diesel starter battery

[Big Boris]

hi all ,our starter battery has eventually died on us and im fed up of jumping it every time i want to use it ,i was wondering if anyone on here has changed thiers recently ,we have a 1.6td where the starter batt is located in the engine bay,any advice would be much appreciated ,
ta in advance
big borris !

[Oldiebut goodie]

Put a new one in!

[fodtommo]

Put a good new one in. Unless you have to budget batteries are a false economy. There are some good deals online usually with free deliver, but a ring round locally is usually worth it, The battery in the diesel is pretty std to loads of cars so no hunting around for super slim expensive number to go under the seat for us oil burners...

[Oldiebut goodie]

Just put as big a one in that will fit - not forgetting that they tend to need tilting on the way in to the tray. I picked up a nice four terminal one cheap on Ebay.

[supergalaxy]

I have'nt bought a new battery in years, for £25-30 you can get a perfectly good used one which will give several years good service from a reputable vehicle breakers such as Mitchels in Bishops Cleeve, Cheltenham. Theres a guy in there who is pretty clued up on VW Campervans too. Don't go to dodgy outfits though and I think anyone who purchases any Campervan parts from E-Bay must be MAD, the parts will probably be stolen AND you are revealing where you live and that YOU HAVE GOT ONE!

Expect yours to be gone within days if you do.

[Oldiebut goodie]

and I think anyone who purchases any Campervan parts from E-Bay must be MAD, the parts will probably be stolen AND you are revealing where you live and that YOU HAVE GOT ONE!

Expect yours to be gone within days if you do.

Cobblers.
Why don't you make a sweeping generalization?

[fodtommo]

I have'nt bought a new battery in years, for £25-30 you can get a perfectly good used one which will give several years good service from a reputable vehicle breakers such as Mitchels in Bishops Cleeve, Cheltenham. Theres a guy in there who is pretty clued up on VW Campervans too. Don't go to dodgy outfits though and I think anyone who purchases any Campervan parts from E-Bay must be MAD, the parts will probably be stolen AND you are revealing where you live and that YOU HAVE GOT ONE!

Expect yours to be gone within days if you do.

Seems a bit heavy - I buy all sorts of bits off e bay and sell them and imagine the majority of users here do as well!!

However Ive had plenty of batteries from the breakers that were OK, but only last a couple of years usually.

Als remember that the metal recyclers will give you the best part of £15 for your old one these days! - so knock that off the price of a new one

[California Dreamin]

http://www.eurocarparts.com/ecp/c/Volks ... 35e&000020" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

FREE POST.

Nice powerful 71AH with 680CCA....

Martin

[CovKid]

I bought one a couple of years ago but found it was a tadge high to sit easily in my battery box on a petrol. I'm sure the height of those batt boxes varies between models as some folk have no trouble at all. If you have rotating seats its not an issue apparently.

[California Dreamin]

Pretty sure the space isn't quite as tight for Diesels and there is a bit more room in the engine bay battery location.
Diesels generally need a bigger battery than petrol engined variants, this is for several reasons;
Diesel engines have much higher compression ratio so need a bigger more powerful starter motor to turn them over (higher amp draw when cranking)
Diesel engines use glow plugs to pre-warm the combustion chambers (pre-chamber) these four glow plugs also draw a fair few amps before you have even got to turning the engine over stage.
Despite all this extra current draw of a diesel it is Petrol engined variants that often suffer from more cold starting problems, mainly because of the different location of their batteries (petrol engines have battery boxes behind the drivers/passengers seats, diesels have theirs mounted close to the starter motor in the engine bay) so have extra long cable runs on petrol vehicles and consequent voltage drop and cable issues.

Most important things to consider when buying a battery for a Diesel T25.

Normal spec 60Ah but most users opt straight away for something bigger (70Ah plus)
High CCA spec (cold cranking amps) the higher the better (540CCA min) but I would be looking at a battery with 630CCA or higher which generally you get when buying 70Ah and bigger batteries.
The largest you can fit in the space but to be honest, as long as you are matching or exceeding the minimum spec you will be fine.
Quality brand..Bosch/Varta/Exide/Lucas

Martin

[Big Boris]

thanks for your help ,that link for europarts looks good martin and there is a branch in swindon where i work so will most prob go for that one
thanks again ,

[California Dreamin]

Should have added that if you buy online and enter a code (displayed on the site) you get a further 15% discount on the price so that would make it around £62.00...not bad for a 72ah branded battery.

Martin