my battery has packed it in, so i need a new one. as i have never bought a battery before i bearly no what to look for.

what is the best brand, why, how much should i spend, and what else should i look for, (size, etc)

cheers.

get a heavy duty one, good for starting when it is cold and they will generally last longer. Also I reccomend getting one from a mobile battery "dude" .. Marshall's or what ever. Reasons being is that a) they have a high turn over of batteries so you are not going to get one that has been sitting on any shelf for 6 months. b) they will install it for you. and c) they will take you old battery away and dispose of it.

You shouldn't need to pay much more than $100 odd for all that!

mm heavy duty battery
11plates and cca ( cold crankign amps of over 500 )

about $110 for a good battery with at least 12 months+ warrenty is the norm

exide or caterpillar.......

Batteries can cost little or lots.
Sometimes the differance for 'normal users' is nothing but hype and marketing.

Generally what kills batteries is not using them and letting them slowly dischange by just leaving your car in the garage (months).
That's why many people come back from holidays to a car that won't start.

What kills them is sulphation, a white crusty formation on the plates that effectively chockes them. This is easy to stop and for those that store cars, bikes and boats, a float charge is their best friend A float charger is not the same as a trickle charger !!

Expect a battery to last around 3-5 years.
Not so much more if you ireally look after it

Simplest and best approach is to buy a battery with the cold cranking capacity specified by your car maker, for the lowest price you can find, and with the longest warrenty you can get.
Unless you have some specific need, bigger will only cost more and provide little benifit.

I have found supercheep and repco to be well priced and a lot better than marshal. Repco will also help you to change it and take away your old battery. My local repco shop uses a float charge so the battery won't suffer if it spends a while on the shelf (they also stock only what sells, to have good turnover and avoid warrenty replacements).

The best way to buy a battery is dry, then add the sulphuric acid and charge.
It's still done for small lead acids (small motor bike batteries) but haven't seen it for small car batteries or bigger for many many years. Were all in such a hurry these days

Cheers.

most standard brand heavy duty batteries come out of the same factory.

The ones we sell at work range from like $40 to $180 for the Falcon, A.F.A.I.K. all have 12 month warrent.y

i picked up a bosch super heavy duty one the other week for ~$105 or so - seems to do the job pretty well!

all good answers, mine was the best though

excide 550h - 550 cold crank.. backed up by a 790 marine battery in boot all up cost me with in wiring 290$

550h - $100 (mates Rates)
marine - $110 (mates Rates)
Battery Box with gauges - $65 (mates Rates)
Wiring from front to back was like $15 but had to run it myself

without my mates would have cost like $470

to top it off they are premium batterys so they come with 24 month warrenty.. cann't complain about that

cheers.

Hi, I have an Eb2 and I have had it for years. I have had a couple of new batterys in it and they crank really hard for the first month or so and then go back to a normal cranking speed for the rest of the battery life. Its not the alternator as I have had it checked and the volt guage on the dash reads over 14v all the time that the engine is running. What s the go??? Do they have extra boot when they come from the factory??? I noticed the same thing happened on the XF I used to own.

I asked sprints about replacement battery for an EF and after looking it up in 'the book' was handed a 520CCA battery - so im pretty sure these cars are meant to have fairly "heavy duty" numbers as standard issue. $103.

Sprints effectively do "changeover" i.e. they tell you to bring the old battery down when you get a chance to do so.

Lol - anyone who needs mechanical assistance changing a battery shouldnt be popping the hood in the 1st place....

The X series had small battery cables which is why they don't crank initially...Check them and earth connections...
same issue could be with latter models around crimp connectors on end of cables..I bought a deep cycle $180.00 but they reatail for $400.00

I dropped in an Oddessy 600 CCA Full Metal Jacket Battery 4 years ago with no air cooling snorkel and its been excellent including running 1000 w sound system.