What battery

J

jasio1978

Tuner
Points
32
Location
devon
Car
chrysler 300c
Evening troops.
Had a bit of a kick in the wallet today.
Got a call from her indoors today, "The car wont start!"
There was no good reason for this, and after asking the usual questions, found out the battery was flat. Nothing had been left sucking power, the car is 7 years old, so i thought id get a price on a new power cell, ready for the winter. Got the father in law to jump it and get into town to get it tested, and replaced if nec.
I phoned the local motor factor, £46+vat. not bad.
Phoned the company who supply our work vehicles with batteries, They put the car reg in and said they could do a good quality batt for £48+vat fitted. Bargain.
However, when they went to test and replace it, it wasnt under the bonnet where they thought it should be. It is a rather different looking item, quite small, located under the passenger seat.
Now im getting quoted £140+vat.:mad::confused::(
What is that all about. Ive put it on hold in the hope that someone can explain what it is and why it is so expensive.
The car is a Chrysler PT cruiser 2.2crd.
anyone???
cheers.
 
Is it a crd.
Mate of mine has a 2.4 petrol, and that has a standard battery.
When you say your boss put a normal one on his, do you mean his took a normal one or he adapted it to fit
 
he has a 2.0 petrol
am sure it was just a normal one on it
but even if it was not he would made it fit then pay 100 quid for a battery
 
Its a bit of a strange one. Both the motor factor, and the battery specialists put the reg in their systems, and both said it needed a standard batt, under the bonnet. Think it was 70 ish ampres/hrs and about 650 cca.
 
Have you tried phoning a Chrysler parts department? They'll be able to tell you exactly what battery you need & may be able to shed some light as to why so special & why it's under the passenger seat.

I tried phoning my local dealership on your behalf but without the reg he couldn't help me very much.

You never know dealer prices might be cheaper than you think, I've bought Mercedes parts in the past & the prices have been surprisingly good for some items.

PS: Found out it's a MOPAR sealed Gel battery, which would explain why it costs more.
 
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What a gent you are loz, thank you for trying.
Ive had so much hassle with chrysler, and main dealers, themselves, that i dont normally try them, but a battery should be simple enough so i will give them a bell 2moz.
Now i Know what im asking for, im a bit further down the line, so cheers.

Can anyone think a reason why these batteries are so good there 140 squids. After all it cant be no more than 7 years old, i could get 3 half decent standard batts for that, and thats got to be at least 15 years of motoring.
The car is well loaded with lots of extras, so in the winter especially, will pull alot of power im sure. but so do lots of cars.
 
gel filled batterys dont leak or give of fumes and isnt mopar something to do with yank tuning??? if so it might be down to import cost aswell
 
I'd go with a decent one. Cars with lots of electrics do have large accumulators (batteries) and also large alternators so that the current can be delivered on the move and still replenish the battery's charge at the same time.

Diesel models have harsher requirements still with the high compression of the engines to overcome in a startup situation.

I'd go with the OEM one to be honest.
 
herb said:
gel filled batterys dont leak or give of fumes and isnt mopar something to do with yank tuning??? if so it might be down to import cost aswell
Click to expand...

looking online at the reason behind them, i think your on the money there herb. if you have a crash and damage it you dont get acid all over the place. and its def a yank thing. looks like the chevy's have got them. they call them "yellow tops" apparently. I think mopar is a brand of battery, from what i can work out. But even the chrysler battery specialist just recomends a standard looking item, ie the wrong one.
 
jasio1978 said:
What a gent you are loz, thank you for trying.
Ive had so much hassle with chrysler, and main dealers, themselves, that i dont normally try them, but a battery should be simple enough so i will give them a bell 2moz.
Now i Know what im asking for, im a bit further down the line, so cheers.

Can anyone think a reason why these batteries are so good there 140 squids. After all it cant be no more than 7 years old, i could get 3 half decent standard batts for that, and thats got to be at least 15 years of motoring.
The car is well loaded with lots of extras, so in the winter especially, will pull alot of power im sure. but so do lots of cars.
Click to expand...

Your welcome :bigsmile:

Here's what I've found...

The battery you need is a deep cycle gel battery aside from the safety aspects these batteries can be mounted in any plane. The deep cycle part is the important bit & these batteries work differently to standard SLI (start,lights & ignition) battery they also need to be charged differently.
Yellow top batteries refer to Optima Deep Cycle batteries, it's entirely possible the MOPAR unit, is a rebadged Optima item.

http://www.optimabattery.co.uk/

What is MOPAR:
Mopar (short for MOtor PARts) is the automobile parts and service arm of Chrysler Group LLC.

Oh, & check the terminals on your old battery apparently on some PT Cruisers the terminals might be different from standard
 
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You don't want a deep cycle battery for purposes of starting an engine. Deep cycle batteries are for caravanning and other leisure applications. Their designed to offer steady cell voltage until almost flat and then recharge swiftly to carry on.

An engine starting bettery is optimised for delivery 100's of amps at cranking time and then recharging immediately after startup.

A deep cycle battery probably won't stand up to long term engine starting.
 
If you know the spec of the battery (and its technology ie. lead/calcium, glass mat, gel-electrolyte etc etc) then there's nothing to stop you buying a third party alternative of similar spec. So long as the terminals are the right type and it can be physically fitted in its correct location then it will work. This revises my earlier 'get the OEM one' post.
 
thank you loz and hdi, i know a bit more about what to look for. ill give the company who said they would quote me a bell 2moz and let you know how much lighter my wallet will be.
If they have come up with a couple of options price/quality, then ill get the better unit. you dont want a poor quality vehicle battery do you? false economy surely?

spotted a couple of links for these batteries with reference to boats. but i dont do boats.
 
There are loads of online battery retailers offering quality branded products for very attractive prices.

Boats usually have two or more. There will be a 12v or 24v system for engine starting and engine auxilliaries.

Leisure craft will have a separate 12v or 24v system for domestic onboard utilities. This is where the deep cycle batteries would be used. The are routinely charged by a second alternator.

Often these are partnered with soild state inverters to offer a reasonable quailty 230V sinusoidal AC 50Hz supply so that standard household devices can be used.
 
I didn't know until I looked it up :lol:

I forgot to link the page that referred to the PT Cruiser battery as deep cycle sorry. I tried to find it in my browser history but its buried already I'm always surprised how many pages I visit in a couple of hours browsing!
 
Got the call this morning, to say they have a battery in for me.
Paid 152notes:amazed::(:amazed: (Told that i wont get one fitted any cheaper. which im kinda hoping is true, as hes normally pretty good to those who know him.)Left the car with them, done a bit of shopping, returned later, to find a note left on the car, "sorry. battery was too big, ordered another one in for tuesday."
Grrrr
Even the specialists got it wrong.
So, still waiting.
It was an optima 900amp.
900amp!!!!!!!!:amazed:
 
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