to keep everything working

Although a good battery would be useless if your earths are poor. Some people add engine earths to help stabilize electronics

[hank3944]

I just bought a halfords one. the old calcium type sealed no maintence jobby. does the job and 2 year guarantee. Can't go wrong.....

[wrighty]

Was that the HCB063? This is the one they are listing as the correct item and it is 42AH, at near 70 quid I need to 100% sure that this is up to the job!

[summeh]

The Amp hour figure is not really important these days, hence why a lot of batterys don't actually bother quoting them.

The important figure to go via is cold cranking amps, and reserve capacity.

For our cars you want 400+ cold cranking amps.

Reserve capacity is just how long the battery can sustain delivering a specified load above a specified voltage (11volts or so iirc). This is used if your alternator dies. However car batterys are not truely rechargeable, so using the reserve capacity will mean the battery will never fully recharge to 100% level again. Infact if you deep cycle a car battery you'll only get about 50% back each time. Keep doing this and eventually you will have no capacity left at all.

So reserve capacity is not really that important if your alternator is in good shape. As the car battery is only used to start the car, once the alternator kicks in, it supplies all the cars electrical needs.

I did a lot of reading up on this recently, can't remember the exact specifics but there are a few good articles on the web if you juust search in google.

[Daz.]

^^^ you know if the f4r would be roughly the same?

I'd like to see those web sites!

[hank3944]

Was that the HCB063? This is the one they are listing as the correct item and it is 42AH, at near 70 quid I need to 100% sure that this is up to the job!

Thats the one mate! £68 seems well up to the job to me.

[summeh]

^^^ you know if the f4r would be roughly the same?

I'd like to see those web sites!

Aye would be the same. Think my 182 has a 063 battery in it. Original reno one.

Personally I'd try to get away with the smallest/lightest battery I could find.

Reserve capacity is only used if your alternator dies. Otherwise the battery is only used for starting the car, which uses bugger all power anyway.

[summeh]

^^^ you know if the f4r would be roughly the same?

I'd like to see those web sites!

http://www.optimabattery.co.uk/english_optima/tutorial.htm

[Daz.]

Problem is not may people state the weight of the battery, your there guessing if the blue one is lighter than the black one etc :lol:

[Geeky]

I'm looking to replace my battery as my windows don't wind up very well and more importantly my power steering is struggling, I'm only guessing that the battery affects power steering though. Found these which are handy (interestingly you don't want to go for an excesively high CCA as to do this requires more surface area of the plates meaning there are more plates which are thinner so you're losing out on Ma and also battery life. Ma is important as this also affects battery life):

http://www.batterystuff.com/tutorial_battery.html

http://www.batteryfaq.org/

These are some I'm considering (probably the Varta silver or Exide. Halfords give me a choice of two, the dearer one being Bosch HSB063 at £100 near as dam it although they do a cheaper, own brand one that seems to have more CCA and Ah:

http://www.performancebatteries.co.uk/find_battery/cars#battery_info U'll need to put in vehicle details)

http://www.motionbattery.co.uk/027-Silver-Premium-Varta-Battery

http://www.shopwiki.co.uk/_Bosch+12V+Silver+Car+Battery+HSB063?o=307589538&s=343822&

Please link any other topics on this subject or relating to awfull sounding power steering (at low speed on high grip surfaces / low tyre presure) ta

[vkosho]

The power steering is engine driven on a mk1. If its groaning change the fluid with slick50. If its lacking in power and whining change or tighten the aux belt.

[Purple]

Highest Amp-hours battery that I've found that still fits on the clio battery holder was an 80Ah Fiamm battery. IIRC, it didn't work any better or last any longer than a 66Ah. I think as long as the battery is in the 60 plus Ah range, the CCA should be strong enough for a Williams starter.