Hi, I have a 1997 300tdi and noticed that on a real frosty morning the old girl is a bit slow to crank but eventually starts. Current battery is approx 8 years old so I know it needs replacing. Checked for replacement spec and suppliers say 70ah and 570cca. Can I fit a 100ah and 900/1000cca battery? Obviously physical size might be a limitation. I am looking at the Yuasa battery. Would welcome your feedback.
 
+1 as above. The bigger the better. I went for a 110 Varta. Bit more expensive than some but well worth the extra. I have never skimped on batteries. Also worth checking your earth connections and giving them a bit of a clean up.
 
Same as above, biggest is best, but definitely heed mikescuba's advice, the best battery in the world will be dragged down by high resistance across corroded earth terminals.
 
Hi, I have a 1997 300tdi and noticed that on a real frosty morning the old girl is a bit slow to crank but eventually starts. Current battery is approx 8 years old so I know it needs replacing. Checked for replacement spec and suppliers say 70ah and 570cca. Can I fit a 100ah and 900/1000cca battery? Obviously physical size might be a limitation. I am looking at the Yuasa battery. Would welcome your feedback.

I don't know why LR speced these with such small batteries. I had a 300tdi Disco and when it went for the first battery back in the 90's I just gave the reg and walked out with a battery, it was a pathetic thing, next time I needed a new one I went in with measurements and terminal positions and went by biggest - never did that Disco struggle to start in the cold again.

I fitted a YUASA 5 year warranty battery in December to my 300tdi 90 - I just went with the parts guy down to their batteries store and looked at the biggest thing I could see, it was a super commercial duty or something, sure it is 1050CCA and 110Ah - I think it was £90 on my "trade" discount - which I get as I am in a lot and the guys know me. That and my super high speed reduction starter motor mean it's like a turbine starting!
 
This is my post from a similar thread I posted last September.


Just got around to replacing the battery on my 300TDi 90, the old one hadn't given up the ghost but I thought that with winter coming and the fact that it is often left parked up for weeks at a time it was better to be safe than sorry. The vehicle has been SORN'd for the past 3-months and despite only being started up for short periods of time (to move it around on the driveway) it still turned over perfectly and fired up like a watch. :)

The old battery?
A Mercedes badged Bosch S5013 which I fitted in Aug 2005. Think it is fair to say that it gave good value for money and there are no prizes for guessing that I have replaced it with a new Bosch S5013 (100AH / 830CCA). :D
 
Thanks for your feedback. Today at 07:15 the outside temp was -5 and the old girl really struggled to turnover.It took three attempts with 2 minute break between each attempt. Did not think it was going to start but just caught and started eventually. Drove to my daughters (10 minute drive) and stopped engine. Fired straight up no problem. I think the battery just doesn’t, have oomph anymore for cold starting. Decided to change battery. Old one out was a Banner 105ah 680cca. Fitted a Yuasa YBX5019 100ah 900cca obtained locally for £132.00 with 5 year warranty.
Expected temp tomorrow am -5 again so I expect this new battery to start first time. Fingers crossed.
 
Thanks for your feedback. Today at 07:15 the outside temp was -5 and the old girl really struggled to turnover.It took three attempts with 2 minute break between each attempt. Did not think it was going to start but just caught and started eventually. Drove to my daughters (10 minute drive) and stopped engine. Fired straight up no problem. I think the battery just doesn’t, have oomph anymore for cold starting. Decided to change battery. Old one out was a Banner 105ah 680cca. Fitted a Yuasa YBX5019 100ah 900cca obtained locally for £132.00 with 5 year warranty.
Expected temp tomorrow am -5 again so I expect this new battery to start first time. Fingers crossed.


If you had a trade card that would have been 106 quid, I know because I just fittted the exact same battery to the wifes audi.
Top tip is to always charge a brand bew battery before use as rare for them to be at full strength.
 
Thanks for your feedback. Today at 07:15 the outside temp was -5 and the old girl really struggled to turnover.It took three attempts with 2 minute break between each attempt. Did not think it was going to start but just caught and started eventually. Drove to my daughters (10 minute drive) and stopped engine. Fired straight up no problem. I think the battery just doesn’t, have oomph anymore for cold starting. Decided to change battery. Old one out was a Banner 105ah 680cca. Fitted a Yuasa YBX5019 100ah 900cca obtained locally for £132.00 with 5 year warranty.
Expected temp tomorrow am -5 again so I expect this new battery to start first time. Fingers crossed.

Just out of interest, what grade of oil are you using?
 
I think it’s 5w-40 and was changed at the last service in May 2017. As per charging the battery, I fitted it at 09:30 this morning and have been on a 50 mile round trip journey today. Hopefully this should have charged the new battery
 
I think it’s 5w-40 and was changed at the last service in May 2017. As per charging the battery, I fitted it at 09:30 this morning and have been on a 50 mile round trip journey today. Hopefully this should have charged the new battery

5W 40 should certainly be thin enough for all British conditions.
Hope the new battery produces the right result.
 
It's quite common for the terminals on the starter motor to corrode and cause a high resistance in the starter circuit. It's my first call before blaming the battery automatically.
HTH
Mo
 
Top tip is to always charge a brand bew battery before use as rare for them to be at full strength.

Family thinks I am nuts but I always fully charge new batteries (with a good quality microprocessor controlled charger or you are just wasting your time) and randomly I will get the charger out onto an otherwise perfectly working battery and top it up. Did that to my car on Saturday - I had not used the car for decent journeys for a while, I was working on it and while working on it I thought I would give it a slow charge, the 9 stage charger had it up to the trickle stage within about 4 hours which is a good sign.

I can keep a battery in good order for years past expected life.
 
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I think it’s 5w-40 and was changed at the last service in May 2017. As per charging the battery, I fitted it at 09:30 this morning and have been on a 50 mile round trip journey today. Hopefully this should have charged the new battery


You might be okay, BUT most people dont realsie an alternator is capable of keeping a good battery good but wont fully charge a not so good one, hence the reason I always charge them and also trickle charge them once a month or so on the car.
 
You might be okay, BUT most people dont realsie an alternator is capable of keeping a good battery good but wont fully charge a not so good one, hence the reason I always charge them and also trickle charge them once a month or so on the car.

I have always tried explaining this with my analogy: If you try and fill a bucket with a hose on full blast you will never brim it - turn the hole down to a trickle and you will fill it 100%.

However, these is also an argument not to keep a battery in storage that is brimmed - batteries get stressed by this so leaving it about 85% for example then brimming it to use is actually better.

Alternators are really only good at battering big current in. Interestingly Volvo has a very clever charging system (2000 on, certainly in the bigger cars) - they have a properly controlled system which can keep batteries charged the highest I have ever seen.
 
I've had a few issues, but cleaning up/adding new earth straps really helped. Am also in the process of fitting a 110AH battery in the engine bay of the defender. Managed to squeeze a battery box where the heater and washer bottle used to be. (Heater was knackered, and washer bottle relocated slightly forward.)

Still need to make up the supporting bracket to hold the battery box.
 
So, after fitting the new Yuasa battery have started the landy in -5 temp for the last two days and no problems. Engine flys over and starts within seconds proving my old battery just wasn’t, up to the challenge of cold starts.
The old girl doesn’t, do many long journeys now and I am considering getting a Ctek smart charger to keep the new battery fully charged. Does anyone have experience of using these?
 
So, after fitting the new Yuasa battery have started the landy in -5 temp for the last two days and no problems. Engine flys over and starts within seconds proving my old battery just wasn’t, up to the challenge of cold starts.
The old girl doesn’t, do many long journeys now and I am considering getting a Ctek smart charger to keep the new battery fully charged. Does anyone have experience of using these?

Yes, I have experience of using several of the baby CTEK chargers and I have the high current one which can also act as a power supply for cars that need external power when you may need to work on them and leave doors and lights and things on, i.e. a friends AUDI needs to be plugged in when working on it for a long time with the VAGCOM diagnostics as the ECU and all systems are on with the ignition.

You can be clever and get a CTEK charger branded as someone else, same changer, usually not as expensive! Costco were doing them for a while for about £30.

The one I have, branded as RING, but identical to a CTEK model, is a very good charger, I tried to get another one but they only seemed to have them branded as RING for a short period, I reckon the CTEK one is over £100 now for this model.

Battery technology is a small, but important part of my business, I used to do a lot of solar/energy etc. storage research and the charging was the critical thing, I did a lot of research into optimal charge voltages and currents and timings for all the different chemistry types. Before I had my smart charger I used a 20V/20A, super accurate hundredth of a Volt/Current controllable lab power supply to charge batteries, I could control the charge current down to the 10th of a mA and would create the optimal charge sequence, the final charge was usually about 30mA when it dropped off I knew it was pretty much brimmed.

I had an old Numax battery that died one winter, well about 5 years later I was still using it through winter with only the odd top up when I knew it would be suffering a bit. It's a it of a game for me!
 
The chargers from lidl/aldi do a pretty good job and for 15 quid I cant really complain.
 

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