Replace Car Battery

chathuu · July 17, 2020

Need to replace car battery.

Car model - Toyota Premio 2011

What is the correct amp and brand should use?

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top tip · July 18, 2020

Just buy Exide, they by offer the best after sales services. Yes I know they are of low quality when compared to other brands, But given there discount scheme: replacing a battery even every two years is still viable because you get a broad discount when you produce the old battery with warranty card.

HaeylM · July 18, 2020

From experience 45-55 Ah would suffice. Same capacity im using on 161 Axio and earlier Nissans.

Currently im using 3K (Thailand brand) maintenance free battery, comes with 2 yrs warranty. So far no probs for 1 n half years, holds charge to crank it even when the car is not used for almost a week.

Lucas is also a really great choice and was pretty reliable. Amaron not sure as i haven't used it.

Exide is a lot cheaper but had some bad experience with exide on earlier cars as it sometimes abruptly died and sometimes even gave off unstable voltages.

AVANTE · July 18, 2020

On 7/18/2020 at 5:13 AM, HaeylM said:

From experience 45-55 Ah would suffice. Same capacity im using on 161 Axio and earlier Nissans.

Currently im using 3K (Thailand brand) maintenance free battery, comes with 2 yrs warranty. So far no probs for 1 n half years, holds charge to crank it even when the car is not used for almost a week.

Lucas is also a really great choice and was pretty reliable. Amaron not sure as i haven't used it.

Exide is a lot cheaper but had some bad experience with exide on earlier cars as it sometimes abruptly died and sometimes even gave off unstable voltages.

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Exides don't last long but are cheap. Amaron batteries are good.

Edited July 18, 2020 by AVANTE

Kavvz · October 11, 2020

Didn't want to open up a new thread but since I will shortly be 'replacing the car battery' I decided to post here:

So my car car battery exploded today!

I had just charged it (battery was weak and it doesn't get driven much these days) and was cranking it when boom: The thing exploded!

I've never heard a gunshot, however that is what I would imagine it to be...It was pretty violent! Like a large super loud backfire but with a bit more drama attached! Not only did it blow the top off the battery but it cracked the sides too so some of the corrosive / toxic battery acid split all over the place- Lovely. Just lovely... Only saving grace was that the hood was down and not open, as there was quite a bit of battery acid that got splashed around.

Other than hosing down the engine bay to dilute the acid that may have gotten spilt, is there any thing else I need to do? (Other than shop for a new battery?)

Edited October 11, 2020 by Kavvz

LashNeo · October 11, 2020

On 10/11/2020 at 3:12 AM, Kavvz said:

Didn't want to open up a new thread but since I will shortly be 'replacing the car battery' I decided to post here:

So my car car battery exploded today!

I had just charged it (battery was weak and it doesn't get driven much these days) and was cranking it when boom: The thing exploded!

I've never heard a gunshot, however that is what I would imagine it to be...It was pretty violent! Like a large super loud backfire but with a bit more drama attached! Not only did it blow the top off the battery but it cracked the sides too so some of the corrosive / toxic battery acid split all over the place- Lovely. Just lovely... Only saving grace was that the hood was down and not open, as there was quite a bit of battery acid that got splashed around.

Other than hosing down the engine bay to dilute the acid that may have gotten spilt, is there any thing else I need to do? (Other than shop for a new battery?)

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Oh wow. Sad to hear that bro. That must have been a horrific experience. What could have lead to the explosion? ?

As for the cleaning part, I think water would be the safer option as it would neutralize the acid. You can also mix it with some baking soda to speed up the neutralizing process but taking care of your electronics while doing the cleaning would be the difficult part. I guess you would know better than me on that ?

Edited October 11, 2020 by LashNeo

Hyaenidae · October 11, 2020

On 10/11/2020 at 3:12 AM, Kavvz said:

So my car car battery exploded today!

I had just charged it (battery was weak and it doesn't get driven much these days) and was cranking it when boom: The thing exploded!

I've never heard a gunshot, however that is what I would imagine it to be...It was pretty violent! Like a large super loud backfire but with a bit more drama attached!

Expand

Please don't tell me it was an Amaron battery (was it, though?)

Kavvz · October 11, 2020

On 10/11/2020 at 2:15 PM, LashNeo said:

Oh wow. Sad to hear that bro. That must have been a horrific experience. What could have lead to the explosion? ?

As for the cleaning part, I think water would be the safer option as it would neutralize the acid. You can also mix it with some baking soda to speed up the neutralizing process but taking care of your electronics while doing the cleaning would be the difficult part. I guess you would know better than me on that ?

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Oh Good idea! I'll mix up some baking powder and spray some on, can always wash it off later, before I install the new battery....Thanks! Good tip!

As for the cause for the explosion: This is the first time its happened to me so I'm just guessing here but: Reading through the linked article it was probably caused by improper maintenance. I did notice the battery was low on fluid when it ran flat, so I topped it up and then did a rapid charge on the battery. It took a lot of distilled water to bring the levels up, more than I expected, so it was probably neglected for a while...

Apparently if the battery cells poke out of the water water they expand and warp. And when you charge the battery again: BOOM! (In my case I charged the battery and then cranked the car up)

Next time I do that I know now to leave the caps loose when charging the battery so that any hydrogen gas can escape easily. Its probably a good idea to let the battery sit for a bit as well after charging. So I guess that's the takeaway here...

Edited October 11, 2020 by Kavvz

Kavvz · October 11, 2020

On 10/11/2020 at 5:03 PM, Hyaenidae said:

Please don't tell me it was an Amaron battery (was it, though?)

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lol !! Didn't shit my pants but it was close! I jumped out of the driver's seat and ran out of the garage for cover, only to turn around midway and run back after my initial flight response, to check if the car was on fire! Too bad there's no CCTV footage, I'd have posted it up: Its the fastest I've run in years!

As for the battery: Its certainly a cheap brand (although that's not probably why it exploded, it was probably not maintained properly) The battery doesn't have any logos on it which is very suspicious: I wonder where on earth the previous owner sourced it...It has to be some cheapo brand as it has a black top, black sides, and just the usual warning sticker on the top but no other markings.

Edited October 11, 2020 by Kavvz

Alfa159 · October 12, 2020

Managed to use EXIDE for almost 4 years on Nissan Bluebird (Diesel) which wasn't a daily runner too.. Also got 3 times of jump start from Browns mobile service for FREE !!

Kavvz · October 12, 2020

On 10/12/2020 at 12:06 PM, Alfa159 said:

Managed to use EXIDE for almost 4 years on Nissan Bluebird (Diesel) which wasn't a daily runner too.. Also got 3 times of jump start from Browns mobile service for FREE !!

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Ah! Free service by the BATTMOBILE!! Gotta love the way they branded that service. Very cool! Thanks for the recommendation: Exide certainly is a decent choice...Oh and look at that! You got your first ? from the forum! Fun times !

Edited October 12, 2020 by Kavvz

LashNeo · October 18, 2020

On 10/11/2020 at 5:56 PM, Kavvz said:

Oh Good idea! I'll mix up some baking powder and spray some on, can always wash it off later, before I install the new battery....Thanks! Good tip!

As for the cause for the explosion: This is the first time its happened to me so I'm just guessing here but: Reading through the linked article it was probably caused by improper maintenance. I did notice the battery was low on fluid when it ran flat, so I topped it up and then did a rapid charge on the battery. It took a lot of distilled water to bring the levels up, more than I expected, so it was probably neglected for a while...

Apparently if the battery cells poke out of the water water they expand and warp. And when you charge the battery again: BOOM! (In my case I charged the battery and then cranked the car up)

Next time I do that I know now to leave the caps loose when charging the battery so that any hydrogen gas can escape easily. Its probably a good idea to let the battery sit for a bit as well after charging. So I guess that's the takeaway here...

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Hey! @Kavvz, Hope you cleaned up the gunk and now all is back to normal with your ride. Guess what! I also had to go on battery shopping over last week. ??

Had the fog lamps on for a good 5-6 hours on the Mazda and managed to drain the battery completely. It read as 9V when I noticed my mistake. Jump started it with a friend and ran for about an hour and all looked like it was back to normal only to realize that again the voltage was down to 11V next day morning. Then took it to a charging station and performed a overnight trickle charge which shot it up to 12V+. But, once I took it home and connected to the car it did not crank. The voltage read just at 11V now although the cat eye indicator was all green. So, it seemed like the battery was not holding a charge for a prolonged period. Had enough of this and decided to scrap it at that point.

This was the third EXIDE I used on my Mazda on the trot. Therefore before going for another EXIDE I that thought of looking at some of the old Battery invoices to get an idea how they have performed over the years and the details were as follows.

1. Exide Ultra - 2012/05 to 2015/10 ( 3 years 5 months)

2. Exide Power MF - 2015/10 to 2018/05 ( 2 years 7 months)

3. Exide Power MF - 2018/05 to 2020/10 ( 2 years 5 months)

As you can see, the longevity of EXIDES are not promising. of course they are cheap and the after sales service such as the BATTMOBILE is great. But for me they are not dependable enough. So, this time went with an "AMARON Go" which comes with a three year replacement warranty compared to the one year offered by EXIDE to be on the safe side.

And.. here's the last picture of the EXIDE before I ditched it. You would see that the cat eye indicator is all green although the voltage was just 11V. Maybe the battery was just holding only a surface level charge. ?

Kavvz · October 18, 2020

On 10/18/2020 at 2:30 PM, LashNeo said:

This was the third EXIDE I used on my Mazda on the trot. Therefore before going for another EXIDE I that thought of looking at some of the old Battery invoices to get an idea how they have performed over the years and the details were as follows.

1. Exide Ultra - 2012/05 to 2015/10 ( 3 years 5 months)

2. Exide Power MF - 2015/10 to 2018/05 ( 2 years 7 months)

3. Exide Power MF - 2018/05 to 2020/10 ( 2 years 5 months)

As you can see, the longevity of EXIDES are not promising. of course they are cheap and the after sales service such as the BATTMOBILE is great. But for me they are not dependable enough. So, this time went with an "AMARON Go" which comes with a three year replacement warranty compared to the one year offered by EXIDE to be on the safe side.

And.. here's the last picture of the EXIDE before I ditched it. You would see that the cat eye indicator is all green although the voltage was just 11V. Maybe the battery was just holding only a surface level charge. ?

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Oh, good info! Thanks man! I still haven't bought a new battery...so this is helpful. What was the cost difference between the 'AMARON Go' vs its equivalent EXIDE? ( Also not trying to being negative, but in my experience battery warranties have been hard to claim! They always make some sort of excuse or I strike out on some technicality. So annoying! )

(Also looks like the EXIDE batteries all lasted around 3 yrs, so not too bad. That's pretty typical IMO)

Currently not using the car much, and to move it around I used an old battery from the pickup which I connected to the terminals with jumper cables. Not really recommended, but it works to move the car around as needed...

Which brings me into what I wanted to tell you: Don't chuck the old battery. Take it to a garage that has a battery charger with a re-conditioner option. Its nothing fancy, its just a regular battery charger with a pulse option, most garages have them... Tell them your battery is not holding charge and ask them to recondition it using a pluse charge / the battery re-conditioner option on the charger.

What that does is that it sends quick bursts of higher voltage current through the battery to break up the lead sulfate crystals that are typically formed around battery plates when it discharges fully. This helps bring back the battery to its old condition. Then the charger goes into its regular trickle charger mode and slow charges the battery in a couple of hours. This usually serves to fix issues such as yours.

*Word of warning: When doing this check that the garage staff loosens the vent caps on the battery and tops it up with distilled water. A battery shop should know to do this, but double check! I didn't really pay attention to this, and its probably a cause (if not THE cause) for my battery to explode when I was cranking it after charging it...But as long as you take precautions and know what you are doing its a safe process. I have done it before and it's worked. Just messed up this time ?, but hey live and learn right...

Edited October 18, 2020 by Kavvz

LashNeo · October 25, 2020

On 10/18/2020 at 4:16 PM, Kavvz said:

Which brings me into what I wanted to tell you: Don't chuck the old battery. Take it to a garage that has a battery charger with a re-conditioner option. Its nothing fancy, its just a regular battery charger with a pulse option, most garages have them... Tell them your battery is not holding charge and ask them to recondition it using a pluse charge / the battery re-conditioner option on the charger.

What that does is that it sends quick bursts of higher voltage current through the battery to break up the lead sulfate crystals that are typically formed around battery plates when it discharges fully. This helps bring back the battery to its old condition. Then the charger goes into its regular trickle charger mode and slow charges the battery in a couple of hours. This usually serves to fix issues such as yours.

*Word of warning: When doing this check that the garage staff loosens the vent caps on the battery and tops it up with distilled water. A battery shop should know to do this, but double check! I didn't really pay attention to this, and its probably a cause (if not THE cause) for my battery to explode when I was cranking it after charging it...But as long as you take precautions and know what you are doing its a safe process. I have done it before and it's worked. Just messed up this time ?, but hey live and learn right...

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Hey, thanks for sharing this bro. useful info. Unfortunately, I already traded in the old one when I purchased the new battery. It cost Rs 11,500 with Rs 1000 discount for the old battery. I think Exides would go around 1.5k-2k below that figure. Not sure about the exact price nowadays since I did not consider them as an alternative this time around.

Kavvz · October 27, 2020

On 10/25/2020 at 1:50 PM, LashNeo said:

Hey, thanks for sharing this bro. useful info. Unfortunately, I already traded in the old one when I purchased the new battery. It cost Rs 11,500 with Rs 1000 discount for the old battery. I think Exides would go around 1.5k-2k below that figure. Not sure about the exact price nowadays since I did not consider them as an alternative this time around.

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Ah! Too bad. Next time maybe! (The old pick-up battery I'm using for the Honda right now is a pulse reconditioned battery as described above. Usually they are only good for another year or so afterwards anyway, so you're not really missing out either way...)

Edited October 27, 2020 by Kavvz