I have a car model (BMW E46) which has an unusual (vent hose to the exterior of the car) and large (because the fuse box has 70-odd fuses*) battery. Some years ago the dealer told me it failed the load test during one of the scheduled services. I opted not to replace it there, because the batteries at BMW dealers are thought by some to not be as good as the ones that come in the cars from Germany, and because I can do it a lot less expensively myself.
I went to an Interstate Battery distributor (note - distributor, not dealer) and bought the same battery that BMW Germany puts in the cars for less than 1/3 of the the dealer price. I also got something like 40% off the Interstate list price and it was in stock (the advantage of going to the distributor).
I put the new battery in the trunk and drove around with it on board for a year (taking it out for a charge occasionally), until I decided I needed the trunk space more than the piece of mind. The year after that, I had a dead battery (probably due to letting the car sit for a month and not a bad battery). So I decided to swap it, and gave the old one to a less-well-off friend. As far as I know, he’s still using it (3 years later).
Your mileage may vary.
You might want to consider that while you might not mind sitting in a cold car with a dead battery waiting for a jump start, your wife might not like that so much
Note: Yes, I know that the number of fuses doesn’t relate to the battery’s size - I was just trying to make a point easily.
Because if you lost the code, or didn’t get it when you bought the vehicle, it won’t work afterwards. Sometimes, if you’ve put the code in ten times or something, it shuts down and requires you to send the set back to the suppliers to get reprogramed.
As an anti-theft measure, some car music systems become permanently inoperative if their power is interrupted for more than a few seconds. They can only be reset to work if you know the secret code that came on a piece of paper in the box with the warrantee and owner’s manual and all that other stuff you threw away years ago.
The theory is that thieves will learn soon enough which brands are pointless to steal, so they’ll leave yours alone.
Swapping out the car battery without knowing A) that your music player has a code, and B) what the code is could be a $300 mistake. As in time to buy a new music player.
Interesting, never saw that before, so I guess my system is old. It sounds like this “feature” suffers from the same problem as much software copy-protection; it’s a hassle for legitimate users and may make their product useless, but the thieves can get around it, I suspect.
As far as the OP, I think trusting an old and questionable battery – a vital part of your car – is foolish economy, although a second opinion isn’t a bad idea.
$95.60 installed, with sales tax. No idea on the battery number - it was an Autocraft gold from Advance Auto.
Hey, I never throw all that stuff away! I put it in all box, so I can spend 35 minutes looking at every piece of paper to find the code!
It is a useless feature though - who would steal the fairly generic radio & cd changer that would only fit another Honda Odyssey?
I’m glad I changed the battery now though. Looking back, it has been run flat twice in the past 5 years, due to a remarkably foolish design decision on Honda’s part.
Depends on climate. Where it gets to -30 (C or F, doesn’t really matter) then one morning you may find your car doesn’t statr. WIth my old (85) civic, Ileft the lights on one too many times in the days before warning beeps. That fall, once it got below freezing, car could not start after a few hours.
With my BMW 323i 2000, it would never last more than a month parked before it needed a boost. I would rig up a trickle charger through the lighter for the winter eventually. Finally got a Canadian Tire brand replacement battery (same as for volkswagen) and it’s worked for 6 years so far in -30 weather.
Yeah, battery is the easiest thing to replace yourself.
By the way, one really cold day with a good battery that has run down is enough to ruin it for good. The freezing temperature of the electrolyte (water + sulfuric acid) depends on the state of charge of the battery. A run-down battery can freeze. And since water expands when freezing, this will bend the lead plates inside the battery, ruining it.
While BMWs are particularly prone to this, there’s enough stuff that never turns off in modern cars that it can happen to any of them. The alarm (even if it is just a flashing LED fake one), the receiver for the keyless entry gizmo, and so forth all consume small amounts of electricity. The manufacturer’s expectation is that the car will be run often enough to keep the battery fully charged.
BMW dealers are required to keep a battery monitor on all their new cars that have the batteries connected. [Cars that don’t get used for test drives may have the battery disconnected instead]. Part of that system is permanently part of the car - there’s a loose cable under the rear passenger seat. Also, since BMWs are driven onto and off of the ships that bring them to the US (called “RORO” - roll on, roll off), they ship from the factory with a giant on/off switch to disconnect the battery while they’re on-board the ship, and on the car carrier on the way to the dealership.
Batteries and tires are my pet peeves. A new car with a bad battery or undependable tires is a paperweight. I believe in a car as transportation. They have to start and not make you worry about getting stranded.
Thats lots of battery for a honda! with 700CCA’s you could probably make a few miles just on electric:p
The price is very close, assuming the install was free.
Thanks
